Heating billing period is not a cut-off period
> June 2016
A formal clause in a residential lease stating "billing is performed by 30 June each year for the previous heating cost period..." does not represent a cut-off period.
In a decision of 20.1.2016 - VIII ZR 152/15 - the BGH stated that this is simply a billing period of two months, not a settlement deadline.Background:
A lease contained the following provision on how heating costs were to be billed: "Billing is performed by 30 June each year for the previous heating cost period." The agreement also stated: "The heating period runs from 1 October to 30 April of the following year". The tenant received the 2011/12 bill on 30.10.2012 and appealed against it on the grounds that it had expired.
Decision:
The BGH decided that the parties had merely agreed a billing period of 2 months (1 May to 30 June) without any cut-off period for the heating bill settlement. It stated that the wording of the clause was intended merely to regulate the billing period rather than set penalties for delayed bills. The provision in the lease already reduces the landlord's settlement deadline. If the landlord is unable to submit a bill for heating costs within two months of the end of the heating period, he is precluded from claiming additional amounts to which he is entitled. As a consequence, the interests of the landlord are unreciprocally and to a considerable degree not taken into account.