Teilungserklärung: The German Condo Papers to Read Before You Buy

The exposé says the flat comes with a garden. The declaration of division says the garden is common property.

A German Eigentumswohnung is a co-ownership share tied to one unit. Section 8 of the Wohnungseigentumsgesetz, WEG, the condominium act, lets a landowner create that structure by a declaration to the land registry, the Teilungserklärung. The Bundesnotarkammer, the federal chamber of notaries, tells buyers to read it, the floor plan and the community rules before they sign.

The act itself says why: only what is registered binds you.

What is the Teilungserklärung, and what comes with it?

The founding document, with two attachments. Under section 8 of the WEG the owner of a plot divides the property into co-ownership shares, each linked to Sondereigentum, exclusive ownership of a unit. Section 7, paragraph 4, of the same act requires the registration application to be accompanied by an Aufteilungsplan, a building drawing signed and stamped by the building authority that shows the division of the building and plot and the location and size of every part in exclusive and in common ownership, and by an Abgeschlossenheitsbescheinigung, the authority's certificate that the units are self-contained.

The notaries' guidance of August 2022 turns that into a checklist: read the Teilungserklärung and the Aufteilungsplan with the flat's floor plan, check whether Sondernutzungsrechte, exclusive rights of use over a garden or a parking space for instance, are assigned to the flat, and read the Gemeinschaftsordnung for the owners' rights and duties, the voting rules, the rules on renovation and alteration, and the allocation of costs.

Why does only the registered version count?

Section 10, paragraph 3, of the WEG provides that agreements between the owners bind a successor in title only if they are registered in the land register as content of the Sondereigentum. A garden agreed by handshake among the current owners is not yours when you buy; a garden written into the registered Gemeinschaftsordnung is. Resolutions adopted under such agreements, by contrast, need no registration to bind a successor, which is why the second document matters.

What do the resolutions and minutes tell you?

What the community has decided to spend, and on whom. Section 24 of the WEG requires minutes of every owners' meeting and a Beschluss-Sammlung, a collection of the resolutions announced at meetings and adopted in writing, with place and date, and of the operative parts of court decisions in disputes, for everything after 1 July 2007. The administrator keeps it, and paragraph 8 gives any owner, or a third party authorised by an owner, the right to inspect it on request. A seller can therefore let you read three years of decisions before you bid.

Section 16 of the act allocates the community's costs to each owner in proportion to their co-ownership share unless the owners resolve otherwise, and section 19, paragraph 2, counts among the duties of proper administration the accumulation of an adequate Erhaltungsrücklage, the maintenance reserve, and, for communities of nine or more units, the appointment of a certified administrator. The notaries' checklist adds the practical questions: whether all past Hausgeld is paid, and how high the reserve is.

How do you get the land-register extract?

From the Grundbuchamt, for a fee set by law. Under the court and notary fees act, GNotKG, an uncertified copy of the land register costs 10 euros and a certified one 20 euros, with no document charge on top. The extract shows the co-ownership share, the registered Gemeinschaftsordnung and the encumbrances; the Teilungserklärung and the Aufteilungsplan are filed with it as the Grundakte.

We do not give buying advice. What the act and the notaries' guidance support is this: what you own is defined by a registered declaration and a stamped plan, the rules that bind you are the registered ones, and the money you will owe is written in a resolution record you are entitled to read. AiMYNDi reads the Teilungserklärung, the Gemeinschaftsordnung and the minutes with the exposé and flags the gaps between them in your language. An example of what a report looks like shows the legal section, and Germany's 2026 property tax covers the bill that follows the keys.