Property managers as clients: a page for trade firms

Not every property manager is the same. A condominium manager looks after owners’ associations: each flat belongs to someone else, while the roof, façade, stairwell and heating system belong to everyone together. A letting agent manages one or more rented blocks on behalf of private landlords. And housing companies, municipal as well as private, often award work through their own technical department. For a trade business all three are commercial clients with similar expectations, even though in the end someone other than the caller pays the invoice.

The size of this market shows in the 2022 census figures analysed by the German association of property managers, VDIV. Of roughly 43.1 million dwellings (VDIV, 2022 census), 9.28 million were in owners’ associations, which is 21.5 per cent (VDIV, 2022 census). Municipalities and municipal housing companies accounted for around 2.68 million dwellings, private housing companies for around 2.73 million (VDIV, 2022 census). The ratio for buildings stands out: owners’ associations make up only 8.9 per cent of residential buildings (VDIV, 2022 census), yet more than a fifth of all dwellings. These are the larger buildings, and over the years each of them needs roofers, painters, electricians, heating engineers and joiners.

Who may place an order on behalf of an owners’ association is governed by the German Condominium Act (WEG). Externally, the manager represents the association (§ 9b(1) WEG). Without a resolution, however, the manager only takes measures that are of minor importance and do not lead to substantial obligations, or that are needed to meet a deadline or avert a disadvantage (§ 27(1) WEG). The owners can narrow or widen this scope by resolution (§ 27(2) WEG), for instance with a spending limit. A dripping pipe, a sticking door closer and a failed stairwell light usually fall within it. A new façade, a replacement heating system or a roof renovation go through the owners’ meeting. That meeting takes place at least once a year (§ 24(1) WEG), and the invitation should be sent out at least three weeks beforehand (§ 24(4) WEG).

With rented blocks the route is shorter: the manager acts on behalf of the owner and usually agrees larger spending with them. Who becomes the contracting party, and what that means for contract terms, is covered in the article on maintenance contracts on the service page. For the website something else matters: in all three cases the person reading your page is the manager. They have to choose your firm, justify the choice to owners or landlord and settle the job afterwards.

The table does not describe opposites, but a different order. Photos matter to a manager too, but only once it is clear whether the firm fits into the manager’s routines. A page that tries to serve both groups at once answers half of each group’s questions in the wrong place. Electrical contractors know this split from inspections and charging points, where private and commercial clients ask very different things; the article on websites for electrical contractors goes into it.

The page itself is short. It is addressed explicitly to property managers, housing companies and other commercial clients and answers the questions a manager asks before the first job. Six building blocks cover them:

Whether this becomes a page of its own or a clearly separated section depends on volume. As soon as managers bring a noticeable share of the work, a separate page pays off, with its own address that contains the words property managers. It can be linked directly in an email or a quote, and it can be found through search terms such as “electrician property management Hildesheim”, which a section in the middle of the homepage finds harder. Why separate pages per service carry more than one combined page is explained in the article on service pages instead of one combined page.

The part of the page that hardly any private customer reads is the part a manager checks most closely: what the invoice looks like and which proofs the firm supplies. This has nothing to do with pettiness. The manager has to allocate every invoice to a property, justify it to owners or landlord and carry it into their statements.

The starting point is the mandatory content of an invoice under § 14(4) UStG: name and address of the firm and of the recipient, tax number or VAT identification number, date of issue, invoice number, type and scope of the service, date of service, and the net amount with the tax rate and tax amount. For a manager, there is more that no rule requires but without which it cannot proceed: the property address, in rented blocks the flat or its position in the building, the manager’s own order or case number, and the recipient exactly as named in the order, which for an association usually means the owners’ association with its address.

A second point concerns labour costs. For trade services for renovation, upkeep and modernisation, income tax is reduced on application by 20 per cent of the expenditure, by no more than 1,200 euros (§ 35a(3) EStG). The reduction applies only to labour costs (§ 35a(5) EStG), not to materials. When a job comes through a manager, however, the invoice does not go to the person who later files the tax return but to the association or the landlord. For owners or tenants to claim their share, the manager has to be able to read the labour costs from your invoice and pass them on. An invoice that lists labour, travel and materials as separate items saves a query. How a firm explains the tax relief to private customers is covered in tax relief for trade services on the website.

