If you rent out property in Germany, one deadline matters more than any other in the yearly routine: the twelve-month cut-off for the annual utility statement, set by § 556 (3) of the German Civil Code (BGB).
How the deadline works
The statement (Nebenkostenabrechnung – there is no precise English equivalent; "service charge statement" comes closest) must reach the tenant within twelve months of the end of the billing period. For a calendar-year period, that means delivery by 31 December of the following year. Posting the letter is not enough – receipt is what counts.
Consequences of missing it
After the deadline, the landlord loses any right to claim a balance due unless the delay was genuinely outside their control. The rule is asymmetric by design: a tenant's refund claim survives, and the tenant can still demand the late statement to recover a credit.
Where landlords typically slip
- Mailing on 30 December – arrival in January kills the claim.
- Formally defective statements (missing allocation key, missing total costs) count as never issued.
- Waiting for one late invoice, such as the property tax assessment, only excuses that single line item, and only if the landlord truly could not have obtained it earlier.
Deadline automation
eigentumwerk stores the statutory deadline with every billing period and escalates in the manager dashboard at 90, 60 and 30 days before expiry, so a statement can never silently lapse in "calculated but not sent" state.