Katrin Driesch

As a rule, owners of apartments make monthly housing benefit payments as members of an apartment owners’ association. According to the German “Act on the Ownership of Apartments and the Permanent Residential Right” (Wohnungseigentumsgesetz, WEG), they must set up an appropriate maintenance reserve - known as a “maintenance provision” before the amendment to the law by the German Ownership of Apartments and the Permanent Residential Right Modernization Act (Wohnungseigentumsmodernisierungsgesetz) of October 16, 2020 - for the maintenance of the property. Unlike advances for operating and administrative costs, payments into the maintenance reserve cannot be considered as income-related expenses at the time of payment under current legislation, but only when the reserves are actually spent on maintaining the common property or on other measures.