Back Passable costs: These costs can be passed on to the tenant.

Who owns his property rent should find out about the apportionable costs as early as possible. Many expenses relating to the condominium can be passed on to the tenant.
What exactly are recoverable costs and what an owner should consider is explained in the following interview. The employees of the MWW operating costs department had some exciting facts ready for us.

Find out: Which costs are apportionable?

MWW: All operating costs according to the Operating Costs Ordinance (§§ 1-2 Works KV) transferable.
That would be for example:

• land tax
• water supply costs
• Heating system costs
• Cost of hot water supply
• Elevator costs
• street cleaning
• garbage fees
• building cleaning
• Janitor
• garden maintenance
• Lighting
• chimney cleaning
• Property and liability insurance

And many more.

Find out: Is it possible to explain two recoverable costs in more detail?

MWW: Firstly, there are the lighting costs. This includes the cost of electricity for the exterior lighting of the property and electricity from the shared parts of the building, such as B. Entrances, corridors, stairs and the basement.

Second, there is e.g. B. apportionable costs for the elevator. This includes the costs for the maintenance of the elevator, but also the emergency call for people to be freed by the maintenance company. Also included are the costs for the Telekom telephone connections for emergency calls, the costs for the operating current of the elevator and the safety inspection by the TÜV. These main and intermediate tests are laid down in the Operating Cost Security Ordinance. In addition, the provision costs of the service technician of the maintenance company (for the main TÜV inspection) are also part of the apportionable costs.

Find out: Can these costs be fully passed on?

MWW: As a rule, these costs can be fully passed on to the tenant.

In the case of elevator costs, there may be an agreement in the rental agreement that rental areas on the ground floor (apartments or businesses) are not included in the allocation.

Another special case would be if there is a high proportion of business in the property. In that case, an advance deduction may have to be made for the tenants.

That means for example:

There are many offices in one building. As a result, house cleaning has to be carried out several times a week. The tenants would have to bear higher costs and would be disadvantaged.

Experienced value: Can every landlord pass these costs on to their tenants? Are there exceptions or special cases?

MWW: The costs according to the Operating Costs Ordinance can be passed on to the tenants. All costs that are part of the other operating costs, e.g. B. the maintenance of the smoke detectors or the gutter cleaning (etc.), must be listed in detail in the rental agreement and agreed with the tenant, otherwise no apportionment is possible.

Worth knowing: The costs for the lighting have already been briefly mentioned, do they only include the pure electricity costs or also the replacement of defective light bulbs (maintenance)?

MWW: Only electricity costs may be allocated, no lamps. Replacing light bulbs counts towards maintenance costs (Civil Code § 535).

Worth knowing: Street cleaning and rubbish removal are also among the recoverable costs: does the tenant have to pay for the rubbish bins?

MWW: No, the waste bins are provided free of charge by the disposal companies and therefore do not have to be paid for by either the landlord or the tenant.

Worth knowing: Is there any other information that tenants and landlords might find worth knowing?

MWW: Costs that can be passed on are recorded in the Operating Costs Ordinance and are therefore regular, constant expenses. Often there are still irregular costs, e.g. B. the pruning. Such costs are not recoverable. Unless the tree pruning is defined and carried out as a regular measure in the field of garden maintenance.