A tenant requests to inspect the main rent-accounting (Hauptmietzinsabrechnung). You find an operating-costs statement, bank statements and invoices for work on the building. These are possible source documents, but not yet an answer to the requested accounting. The first step is to recognise the correct task and establish the missing connection.
Correctly assign the requested invoice
§ 20 MRG requires, within its scope of application, a clear accounting of the income and expenditure for each calendar year. It names certain incomes to be taken into account and permitted expenditures; the difference forms the rent reserve or the rent deficit of the year. [ABRECHNUNG] The invoice is therefore not simply the current balance of a bank account.
First clarify, on the basis of the specific tenancy, whether this provision is applicable. § 1 MRG delineates the scopes of application. [RAHMEN] If a building management keeps the records, you should not assume that they mean precisely this accounting simply by using the term Jahresabrechnung. Specify the subject matter and calendar year explicitly.
Connect source data and statutory accounting
Our editorial recommendation is a comprehensible index of evidence. Each accounting item should be given an origin: payment, invoice, calculation basis or still outstanding clarification. Actual receipts and legally applicable values must not be tacitly equated. § 20, for example, provides its own rules for certain owner-occupied or rentable vacant units. [ABRECHNUNG]
Have the legal allocation of the items checked. An expense visible on the account is not thereby permitted as an expenditure of this accounting. Nor may a subsidy disappear just because it has been paid into another account. Allocation follows the provision and the facts, not accidental filing.
Unclear years are not closed by free estimation. Note what is missing and who can provide the original documents. If you need to correct earlier accounts, keep the original version and the justified change separate. Otherwise a later query will be difficult to trace.
Plan provision and inspection of records together
The accounting for the preceding calendar year must, according to § 20 paragraph 3, be made available for inspection at a suitable place in the building by 30 June at the latest. In addition, suitable inspection of records must be granted; on request, copies or photocopies are to be made at the main tenant’s expense. For records on data carriers the statute speaks of inspection of printouts. [ABRECHNUNG]
Therefore do not merely agree a dispatch date for a table of figures. Clarify also where and how the associated records can actually be inspected. Check whether an appointed person has the complete relevant status and can assign queries to an item. An organisational online repository should not be treated uncritically as a substitute for every statutory provision step.
Fictitious case: Two statements bear the same name
Mira receives from her management a file labelled Jahresabrechnung. It shows water, lighting and building management distributed across the apartments. However, the separate source data for the requested main rent-accounting are missing. She has the task specified rather than merely renaming the file.
Subsequently the existing income and work documents are assigned to the correct accounting. Outstanding allocations appear on a questions list. The tenant receives a concrete route to inspect the accounting and records, without Mira presenting an already overdue obligation as fulfilled by an uncommitted future date.
Conclude queries in a traceable way
Paragraph 4 governs the enforcement of accounting and inspection. [ABRECHNUNG] Respond to a concretely missing document with the actual provision status. Do not contest a numerical question merely by pointing out that some account has already been posted somewhere.
A usable conclusion consists of the correct annual accounting, assignable records and an actually usable inspection. Disputed substantive items are to be examined separately on professional grounds; organisational accessibility does not replace that examination.