After the loss of a key belonging to the residential complex you receive a cost estimate for replacing several cylinders and all associated keys. The administration first wants money so that it can then place the order. You are considering invoicing the same amount to the tenant. For this step the cost estimate alone is not sufficient.
Separate the security decision from the claim for damages
First the responsible party must assess the concrete access security. A required rapid protection must not depend on whether the costs can already be passed on. This article does not provide technical instructions for that. It deals with the subsequent claim for the costs of replacing a locking system in Germany.
Contractual duties of consideration may exist under § 241 Absatz 2 BGB. The BGH in the decided key-loss case essentially affirmed a breached duty of care. Nevertheless the specific replacement claim failed. Breach of duty and compensable financial loss were two separate steps in the examination. [B241, BGH205]
What the judgment actually requires
According to BGH VIII ZR 205/13 an ongoing danger of abusive key use can justify a replacement. But the abstract potential risk alone was not treated as a compensable replacement loss. Decisive was whether the injured party could objectively have been induced to carry out the replacement under the specific circumstances and actually did so. In the case the system had not yet been replaced; the claim was dismissed. [BGH205]
The possibility of a monetary claim under § 249 BGB therefore cannot be justified here with the sentence that one may demand any estimated repair amount even without work. The BGH specifically denied the alleged damage to the substance of the entire system through the mere loss of a key. [B249, BGH205]
Create three document levels
As an editorial work aid you can keep a case file with three levels: first the reliable facts and the technical risk assessment. Then the required measure with a comprehensible scope. Finally the actually performed service with the associated cost documents. A quotation belongs in the second level, not already in the third.
In the hypothetical case a quotation describes twelve cylinders. After technical review only certain affected accesses are replaced. A later claim must not then unnoticed treat the original overall quotation as the actually performed measure. Which works are necessary and which costs are compensable must be clarified separately. This example does not assert a general rule of replacement for twelve or fewer doors.
Clarify the path of the claim for a condominium
If common property is affected, assignment, responsibility and the concrete recourse against the renting person are additionally involved. An administration's payment request does not already answer these points by its heading. Have it checked who asserts which claim against whom on what basis. The WEG-internal explanations of the historical judgment are not used here as a blanket statement on today's community law.
Before a further claim there are therefore several open decisions: Is an attributable breach of duty proven? Which ongoing risk of misuse was concretely determined? Was precisely this scope objectively warranted and actually carried out? Only then follows the examination of the amount. This way a security proposal remains recognisable as a proposal and is not inadvertently treated as an already incurred replacement invoice.