For It is not easy for tenants to understand whether the bill was transferred incorrectly or not, because rental costs such as the emergency call system, the smoke alarm or the fire extinguisher are not immediately apparent from the operating costs, says Bau: “Sometimes it just says Servicing smoke detectors, but ultimately you can only check whether rental costs are included by looking at the receipts. You have to look at the invoices and, if necessary, also at the underlying contract and see what kind of service is billed.”
However, this is not evident in the usual operating cost statement, Bau explains.
Right to inspect the documents
For this you have to request the necessary documents from the rental company: “If you are unsure or if you want to check that, you should look at the invoices and the contractual basis for the corresponding utility bill. You have the right to do so.”
The random inquiry at the housing company Vonovia, which claims to rent half a million apartments in Germany, including in Dresden and Leipzig, showed that the rental costs for the smoke detectors were not passed on. The same applies to the municipal housing company of the city of Erfurt.