Rental-property handover in Germany: a checklist for the first 30 days

Handover is the day an apartment becomes yours in practice, though not yet in law. The purchase contract sets when possession, benefits and burdens pass to you; your name reaches the land register later. A good handover closes that gap on paper: keys and condition recorded, meters read, the owners' association and any tenant told who you are, and the records for your first operating-cost statement and tax return in your hands.

This rental property handover checklist for Germany covers the weeks before, the day itself and the first 30 days, for vacant and tenanted apartments. For the purchase steps that lead here, see buying a rental apartment in Germany.

The contract fixes when possession, benefits and burdens (Besitz, Nutzen und Lasten) pass to you, commonly once the full price is paid. Without such a clause, benefits and burdens pass with handover (§ 446 BGB). Check four points:

• Vacant or let. Do not assume vacant possession. A sale does not end a lease (§ 566 BGB), so the contract must say whether the apartment is handed over empty, and by when.
• Rent and costs. From when rent is yours and running costs are yours to bear, and how prepaid amounts are settled.
• The gap before registration. You step into the lease only for the duration of your ownership (§ 566 BGB), which starts with the land-register entry. Until then the seller remains the landlord in law. Contracts commonly bridge this by assigning the rent to you from handover or authorising you to collect it, often with notices to the tenant needing the seller's agreement.
• What is included. Fixtures named in the deed, such as a fitted kitchen, and the documents the seller must provide.

Before handover

On the handover day

In the first 30 days

For a vacant apartment, register with an electricity supplier from the handover date, and a gas supplier if the flat has its own supply. Drawing power or gas without a contract creates a basic-supply contract with the local default supplier, which you must report without delay (§ 2(2) StromGVV; § 2(2) GasGVV).

Central heating and water are usually billed through the association's metering provider. When the occupant changes during a billing period, the Heating Costs Ordinance provides for an interim reading (Zwischenablesung) (§ 9b HeizkostenV). For a vacant apartment, ask the administrator whether one will be taken, and keep your own photographs.

The tenant keeps their keys and the right to live there undisturbed. There is no general right of entry: a tenant must allow access only for a specific reason, announced in advance (BGH, 4 June 2014, VIII ZR 289/13). Necessary repairs are one such reason, and must be announced in good time (§ 555a BGB). If you want to see the flat, ask.

For a landlord change, the tenant should receive one letter signed by seller and buyer, giving the date from which rent goes to your account, the account details and the new repair contact. Keep it accurate about timing: before registration, describe the sale and the payment instruction the contract allows; confirm the transfer of ownership once you are registered. A written notice from the seller that ownership has passed binds the seller as regards the rent, even if the transfer fails (§ 566e BGB).

Ask whether the tenant has paid rent in advance. Once ownership passes, rent paid to the seller binds you for the month in which the tenant learns of the transfer, and the following month if they learn after the 15th (§ 566c BGB).

You also take over the obligation to return the deposit (§ 566a BGB), so obtain the deposit, or the transfer of a pledged account, with evidence of the amount. For what an existing lease allows you to change, see buying a tenanted apartment.

Introduce yourself to the building administrator (WEG-Verwalter) with the seller's confirmation of the sale, and give a bank account for the monthly service charge (Hausgeld), usually collected by SEPA direct debit. Until you are registered, the association generally treats the seller as the owner, so agree with both from which month your payments start; the contract decides who bears the Hausgeld between you from handover. A first purchase from a developer differs: you count as an owner towards the association once your priority notice is registered and you have possession (§ 8(3) WEG).

Request the economic plan, annual accounts and asset report (§ 28 WEG), recent minutes and any resolution on special levies. A top-up payment resolved on the annual accounts after your registration can fall on you, even where it covers the seller's months (BGH, 2 December 2011, V ZR 113/11); the contract should say how you and the seller share it. For what the administrator does and does not do for you, see Hausverwaltung or Sondereigentumsverwaltung.

In a condominium, the association normally insures the building: proper administration includes insuring the common property at replacement value and the owners against building-owner liability (Haus- und Grundbesitzerhaftpflicht) (§ 19(2) no. 3 WEG). Ask the administrator what the policy covers inside your unit; your own landlord liability and contents are questions for your insurer. A buyer steps into a property policy the seller held on the sold property (§ 95 VVG), and the sale must be reported to that insurer without delay (§ 97 VVG). For an apartment this rarely matters, as the association holds the building policy.

Property tax (Grundsteuer) is set on the circumstances at the start of the calendar year and owed by the person to whom the property is attributed (§ 9 and § 10 GrStG). Expect the municipality to keep billing the seller for the year of the sale; contracts usually have you reimburse the seller from handover. A buyer is also liable for property tax from the start of the calendar year before the transfer (§ 11(2) GrStG), so ask for proof of payment.

Agree who will prepare the tenant's operating-cost statement (Betriebskostenabrechnung). Under case law, the seller settles billing periods that ended before the change of ownership, and the owner when a running period ends settles that period (BGH, 3 December 2003, VIII ZR 168/03). The land-register entry decides, not handover, so the year of sale often falls to you. Ask the seller for the advances the tenant paid them, earlier statements and open back-payments, and have a lawyer check how the contract splits the result.

Handover is where Alpha Minoris's two services meet. For apartments in Berlin, Dresden and Leipzig, the Buyer's Agent service runs until you receive the keys. At handover, that means coordinating the appointment, collecting the keys and records, preparing the Übergabeprotokoll, taking the meter readings for a vacant apartment, and gathering the lease file and deposit evidence for a let one. You need not live in any of the three.

From the same day, Vermieter-Autopilot can take on the ongoing tasks you agree, such as tenant contact, repair coordination and other landlord tasks, or finding a tenant for a vacant flat (finding tenants). If you use both, the handover file becomes the starting file for management, so the tenant, deposit and meter details are not gathered twice. You remain the landlord and fund repairs, and the scope and spending approvals are agreed in writing.

Before the handover date, decide who attends, who collects the records and who manages the apartment from the first day. Discuss your first rental property with Alpha Minoris.