The third point concerns money that would otherwise not reach the firm at all: construction withholding tax. If a firm provides construction work to a business, the client has to retain 15 per cent of the payment on the firm’s account (§ 48(1) EStG). Construction work covers everything that serves to build, repair, maintain, alter or remove buildings, which includes most repairs to a rented block. Letting usually counts as a business activity for VAT purposes; work for landlords who let no more than two flats is exempt (§ 48(1) EStG). There is no deduction only if the firm presents a valid exemption certificate or if the construction work for the same client is not expected to exceed 15,000 euros in the calendar year where that client carries out exclusively tax-exempt letting, and 5,000 euros in all other cases (§ 48(2) EStG).

The certificate is issued on application by the firm’s tax office. Among other things it states its period of validity (§ 48b(3) EStG), and clients can check it electronically with the Federal Central Tax Office (§ 48b(6) EStG). For the page this means one sentence saying that a valid exemption certificate is available, the offer to send it as a PDF and a note on how long it is valid. The new certificate belongs in the office calendar in good time, not in the week in which a manager makes the deduction from the final invoice.

On payment terms: anyone who does not settle a payment claim within 30 days of it falling due and receiving the invoice is in default at the latest then (§ 286(3) BGB), a consumer only if the invoice specifically points this out. A payment term of more than 60 days is effective towards clients who are not consumers only if it is expressly agreed and not grossly unfair to the firm (§ 271a(1) BGB). On the page, one sentence on the payment terms in the framework agreement is enough. Prices for commercial clients can be shown net there if the page clearly names its audience; the considerations are set out in the article showing prices on a trade website or not.

That leaves the format. 62 per cent of the trade businesses surveyed offer their customers digital invoicing, 68 per cent digital quotes (Bitkom, 2025 survey). Between businesses, the structured e-invoice is becoming the rule step by step. Until the end of 2026 every firm may still use paper or, with the recipient’s consent, another electronic format; for transactions in 2027 this applies until the end of 2027 only to firms whose total turnover in the previous year was no more than 800,000 euros (§ 27(38) UStG). Whether an owners’ association or a private landlord counts as a business here is a question for their tax adviser. For the website it is enough to state in which formats the firm can deliver invoices and to which address they go.

A firm that works regularly for a manager sooner or later ends up with a framework agreement. It settles what would otherwise be discussed again for every job: hourly rates for master, journeyman and helper, travel or a travel flat rate per zone, surcharges for emergency, night and weekend work, mark-up on materials, payment terms and the amount up to which the firm may work without a query. This limit matches the logic of condominium law: what is of minor importance the manager can approve alone, and what goes beyond that and is not urgent usually needs a resolution by the owners (§ 27(1) WEG).

The framework agreement does not have to appear word for word on the website. It is enough for the page to say that it exists, what it covers and how a manager can request it. Firms that offer servicing combine the framework agreement with recurring visits for heating, ventilation, gutters or electrical inspections; how such a page is built is shown in the article offering maintenance contracts: the service page in the trades.

Larger works are a different matter. A façade renovation or a new heating system is decided by an owners’ association at its meeting, and the manager has to prepare the quotes beforehand. Because the invitation should be sent at least three weeks before the meeting (§ 24(4) WEG), your quote should reach the manager before that date, not just before the meeting itself. Quotes an owner without technical knowledge can read are helpful: items in plain language, options with their consequences, a note on the duration of the work and on what residents can expect while it is under way. The page can state how long before a meeting a quote should be requested. Heating engineers include the current state of heating law in such quotes; what is changing there right now is covered in the article new heating law: what plumbing and heating websites need to change.

A page for commercial clients is not a major project. In content terms it needs the firm’s answers to the questions in this article; technically, a page, a form and a menu entry. We build a website for trade businesses for a fixed price from 1,490 euros net with up to eight pages; the page for property managers can be one of them. For an existing website we state the price for the additional page and the form in the quote beforehand. Ongoing maintenance costs from 49 euros per month, cancellable monthly, with no minimum term; what it includes is listed under maintenance and support. All prices, as of September 2026, are on the pricing page.

The larger part of the work is done by the firm itself: it decides which response times it can keep, which rates go into a framework agreement and who accepts jobs from managers. No agency can take these decisions off your hands. We help put them into a form a manager can take in within a few minutes. The services we offer for this are listed under services; you can arrange a first conversation via contact.