Reimbursement of expenses by the tenant

Reimbursement of expenses by the tenant / Aufwendungsersatzanspruch des Mieters

April 03, 2025

The tenant's right to reimbursement of expenses for maintenance, repair or modernisation work – in particular, the right to alternative accommodation

It is not uncommon for a landlord to want to carry out work in the tenant's apartment. Such work may be in the form of maintenance, repair or modernisation. Entering the apartment and carrying out work in the apartment, which in most cases is the centre of the tenant's life, often puts a strain on the tenant. In such cases, the owner's interest in maintaining or improving the property conflicts with the tenant's interest in using the property.

Reimbursement of expenses for maintenance, repair or modernisation measures

If the landlord carries out maintenance, repair or modernisation work, the tenant must generally tolerate the landlord's actions. However, the tenancy law of the German Civil Code does not leave the tenant unprotected. In such cases, the tenant is entitled to reimbursement of expenses under Section 555a (3) BGB. Accordingly, the landlord must reimburse the tenant for expenses that the tenant incurs as a result of the measures.

What is a reimbursement of expenses?

A reimbursement of expenses means that the person who has incurred expenses, i.e. ‘voluntary’ financial sacrifices, is reimbursed for them. Expenses in the sense of the BGB are therefore to be distinguished from damages in that they do not occur ‘involuntarily’, but rather the tenant decides to incur them.

Maintenance and repair measures

According to § 555a BGB, the tenant is obliged to tolerate maintenance and repair measures. This is because tenancy law recognises that the landlord must have the opportunity to carry out maintenance and repairs, even if such measures are not always desired by the tenant.

The duty to tolerate requires, first of all, the existence of a maintenance or repair measure. Maintenance measures are those measures that are intended to prevent imminent damage to the rented property (e.g. replacement of fragile pipes), while repair measures are those that become necessary to remedy damage (e.g. restoration work after a water pipe has already burst). In addition, the measures must be ‘necessary’. Necessity is deemed to exist if, based on the current state of affairs, work on the rented property is indicated, whereby the owner has a further scope for discretion. However, the obligation to tolerate does not exist indefinitely; the measures must also be reasonable for the tenant in the specific case (this has been rejected by case law, for example, when windows are replaced in winter). Even if the duty to tolerate is not subject to a balancing of interests, the principle of mutual consideration applies, which depends on the tenant's personal circumstances, the duration and severity of the impairment, and the urgency of the measures to be carried out.

Landlord's obligation to give notice

According to § 555a para. 2 BGB, the tenant must be notified of the measures. Particular attention must be paid to the type, extent and duration of the measures. However, in individual cases, the announcement can be omitted. If the maintenance and repair measures are not announced in accordance with § 555a para. 2 BGB, the tenant is not obliged to tolerate them.

The claim for reimbursement of expenses in detail

Expenses that may arise include, for example, storage costs if the tenant's furniture or personal belongings have to be stored elsewhere at the tenant's expense. Relocation costs incurred by the tenant as a result of having to leave the apartment temporarily must also be reimbursed. Under certain circumstances, the tenant may also demand that the landlord reimburse the costs of alternative accommodation, e.g. in a hotel or holiday apartment. This is the case if the apartment is no longer habitable due to maintenance or repair work. Particularly in cases where the tenant has to find alternative accommodation, the right to advance payments under Section 555a (3) sentence 2 BGB is relevant, since alternative accommodation is likely to be associated with high costs in most cases. The tenant can demand that the landlord make an advance payment to cover the costs of the alternative accommodation. It is important to note that the tolerance of the maintenance or repair measures can be made dependent on the payment of the advance, i.e. the tenant is only obliged to tolerate the measures if the landlord pays the advance – without advance payment, the tenant is not obliged to let the landlord or tradespeople commissioned by him into the apartment.

Ineffectiveness of deviating agreements

It should also be noted that, according to Section 555a (4) of the German Civil Code (BGB), in the case of residential leases, deviating agreements, i.e. those that exclude a claim for reimbursement of expenses, for example, cannot be effectively agreed, so that a claim for reimbursement of expenses exists regardless of what is regulated in the lease with regard to these claims.

No competition between the claim for reimbursement of expenses and the rent reduction

A claim for reimbursement of expenses does not preclude a rent reduction. The tenant can only pay the reduced rent ‘in addition’ to claiming reimbursement of expenses. However, the tenant must bear in mind that he cannot reduce the rent payment to ‘zero’ due to the uninhabitability of the apartment and also be reimbursed for the costs of a replacement apartment. This would mean that the tenant, who usually spends money on housing anyway, would receive something ‘for free’ from the landlord due to the maintenance or repair work. In this respect, it should be noted that if the tenant demands full reimbursement of the costs of the replacement accommodation, he is still obliged to pay the rent, so that when the costs are offset, he can only demand the amount in excess of the rent from the landlord.

In principle, the landlord has to prove in the context of a court dispute over the reimbursement of expenses that the tenant, by occupying the replacement apartment in the specific individual case, has saved expenses in a certain amount, namely the payment of the rent that would otherwise have been due. These saved expenses are to be deducted from the reimbursement of expenses, as described above, but only if the landlord can provide sufficiently specific evidence. If there is no evidence, it is also possible to claim full reimbursement of expenses and a full rent reduction of 100%.

If the landlord provides a replacement apartment, the expenses saved in the amount of the actual rent are only to be taken into account if the replacement apartment is equivalent to the main apartment. If it is not equivalent, for example because it has a considerably smaller area or not all of the furniture can be taken along, the tenant can claim a full reduction.

Modernisation measures

In the event that the landlord does not carry out any maintenance or repair work, but instead modernises the property, the provision of Section 555a (3) BGB is applied ‘accordingly’ in accordance with Section 555d (6) BGB. It follows from this that the tenant is entitled to reimbursement of expenses and advance payments in the event of modernisation of the living space, just as in the case of maintenance and repair measures. For the assumption of a duty of tolerance, the required notice for modernisations must specifically state and explain which modernisation according to § 555b BGB is involved in each individual case (e.g. an increase in utility value for new pipes according to § 555b para. 1 no. 4 BGB).

Enforcement of the claim for reimbursement of expenses

The tenant can either demand the costs incurred as a direct payment from the landlord or offset the costs incurred against the rent.