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Building insurance in German service charges — and what is excluded
Buildings, liability and glass cover may be charged, legal-expenses cover may not, and loss of rent depends on the insured risk.
Insurance is one of the largest items on many German service-charge statements and one of the least transparent. The line usually says only "Versicherungen", while behind it sit five or six policies with very different legal treatment. Two of them regularly do not belong on your bill at all. This guide explains which are recoverable, which are not, and how to obtain a usable breakdown. It covers residential tenancies in Germany and is not individual legal advice.
The legal basis
Section 2 no. 13 BetrKV covers "the costs of property and liability insurance", naming in particular insurance of the building against fire, storm, water and other natural hazards, glass insurance, and liability insurance for the building, the oil tank and the lift.
The list is meant to be exhaustive. A policy that is not named there and does not economically correspond to one of the named types is not a recoverable insurance. As always, allocation also requires a clause in your lease under section 556(1) BGB.
What is not recoverable
The classic mistake is legal-expenses insurance (Rechtsschutzversicherung): it protects the landlord in disputes, sometimes against tenants, and is not named in section 2 no. 13 BetrKV. That holds whether it stands alone or is bundled into a package.
Loss-of-rent cover (Mietausfall- or Mietverlustversicherung) needs a closer look, because the answer depends on the insured risk. A stand-alone policy covering rent that fails to come in for other reasons — vacancy, a tenant who cannot pay — covers the landlord's business risk and is not recoverable. Where loss of rent is included in the building policy for the case of insured building damage, the Federal Court of Justice held that it is recoverable if the lease provides for the allocation of building-insurance costs under section 2 no. 13 BetrKV (BGH, judgment of 6 June 2018 – VIII ZR 38/17): the loss of rent is then not a separate insured event but part of the building-insurance event, and the insurer's waiver of recourse extends to it in your favour too.
So do not judge by the heading. Look at the policy schedule: is the loss-of-rent element tied to insured building damage, or is it a separate contract with its own insured event?
Also excluded are policies that only cover the management's own activity, such as a professional indemnity policy for the property manager. That falls under management costs in section 1(2) no. 1 BetrKV. Your own contents insurance has nothing to do with the statement either.
Breaking open the collective line
If your statement says only "Versicherungen", the amount cannot be verified. Ask for a list of the individual policies with insurer, insured risk, policy period and annual premium. This information appears on the insurance certificates or on a broker's summary and can be produced without special effort.
If the collective item contains a non-recoverable policy, only that part is removed — the whole line does not fall away. So formulate your objection only after you know the split.
Bundled policies
Insurers increasingly bundle several covers in one contract: buildings, liability, glass, natural hazards — and as an add-on legal expenses. The invoice then shows a single premium. That is not sufficient for a statement: the portion attributable to the non-recoverable modules must be taken out. For a loss-of-rent module that only applies where it is not tied to insured building damage.
The split is normally possible because the policy schedule shows the premium by line of business or at least names the insured risks. Ask specifically for the policy schedule with the premium breakdown, not only for the invoice.
Premium increases
Premiums for German building insurance have risen sharply in recent years, particularly for natural-hazard cover after heavy-rain and flood events, and because construction prices have increased. An increase is therefore not by itself an error. Adding natural-hazard cover is in principle recoverable, because section 2 no. 13 BetrKV names it expressly.
The economy principle still applies, but you must plead and prove a breach of it; the landlord regularly bears no secondary burden of explaining the basis of the figure (BGH, judgment of 6 July 2011 – VIII ZR 340/10). In practice that means obtaining the policy schedule through inspection of the documents and a comparative quote for a similar building.
How the premium moves on its own
The buildings premium is usually linked to a sliding new-value factor that is adjusted every year. Even without any change to the contract, the premium therefore rises regularly. A few percent is normal.
A jump of thirty percent or more usually has a concrete cause: a change of insurer, an additional module, a higher rating after claims, or the addition of natural-hazard cover. You can ask for that cause, and it can be verified against the policy schedule.
Excess and claims
Many policies carry an excess (Selbstbehalt). If an excess falls due after a water damage event, that is a consequence of the damage and therefore maintenance — not a premium. It does not belong in the service-charge statement.
Conversely, insurance payments reduce costs. If the insurer has reimbursed a loss, the reimbursed amounts must not also be allocated. Where a larger claim occurred during the year, it is worth asking whether and to what extent a payment was received.
Glass insurance
Glass cover is expressly named and therefore recoverable. It normally covers glazing in the common areas and, depending on the policy, the flat windows too. Check that the policy actually exists: some statements show a glass insurance although the policy schedule contains only buildings cover without a glass module.
The allocation key and the period
Without a different agreement, section 556a(1) BGB requires allocation by living area, and the actual area is decisive (BGH, judgment of 30 May 2018 – VIII ZR 220/17). Note that insurance years often do not match calendar years: if an annual premium is booked without time apportionment, it can land in the wrong billing period.
Putting the amount in context
The DMB national benchmark for the 2024 billing year gives property and liability insurance at €0.31 per square metre per month — about €260 a year for a 70 m² flat. Buildings in risk locations cost more. A clear deviation justifies a closer look but does not prove a breach of law.
Read on and check your own bill
For the two excluded policies, see property management fees and the overview of non-recoverable service charges. For the documents, see inspecting the invoices.
Collective lines stand out in a systematic comparison: upload your statement to the free check and see which items are flagged for review.