In the fictitious case a previous rental account has been outstanding for some time. The landlady and the former tenant have written several times; one partial payment was made. Shortly before the end of the year the landlady looks for the date of the last message. She assumes that from that date the same new period will run again for the entire arrears. It is precisely this simplification that she now has examined.
Make the claims visible again individually
Work here does not begin with the total amount. Each asserted monthly rent receives its own line with basis, accrual, payment and outstanding balance. A later billing back payment remains recognisable separately. Documents about damage to the flat are not sorted into the same limitation-period mechanism.
§ 195 BGB names three years as the regular limitation period. According to § 199 paragraph 1 it generally begins at the end of the year in which the claim arose and the knowledge prerequisites named there are present, unless a different commencement is specified. [B195, B199] From this follows for the preparation: different claims must not be merged into a single unexamined timeline solely because of the same tenancy agreement.
The landlady also notes whether a claim has already been reduced to judgment (titeliert) or another special situation is known. She explicitly forwards such items for separate classification. This article does not calculate a concrete timeline nor all conceivable special limitation periods.
Check a course of conversation instead of a message count
§ 203 governs the suspension (Hemmung) during negotiations about the claim or its circumstances until a refusal to continue them. Limitation therefore occurs at the earliest three months after the end of the suspension. § 209 excludes the suspension period from the limitation calculation. [B203, B209]
Our editorial recommendation: present the complete correspondence in chronological order. Mark which item was discussed each time, what response was made to it and whether a conversation was broken off. The label conversation is not sufficient for the legal classification. Whether a specific exchange constitutes negotiations in the statutory sense is precisely part of the examination task.
In the example a more recent message concerns only the return of a cellar item. The landlady does not allow herself to derive a secure statement about all rental claims from that. An earlier exchange about a particular monthly rent remains visible as its own matter.
Classify the partial payment separately
§ 212 distinguishes the new commencement from that, for example if the debtor acknowledges the claim by a partial payment. [B212] Which claim a concrete payment relates to and what significance the debtor’s conduct has overall is not thereby automatically decided for the whole account.
The landlady therefore collects booking date, amount, payment purpose and accompanying messages together. She does not change older booking notes in order to retrospectively create a more favourable limitation timeline. An allocation that is still unclear remains documented as an open question.
Turn the examination into a timely decision
The finished dossier contains groups of claims, the respective original course, possible suspension periods and conceivable acknowledgements. Added to this is the explicit question which effective further measure may be necessary in good time. The commissioned specialist should deliver a result with a deadline and responsibility.
A friendly new reminder to the tenant does not replace this result. Nor does merely filing the documents guarantee the recovery of a claim. The organisational task is to present the actual history so completely that a timely decision about the specific claim becomes possible.