Once a year the accounts are settled: your monthly service-charge instalments are compared with the actual costs of the building. The statement often appears confusing, but you can check it yourself with some method. This guide shows you the deadlines, the most important checking steps and the route to take if you claim money back – with a focus on flats to which the Mietrechtsgesetz (MRG) applies in full.
By when the statement must be available
If you pay monthly flat-rate instalments, the landlord must settle the service charges for a calendar year at the latest by 30 June of the following year [S1]. The law does not require a personal letter to each party, but that the statement is made available at a suitable place in the building [S1]. Therefore check from early July onwards or ask the property management when and where it has been made available.
You also have the right to inspect the receipts in an appropriate manner. For digitally kept receipts, inspection of printouts suffices; you may obtain copies, but you must pay for them yourself [S1]. Inspection of receipts usually takes place at the property manager’s office; some managers also offer online access [S7].
Different rules apply to cooperative flats; there the statement is delivered personally [S6].
Credit or additional payment: what the result means
A credit must be credited to you by the landlord at the second interest date after the statement; an additional payment becomes due on the same date [S1].
Illustrative example: Your invoiced amount was 118 euros per month, i.e. 1.416 euros per year. The statement shows 1.502,30 euros for your flat, so you have to pay an additional 86,30 euros. If the statement is available from 12 May and the rent is due on the first of each month, 1 June is the next and 1 July the second interest date – only then does the additional payment become due.
There is a limit in favour of tenants for very old items: the landlord can generally no longer charge costs whose due date is more than one year ago. For flat-rate accounting this one-year period begins at the end of the calendar year in which the costs fell due [S1].
Check step by step
- Check your area and the key (quotient). Allocation is generally by usable area: your square metres in relation to all units in the building, including empty flats and flats used by the landlord himself [S2]. If the total area is incorrect, every single line is distributed incorrectly.
- Assign each line to a cost type. Only the costs named in § 21 MRG are permitted [S1]. Works on the building, renovations or reserves have no place in the statement [S6].
- Look at the insurances separately. Fire, liability and damage to domestic water are permissible; glass breakage or storm only with the consent of the majority of the main tenants [S1].
- Reconcile communal facilities. You only pay for lift, sauna or laundry room if you are allowed to use them [S3].
- Mark anomalies compared with the previous year. New lines and large increases are the items whose receipts you should inspect first.
Receipt inspection is about three things: the invoice must concern your building, the service must actually have been provided, and it must fall within the accounting calendar year [S7]. Because each tenant notices different things in the building – for example who knows that the lift was out of order for months – it is worthwhile to carry out the inspection together with neighbours.
Raise objections in writing first
Write to the property management stating which items you consider to be inadmissible or excessive, and request clarification or correction. Name specific items and amounts. This creates proof and resolves some errors without proceedings. If the statement is missing entirely or you are refused receipt inspection, you should also demand this of the landlord in writing; the Arbeiterkammer Wien provides template letters for this purpose [S6].
Conciliation body or district court
If the landlord does not respond, you can initiate proceedings. In the full application area the district court decides this in non-contentious proceedings. Applications are possible to require production of the statement and to review whether the charged service, administrative and caretaking costs are permissible and reasonable [S4].
In some municipalities you must first go to the municipality, i.e. to the conciliation body, before the court can be called upon [S5]. In Vienna this is the Schlichtungsstelle für wohnrechtliche Angelegenheiten; the procedure there is free of charge [S7]. Some other towns also have such bodies. If there is none in your place of residence, you should approach the district court directly [S7].
One point you should know: in a reclaim action, as a rule only those tenants who participated in the proceedings receive money back [S6]. It is therefore worth acting together.
Deadlines for reclaiming
If you have paid operating costs that were not permitted under §§ 21 to 24 MRG, you can reclaim them together with statutory interest. This claim becomes time-barred after three years [S8]. Therefore do not wait too long, but check every statement promptly.
When the MRG does not apply or applies only partially
In market-rate new-builds, many rented condominiums or single- and two-family houses the statutory accounting rules do not apply. In that case what counts is what is stated in the tenancy agreement [S9]. Against an incorrect statement you can then only proceed in court; seek advice beforehand [S7].
Be wary of advertising that promises a refund of all operating costs: according to the assessment of the Arbeiterkammer Wien the chances are only good in certain constellations – for example where the MRG does not fully apply, a company lets to consumers and the costs are merely listed as examples in the contract [S10]. For fixed-term contracts you should also bear in mind that a dispute may make renewal more difficult [S10]. You can get an initial assessment from the Arbeiterkammer, a tenants' organisation or a housing law advice centre.