How to change your property manager in Germany (Hausverwaltung)

German owners can dismiss their property manager (Verwalter) at any time and without giving a reason, by a simple majority of the votes cast at the owners' meeting. The management contract then ends six months after the dismissal at the latest, however long it was signed for (section 26(3) WEG). Contract clauses that say otherwise are void.

If you own a flat in Germany from abroad, this is the lever you probably did not know you had. Many associations put up with an unresponsive firm for years because they believe they are tied in until the contract runs out.

Dismissal and contract are two different things

Before the reform of December 2020, the community rules or the contract could limit dismissal to "good cause", and slow service rarely qualified. Now dismissal needs no cause, and section 26(5) forbids any deviation from that.

The dismissal ends the manager's authority on the day of the vote: they can no longer act for the association, call meetings or move money on its account. The contract runs on until it ends, six months at most. What the outgoing firm can still bill in that period depends on the contract, and a negotiated early termination is usually cheaper than an argument.

How the switch works

The dismissal and the appointment of a successor must both be on the agenda, or the resolutions are invalid (section 23(2)); our guide to calling an owners meeting in Germany covers the three-week notice. If more than a quarter of the owners ask for a meeting and the manager refuses, the chair of the advisory board may call it instead (section 24(2) and (3)).

Vote both in the same meeting. An association without a manager is represented by all owners jointly (section 9b(1)), which makes even paying a plumber awkward. Get the new firm's written acceptance of the mandate before the meeting; a dismissal followed by a candidate who backs out is the worst outcome. And aim for a switch at the year end, or the new manager will have to rebuild the old firm's books for the annual statement and will bill you for it. Tell the bank, the building insurer, the energy suppliers and the caretaker about the change on the day of the vote, with a copy of the minutes; until they have it, some of them will keep talking to the old firm.

The outgoing manager must hand over everything held for the association: the register of resolutions, the declaration of division, budgets, statements, contracts, receipts, bank records, keys and electronic data (section 667 BGB). If they refuse, the association can sue. Check the register of resolutions first; in our experience it has the most gaps.

Plan for a few weeks of friction.

What a manager costs

The average fee for managing a German owners' association was 29.12 euros net per unit per month in 2025, according to the survey of the German property managers' association VDIV. Small associations paid 35.84 euros on average, those of 100 units or more 23.56, and firms planned average increases of 9.1 per cent for 2026. Compare the list of extra charges, not just the base fee: an extraordinary meeting, arrears collection and building supervision are often billed separately.

German law does not oblige an association to appoint a manager at all, and small buildings often run themselves; see a German WEG without a property manager.

Get the successor's offer before you put the dismissal on the agenda. If your association has owners in several countries, Vecinly keeps invitations, resolutions and Hausgeld in one place in each owner's language; see our page on international owners' associations.

Information current as of September 2026. This article is general information on German WEG law and is not legal advice.