If you simply don’t pay at all, in the worst case scenario you even risk termination. “An immediate termination due to late payment is possible if the tenant is in arrears with more than one month’s rent on two consecutive dates or if he has owed more than two months’ rent over a longer period of time,” explains the Cologne Tenants’ Association on its homepage.
What may (not) be billed
Only the additional costs that are listed in the rental agreement may be billed. “Most landlords write in that the additional costs of the operating costs regulations can be taken into account. If the sentence is not there, you have to look at what is listed,” explained financial expert Tenhagen on “MDR um 4”. Heating and hot water are included here, as are cold water, sewage, elevator (also for tenants on the ground floor), garbage collection, property tax, building insurance, lighting, gardening, caretaker. “All the things that happen regularly around the house,” says Tenhagen.
In addition to the actual fuel costs used, the landlord can also pass on the additional costs of the heating system. “These include, for example, the costs of operating, monitoring, cleaning and maintaining the heating system and the cost factor of operating electricity. The costs of the measurement services and the rental costs for the recording devices can also be allocated,” explains Claudia Neumerkel.
However, according to “Finanztip”, “repair costs, property management costs, rental costs for smoke detectors or fire extinguishers, bank and account management fees, a one-off gutter cleaning as well as contributions for rent loss or legal protection insurance” may not be billed.
