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Belegeinsicht: how to see the invoices behind your German bill
Section 556(4) BGB gives you the right of inspection, electronically too. How to request it and what to do if it is refused.
A German service-charge statement gives you totals, not invoices. Whether the gardening really cost €3,400, and whether that figure includes new planting, is not visible from the table. Without inspecting the documents (Belegeinsicht) every check remains guesswork. This guide explains what you are entitled to, how to ask for it, and what the limits are. It covers residential tenancies in Germany and is not individual legal advice.
The legal basis
The right is now written into the statute. Under section 556(4) BGB the landlord must, on request, grant the tenant inspection of the documents on which the statement is based. The second sentence of the same provision makes clear that the landlord is entitled to provide those documents electronically. The general rules on rendering an account in section 259 BGB and section 242 BGB apply alongside it.
That has shifted the practice. The older rule stressed the priority of inspecting the originals (BGH, judgment of 8 March 2006 – VIII ZR 78/05). Today a PDF bundle or a portal is the statutory alternative, not a fallback. If you still want to see the originals you need a concrete reason — an incomplete or illegible file, a missing page, or a substantiated doubt about the authenticity of an invoice.
Inspection on site normally takes place at the manager's office or at the property. Where travelling there is unreasonable for you, for example because of a very long distance or illness, sending the documents comes into consideration. The converse also holds: once complete, legible electronic documents have been provided, the claim under section 556(4) BGB is normally satisfied, and withholding the back payment merely because the form is electronic will not carry.
Which documents are covered
You can ask to see everything the statement is based on: contractors' invoices, contracts for servicing, cleaning and the caretaker, municipal fee notices, insurance policies, energy bills, the metering company's readings, the schedule of areas and units, and the calculation of the allocation keys.
Payment records can be covered too. The Federal Court of Justice held that a tenant may have a temporary right to refuse performance where inspection of invoices is granted but inspection of payment records is refused (BGH, judgment of 9 December 2020 – VIII ZR 118/19). That matters where a discount for prompt payment or a reimbursement may be in play.
How to ask
Keep the letter short and concrete. Name the billing period, the items you want to see and suggest dates. For example: "In respect of the 2024 statement, which reached me on 14 May 2025, I request inspection of the documents for the items caretaker, insurance and garden maintenance. I suggest the following dates …"
Set a reasonable deadline of two or three weeks and ask for confirmation. Send the letter in a way that lets you prove delivery.
What copies may cost
Where the documents are provided electronically, you normally incur no costs at all. If you want paper copies on top of that, costs may arise. They are limited to the actual expense; amounts well above normal copying costs are questionable. If you photograph the documents yourself at an appointment, no costs normally arise. Announce that you intend to do so.
In practice the most efficient approach is to photograph every relevant page with your phone and review them calmly at home. Make sure you capture the header lines with the service period and the invoice date.
What to look at during the appointment
Go in with a list. For each item you need three pieces of information: what service was supplied, for which period, and what amount was actually paid. Watch for invoices that mix servicing and repair, service periods outside your billing period, and items belonging to a different economic unit.
Note the invoice number and date for every finding. Without them it is hard to explain later what your objection refers to.
Data protection and limits
Inspection is sometimes refused on data-protection grounds, for example because meter-reading records show other households' names. That is not a reason to refuse inspection altogether. Personal details not needed for your check can be redacted; the figures on which your statement is based remain visible.
There are limits in the other direction as well. You cannot demand documents unrelated to your statement, such as other tenants' leases or the landlord's internal costing. Keep your request tied to the items on your statement; that considerably improves your chances of a prompt answer.
Digital inspection is the normal case
Since section 556(4) sentence 2 BGB expressly permits electronic provision, a portal or a PDF bundle is the usual route. So do not reflexively demand "the originals". Check first whether the files are complete and legible and whether every invoice shows the service period, the amount and a description of the work.
Make sure you can download and keep the files; a portal that closes after two weeks will not help you later. If concrete doubts remain after your review — a page is missing, an amount is illegible, an invoice looks altered — name exactly those documents and explain why you want to see them in original. A concrete reason of that kind supports the request; a general distrust of the electronic form does not.
If inspection is refused
If your request goes unanswered, send a written reminder with a deadline. If inspection is still refused, you may have a temporary right to refuse payment of the back charge. That is a lever, not a discharge: once inspection is granted, the amount properly due must be paid.
Timing is decisive. After paying in full you cannot reclaim the amount merely because inspection was inadequate (BGH, order of 26 October 2021 – VIII ZR 150/20). So assert the right before you pay.
Keep the deadline in view
Objections must generally be notified within twelve months of receipt, section 556(3) BGB. An ongoing dispute about inspection does not automatically extend that period. If inspection is being delayed, lodge a precautionary objection in time.
One sentence is enough: "As a precaution I object to items X and Y, whose justification I cannot finally assess for want of inspection of the documents."
If your flat is a condominium
Where the landlord is an individual owner, the statement is often derived from the condominium's accounts. You can still inspect the underlying records; the owners' statement alone does not replace them. Ask additionally which items of the owners' statement were carried into your tenancy statement — the manager's fee and the maintenance reserve regularly hide there.
Read on and check your own bill
For writing the objection, see objecting to a statement. For the payment question, see refusing to pay a back payment, and for the items most worth checking, the overview of non-recoverable service charges.
To know which items to look at during the appointment, run the free check first: it flags the conspicuous lines before you book the meeting.