Preparing a Hausgeldabrechnung yourself in Germany

A German owners' association may prepare its annual Hausgeld statement itself. It has three parts, the total statement, one statement per flat and an asset report, and since December 2020 the owners vote only on the Abrechnungsspitze, the top-up payments or adjusted advances that result (section 28(2) WEG). That vote can be challenged within one month.

The scene is familiar in small self-managed buildings from Leipzig to Lake Constance: a box of bank statements and invoices, a blank spreadsheet, and an owner who agreed at the last meeting to "do the accounts this year".

The three parts

The total statement (Gesamtabrechnung) lists every actual receipt and payment of the calendar year on the association's account. The individual statements (Einzelabrechnungen) split those costs per flat, by co-ownership share unless the owners resolved another key for particular costs (section 16(2)). Heating and hot water follow the Heating Costs Ordinance whatever the association agreed, with 50 to 70 per cent allocated by metered consumption (section 7(1) HeizkostenV). The asset report (Vermögensbericht) shows the reserve balance and the association's main assets, and every owner must receive it (section 28(4)). Self-made statements forget this third part more than anything else.

Keep the maintenance reserve in its own table: contributions, withdrawals and closing balance. A spreadsheet will work out the shares for you, but it will not notice that the owners changed a key by resolution three years ago. Vecinly keeps the entries, keys and receipts in one place, which matters most when the treasurer's job rotates every few years.

What the vote covers, and what a court looks at

Owners no longer approve the statement as a whole. They resolve the top-up payments or the adjustment of the advances; the full statement is the working behind that figure. Germany's Federal Court of Justice has since settled three practical points. A resolution worded the old way, "approving the total and individual statements", is read as a resolution on the top-up payments and is not flawed for its wording alone (BGH, V ZR 102/23, 19 July 2024). Errors in the figures matter only if they change what an owner has to pay (V ZR 195/23, 20 September 2024). And withdrawals from the reserve must stay out of the Abrechnungsspitze; a court can strike out just that part of the resolution (V ZR 96/24, 11 April 2025).

In practice the mistakes that reach a court are the ones that move money between flats: a key applied that the owners replaced by resolution, costs of one owner's private unit spread across everyone, or a reserve withdrawal booked as if it were an ordinary expense. Rounding and layout do not matter.

Every owner may inspect the receipts (section 18(4)), and a challenge must be filed within a month of the vote. Put the statement out for inspection a few weeks before the meeting.

Start from the bank statements, not the spreadsheet. For what the Hausgeld itself pays for, see Hausgeld in Germany; for running the whole association without a manager, see a German WEG without a property manager. Board members who check or prepare the accounts will find our page for board presidents useful.

Information updated September 2026. This article is for information only and does not constitute legal advice.