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Adjusting your monthly service-charge prepayments in Germany
After every statement either side may adjust. How to demand a reduction, what appropriate means, and how to challenge an increase.
If you receive a credit every year, you have given your landlord an interest-free loan. If you have to top up every year, every spring brings the same unpleasant surprise. In both cases the monthly prepayments (Vorauszahlungen) are set wrongly — and in both cases you can demand an adjustment. This guide explains how. It covers residential tenancies in Germany and is not individual legal advice.
The legal basis
Under section 560(4) BGB, after a statement about operating-cost prepayments either party may, by declaration in text form, adjust them to an appropriate level. The right belongs to you as well as to your landlord.
Two conditions matter. First, a statement must exist; without one there is no basis. Second, the new level must be appropriate, that is oriented to the actual result of the statement.
What "appropriate" means
The benchmark is the result of the last statement. Divide your actual annual costs by twelve; that is the yardstick. A blanket safety surcharge on top of it is not allowed: the Federal Court of Justice held that an adjustment under section 560(4) BGB may only be based on the costs actually expected to arise in the current billing year, and that there is no room for an abstract safety surcharge — ten percent in the decided case (BGH, judgment of 28 September 2011 – VIII ZR 294/10).
What may be taken into account are concrete circumstances likely to affect this year's costs: an already adopted fee increase, a new supply contract, an announced district-heating price change. Whoever wants to raise the figure must name such a circumstance. A blanket rise "because of general inflation" or "to be on the safe side" does not carry.
How to demand a reduction
Write briefly and concretely: "The 2024 statement of 14 May 2025 shows total costs of €1,284.00 for my flat, that is €107.00 per month. My current prepayment is €165.00. Under section 560(4) BGB I am adjusting the prepayment to €107.00 per month with effect from 1 July 2025."
If your figure departs from one twelfth of the statement, give the reason. Do not write "€107 plus a safety margin" but, for example: "the waste fee rises by €8.00 a month from January 2025 under the published fee schedule, so I am setting €115.00." A named circumstance carries; a surcharge pulled out of the air does not.
Text form is sufficient; no signature is required and an email will do. Make sure you can prove delivery. Apply the new figure from the month after next so that the standing order can be changed without a gap.
When the landlord increases
The landlord may also increase after a statement. Check three points: is there a statement, is the new level based on its result, and was the increase declared in text form? An increase without a statement, or well above the result, is open to challenge.
Do the arithmetic: annual costs ÷ 12. If the demanded prepayment is above that, the landlord must name the concrete circumstances that make the higher figure likely this year. A safety surcharge without them is not permitted (BGH, judgment of 28 September 2011 – VIII ZR 294/10); object in writing and set out your calculation.
The link to the heating statement
There are often two prepayments: one for cold operating costs and one for heating and hot water. Adjust them separately because they fluctuate differently. Heating depends on the weather and the energy price; cold operating costs are more stable.
If your lease provides only one combined prepayment, calculate the two parts separately anyway and add them at the end. That shows you which part is driving the change.
Care with a defective statement
An adjustment relies on the result of the statement. If you are currently objecting to that statement, it would be inconsistent to accept its figures as the basis for an increase. Conversely you can demand a reduction even if you think the statement is too high — the appropriate prepayment would then be even lower.
Word it as a precaution: "Without acknowledging the level of the costs billed, I am adjusting the prepayment as follows …"
If the adjustment is ignored
You declare the adjustment, transfer the new amount — and the manager keeps collecting the old figure or demands the difference. This happens. Reply in writing and set out your calculation: the annual costs from the statement divided by twelve, plus any concrete circumstance you have taken into account beyond that. Ask for confirmation of the new figure.
Weigh the risk soberly. If your adjustment is justified, no arrears arise. If it goes too far, the difference can be claimed later. So choose the new figure conservatively — a forty-percent cut with volatile energy prices is vulnerable, a twenty-percent cut with stable consumption is well founded.
A change of landlord changes nothing
After a sale the principle "purchase does not break a lease" applies under section 566 BGB. Your tenancy continues unchanged, and so does the prepayment last validly adjusted. A new owner cannot increase the prepayment merely because they have bought the building.
The condition of section 560(4) BGB still applies: there must be a statement, and the new level must match its result. If a considerably higher prepayment is demanded shortly after a sale, ask for the statement it is based on.
Flat rate instead of prepayment
Some leases provide for a flat rate (Betriebskostenpauschale). Then there is no statement, no back payment and no credit. An increase is only possible under section 560(1) BGB and requires a corresponding agreement. If costs fall, the flat rate must be reduced under section 560(3) BGB.
So check your lease first. A flat rate and a prepayment follow entirely different rules.
What an adjustment is not
Adjusting the prepayments is not a rent increase. It does not change the basic rent and is not subject to the rules on rent increases. Conversely, a rent increase must not be disguised as an "adjustment of the service charges".
So look at which figure changes. If the net cold rent rises, that is a different matter with different requirements and deadlines.
The practical effect
A prepayment that is too high costs you liquidity for twelve months. At €50 a month that is €600 a year that you only get back after the statement. A prepayment that is too low produces a back payment due all at once. An adjustment avoids both.
Read on and check your own bill
For enforcing a credit, see getting a credit paid out. For putting amounts in context, see average service charges per square metre, and for challenging the statement itself, objecting to a statement.
The free check reads your actual annual costs straight out of the statement — that is the figure you need for your adjustment letter.