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Caretaker costs (Hauswart) — how much may be charged to tenants?
The caretaker's pay is recoverable, but not the part spent on repairs or administration. How to find and challenge the excluded share.
After heating, the caretaker (Hauswart, often called Hausmeister) is the largest item on many German service-charge statements — and the one with the most checking potential. The operating-costs ordinance allows the pay to be passed on only in part: everything spent on repairs and on administration is expressly excluded. This guide explains how to separate the permitted from the excluded share and which documents you need. It covers residential tenancies in Germany and is not individual legal advice.
The legal basis
Section 2 no. 14 BetrKV covers "the costs for the caretaker": the remuneration, the social security contributions and all benefits in kind granted for the work, in so far as this does not concern maintenance, repair, renewal, decorative repairs or property management. It adds that where the caretaker performs work falling under numbers 2 to 10 and 16, those costs may not also be charged.
That second sentence is the practically important one. It prevents the same service being charged twice — once as caretaker pay and once as garden maintenance or building cleaning.
What the caretaker may do
Recoverable are the typical supervision and support tasks: inspection rounds, locking and unlocking doors, monitoring the technical installations, being the contact person for residents, instructing contractors, operating the heating, reporting damage and supervising the bin area. Social contributions and benefits in kind such as a service flat count too, in so far as they relate to those tasks.
The word "in so far as" matters. The provision requires a proportionate view, not an all-or-nothing decision. If the caretaker spends a fifth of the time on repairs, that fifth must come out.
What is excluded
All repairs are excluded: changing a lock, sealing a window, painting a wall, clearing a blockage. So are administrative tasks: handovers of flats, keeping lists for the manager, checking invoices, obtaining quotes, showing flats to prospective tenants and preparing billing documents.
The legal bases are sections 1(2) nos. 1 and 2 BetrKV together with the express reservation in section 2 no. 14. The Federal Court of Justice has confirmed for residential tenancies that management costs may not be charged separately alongside the rent (BGH, judgment of 19 December 2018 – VIII ZR 254/17).
The maintenance deduction
Because the tasks cannot be separated to the minute, many managers apply a flat deduction — often between ten and twenty percent of the caretaker costs. Such a deduction is permissible if it roughly reflects the real situation. But it has to be visible in the statement.
If your statement shows no deduction at all, that is the first point of your enquiry: "What proportion of the caretaker's remuneration relates to maintenance, repair and administration, and how was that proportion determined?" A statement with no deduction is a strong signal that the separation was never made.
The job description
The decisive document is the caretaker contract or the contractor's schedule of services. It states which tasks are owed. If the contract expressly includes minor repairs, the corresponding share is not recoverable. If it includes gardening and winter service, those services must not appear again in separate lines.
Ask for the contract as part of your inspection of documents. The right of inspection in section 556(4) BGB covers the contracts on which the statement is based; the landlord may provide them electronically.
Spotting double counting
If your statement contains "Hauswart" alongside "Gartenpflege", "Hausreinigung" and "Winterdienst", check whether the caretaker performs that work personally. If so, it may only be charged once.
The DMB benchmark reflects this: a higher figure where the caretaker does everything, and a lower one where cleaning, garden and winter service are billed separately. Comparing your statement with both is a good first test.
Employed or contracted?
Whether the caretaker is employed by the landlord or engaged as a company makes no difference to recoverability, but it changes the documents. For an employee, the gross salary, employer's social contributions and benefits in kind such as a discounted service flat are relevant. For a company, the amount simply appears on the invoice, usually with VAT.
Both are permissible. Make sure, though, that no payroll administration costs are included for an employee: payroll accounting is management work and not recoverable. For a service flat, only the difference between the local market rent and the rent actually paid counts as a benefit in kind, not the full rent.
The allocation key
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). Redo the calculation and compare it with the amount shown.
Economy of management
Caretaker costs depend strongly on the hours agreed. Ask for the weekly hours and the hourly rate; only then can the amount be judged. To argue that management is uneconomic you must plead and prove it; the landlord regularly bears no secondary burden of explaining the basis of the cost item (BGH, judgment of 6 July 2011 – VIII ZR 340/10). The caretaker contract obtained through inspection of the documents is the decisive record.
Putting the amount in context
The DMB national benchmark for the 2024 billing year gives €0.37 per square metre per month where the caretaker performs all the work, and €0.21 where cleaning, garden and winter service are billed separately. For a 70 m² flat that is roughly €311 and €176 a year.
Read on and check your own bill
For the overlap, see garden maintenance costs. For why administrative work is never recoverable, see property management fees, and for context on amounts, average service charges per square metre.
The comparison with both reference values runs automatically in the free check — including the question whether separately billed services require the lower figure.