Rent additional costs matter in Germany
<p>I've rented a furnished apartment from the beginning of 2019 until last month in Baden-Württemberg, Germany</p>
<p>The rental contract stated that <strong>service charges/additional costs</strong> are paid as a monthly <strong>flat rate</strong> up to 90 Euro (inklusive pauschaler nebenkosten bis zu einem Betrag 90 Euro)</p>
<p>But now, the landlord noticed that the bills amount are higher than what I paid, and he sent me the invoice demanding an additional payment</p>
<p>I don't have a problem paying the amount, but to my understating, this should not be my responsibility</p>
<p>What should I do?</p>
<p>Should I pay him? what is the right thing to do here legally? <br /></p>
<p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/RWrYz.png" alt="1" /></p>

<h3>What to do?</h3>
<p>@roland is right: contact the local <a href="https://www.mieterbund.de/beratung.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Mieterverein</a>. The Mietervereine are consumers' rights organizations that give legal advise on rental matters to renters.<br />
This is usually the cheapest option to get a lawyer who is specialized at rental law.</p>
<p>The Mieterverein, btw., may find that the final accounting is wrong - the rules are rather complex (they have regular press releases that many or even most such accounts are wrong).</p>
<h3>Nebenkosten/service charges, running costs...</h3>
<p><a href="https://ratgeber.immowelt.de/a/betriebskostenpauschale-als-alternative-zur-vorauszahlung.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">source</a> Default mode for Nebenkosten is to pay monthly advances and then have an annual invoice for the precise amount. It is possible to agree on a contract that uses a flat rate fee instead, i.e. there is no such final accounting and invoice. In my limited experience, that is cusomary for shorter-term rental agreements (say,  subletting or renting for a few months where it is difficult to do the final invoice within a reasonable time) but unusual for rental contracts that are supposed to last over several years. The linked post says that if the contract is worded ambiguously, a proper annual and final accounting is to be done.</p>
<p>IANAL, but my lay understanding of your contract is that the text is at the very least ambiguous: &quot;pauschal&quot; points to flat rate, but a flat rate must be an exact fee, not &quot;up to&quot; (bis zu). Moreover the wording is ambiguous whether the up to refers to the running costs being covered up to the specified amount (i.e. everything above that you have to pay extra, likely the intention) or whether the running costs are capped at the specified amount (i.e. can amount to up to x).</p>
<p>According to this <a href="https://www.immonet.de/umzug/wissenswertes-rechtliches-mietrecht-nebenkostenabrechnung.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">other post</a> a contract may have some parts of the Nebenkosten as flat rate and others not. They also say that some specific running costs like heating and warm water <em>must</em> get a proper accounting.</p>
<p>Thus, I'd expect that in the end, getting a final account and invoice is probably correct since the attempt to make it a flat rate (if it was one) is likely void. (Final account is needed regardless of whether you have to pay or you have to get back some money).</p>

<p>The contract covers costs up to (inclusive) 90/30 € per month.</p>
<p>You must pay the costs that are <strong>over</strong> that amount, just has you would have recieved a refund for the amount that was <strong>less</strong> than 90/30 € per month.</p>

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