service charges
noun · Betriebskosten
Betriebskosten are the running costs of the property that the parties may agree the tenant shall bear, and the timing is what decides disputes: the landlord must deliver the annual statement within twelve months of the end of the accounting period, § 556 Abs. 3 BGB, and after that he is barred from claiming any shortfall unless the delay was not his fault.
Which translation, when
Why
Service charges correspond to the German Betriebskosten, the running costs that ownership and the intended use of the property continuously produce and that the parties may agree the tenant shall bear under § 556 BGB. Two structural points deserve a translation. First, what may be passed on is not open to free agreement: a regulation lists the chargeable categories, from property tax and water to lighting, cleaning, insurance and the caretaker, and costs of administration and of repair fall outside it, so a tenancy clause that adds them does not make them recoverable. Second, and this is where most disputes are decided, the timing is strict. Where advance payments are agreed, the landlord must account annually, observing the principle of economy, and the statement must reach the tenant by the end of the twelfth month following the end of the accounting period; if it does not, § 556 Abs. 3 Satz 3 BGB bars him from claiming any shortfall, unless he is not responsible for the delay, while a credit balance still has to be paid out. The same provision then binds the tenant: objections to the statement must be raised within twelve months of its receipt, and after that they are excluded unless the tenant is not responsible for the delay. So the twelve-month period runs twice, once against each side, which no English phrase conveys by itself. On the vocabulary, Betriebskosten is the statutory word and Nebenkosten the everyday synonym, the annual statement is the Betriebskostenabrechnung or Nebenkostenabrechnung, the monthly instalment a Vorauszahlung, and the machine’s Dienstleistungsgebühren describes fees for services rather than the costs of a building.
Typical mistakes
- The landlord loses a shortfall claim if the statement arrives after twelve months, § 556 Abs. 3 BGB, so a translation that treats the deadline as procedural understates it.
- The tenant equally loses objections raised later than twelve months after receipt, so the period cuts both ways.
- Chargeable costs follow the statutory catalogue rather than the contract wording, so listing administration or repair costs does not make them recoverable.
What matters
Reviewing a German service-charge statement for a foreign tenant: the note should use Betriebskosten, check the twelve-month deadline in both directions, and test the listed items against the statutory catalogue rather than against the contract alone.
What the machine misses
Automatic output gives Dienstleistungsgebühren or Servicegebühren for service charges, words about fees for services, and the German category is the Betriebskosten of § 556 BGB, the running costs of the property with a twelve-month accounting deadline that bars a later shortfall claim; the calque loses both the statutory catalogue and the deadline.
Examples
| service charges | Betriebskosten |
| the annual service charge statement | die Betriebskostenabrechnung |
| monthly advance payments | monatliche Vorauszahlungen |
| objections to the statement | Einwendungen gegen die Abrechnung |