Annual service charge statement overdue: what owners can do now

The financial year is long over, the statement is not. The same scene repeats itself in many condominium owners' associations (WEG): people wait, ask cautiously, receive a vague answer and keep waiting. Yet the situation is clearer than it feels, and the association has more options than most owners assume.

What the law requires and what it does not

After the end of the financial year, the property management company must prepare an annual service charge statement (Section 28 (2) of the German Condominium Act, the Wohnungseigentumsgesetz). That is a genuine legal duty, not a courtesy service. What the law lacks, however, is a fixed due date. Around three to six months after year-end are customary and reasonable. If you have seen nothing by early summer, you are not asking too early but rather late.

A change introduced by the WEMoG, Germany's 2020 reform of condominium law, clears up a widespread misconception: what is resolved today is only the settlement balance, meaning the additional payment or credit of the individual owner. No longer the entire statement. The figures themselves are therefore not the subject of the resolution but its basis. You should still review them, because they produce the amount that is voted on.

This comes with a right that often goes unused: owners may inspect the administration records, meaning the underlying documents and receipts. If you do not understand an item, you do not have to simply take it on faith. What actually goes into the monthly service charge and which items are typical is explained in our guide on the monthly service charge (Hausgeld).

Four stages, in this order

Usually the matter ends at the first stage, because a written inquiry with a date has a different effect than a quick phone call.

• Ask politely and in writing, with a specific deadline. In writing not as a threat, but because it documents the matter and gives the management a clear task.
• Involve the advisory board. It is supposed to review the statement anyway (Section 29 (2) of the German Condominium Act). That makes it the natural point of contact, and it speaks for the association rather than for an individual.
• Have an owners' meeting convened. This turns an individual concern into an agenda item on which the management must take a position.
• If necessary, dismiss the manager. The property management company can be dismissed at any time, without cause, by a simple majority (Section 26 (3) of the German Condominium Act). That is the last stage, but it is reassuring to know it exists.

Stay calm, but do not just wait

A late statement is annoying. But at no point is the association powerless. The sequence above is deliberately built so that each stage can already be effective on its own, and the next one only becomes necessary if nothing happens. In practice, the friendly but dated letter is almost always enough, often together with the advisory board.

What matters is the distinction between a slip and a pattern. A statement that is late once because a service provider caused delays or someone was out for a long time says little about the management. If, however, it is late every year, questions remain unanswered and inspecting the records becomes a struggle, then it is no longer about one document but about the way the company works. Then it is worth taking a sober look at how an orderly change of management proceeds, which notice periods apply and what the association should prepare: all of this is covered in our guide on changing your property management company.