> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://help.immodio.app/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://help.immodio.app/en/anleitung/einnahmen-und-ausgaben/buchhaltung-erweiterung/kosten-fur-erbbauzins-erbzins-erbbaurecht-erbpacht.md). # Costs for ground rent and heritable building rights
You use this category for **ground rent paid on an ongoing basis** where your let building or your let apartment is on land that does **not belong to you** but over which a **heritable building right** exists in your favour. The ground rent is the charge payable regularly for being allowed, as the **holder of the heritable building right**, to use the third party's land on the basis of that right. Section 1 ErbbauRG defines the heritable building right as the transferable and inheritable right to have a structure on or under the surface of a third party's land. Where a charge in recurring payments is agreed for it, the law expressly calls that charge **ground rent**. In everyday language the following terms are also partly used for it: * **heritable rent** * **long lease** * **long lease rent** . For this category, however, what is meant in particular is the **ground rent paid on an ongoing basis under an existing heritable building right**. **A typical case: a building on third-party land** With an ordinary property purchase you regularly acquire: * **the land** * and the **building** With a heritable building right the situation is as a rule different: you can, for example, be the owner or holder of the heritable building right over a building even though the **land beneath it belongs to another owner**. For the use of that third-party land you pay the landowner the agreed **ground rent**. **Example** You acquire a let detached house standing on land subject to a heritable building right. The land continues to belong to a local authority. For the heritable building right you pay each year: **€3,600 in ground rent** The building is let in full. You then post the **€3,600** paid each year to the category: **"**[**Costs for ground rent, heritable building rights and long leases**](/en/anleitung/einnahmen-und-ausgaben/buchhaltung-erweiterung/kosten-fur-erbbauzins-erbzins-erbbaurecht-erbpacht.md)**"**. #### **Ground rent is in principle a running charge for use** {% hint style="info" %} The running ground rent is in principle not an acquisition of the land and not part of the building's acquisition costs either. {% endhint %} The Federal Fiscal Court treats the ground rent as a **charge for the use of the land** and not as acquisition costs of the heritable building right. With a let property the running ground rent can therefore in principle be taken into account as income-related expenditure for income from letting and leasing. That distinguishes the ground rent, for example, from: * the purchase price of a building, * the purchase price of an existing heritable building right, * incidental acquisition costs, * or the production costs of a building. **Example: running ground rent** Annual ground rent: **€4,800** The building is let exclusively. The **€4,800** is in principle a running charge for the use of the land. It is therefore **not** split, for example: * **20% to land** * and **80% to the building** . Such a purchase price split is **not required** with running ground rent. #### **Do not confuse ground rent with a lease** Immodio additionally has the category **"**[**Lease of immovable assets (for example arable land, a garden)**](/en/anleitung/einnahmen-und-ausgaben/buchhaltung-erweiterung/10098600-pacht-fuer-unbewegliche-wirtschaftsgueter-z-b-ackerland-garten.md)**".** Ground rent and an ordinary lease of land are, however, **not** the same thing. With a heritable building right there is a **right in rem, transferable and inheritable**, to have a structure on or under third-party land. With an ordinary lease, by contrast, there is in principle a contractual lease agreement under which the lessee is permitted to use the leased item and to take its fruits. The following therefore applies in principle: * **a heritable building right + running ground rent** → **"**[**Costs for ground rent, heritable building rights and long leases**](/en/anleitung/einnahmen-und-ausgaben/buchhaltung-erweiterung/kosten-fur-erbbauzins-erbzins-erbbaurecht-erbpacht.md)**"** * **an ordinary lease agreement** → **"**[**Lease of immovable assets (for example arable land, a garden)**](/en/anleitung/einnahmen-und-ausgaben/buchhaltung-erweiterung/10098600-pacht-fuer-unbewegliche-wirtschaftsgueter-z-b-ackerland-garten.md)**"** * **an ordinary rental agreement for land or rooms** → **"**[**Rent for immovable assets**](/en/anleitung/einnahmen-und-ausgaben/buchhaltung-erweiterung/10089300-miete-fuer-unbewegliche-wirtschaftsgueter.md)**"** The term **"long lease"** sometimes used in everyday language should therefore not lead to a genuine ground rent being posted to the ordinary lease category. #### **Partial private use** Where the building on the land subject to the heritable building right is not let exclusively, the ground rent may in principle only be attributed to the letting activity to the extent that there is an economic connection with your rental income. **Example** Annual ground rent: **€5,000** The building is used: * **80% let** * **20% privately** In principle **€5,000 × 80% = €4,000** then relates to the letting activity and can be posted to the **"**[**Costs for ground rent, heritable building rights and long leases**](/en/anleitung/einnahmen-und-ausgaben/buchhaltung-erweiterung/kosten-fur-erbbauzins-erbzins-erbbaurecht-erbpacht.md)**"** category. The remaining **€1,000** concerns the private use and does **not** belong to the income-related expenditure of your letting activity. #### **A special feature: ground rent for more than five years in advance** An important exception exists where the ground rent is not paid on an ongoing basis but for a **very long period in advance**. Where expenditure for a grant of use of **more than five years is paid in advance**, it has under Section 11 (2) EStG in principle to be spread evenly over the period for which the advance payment was made. **Example: ground rent for ten years in advance** For the use of the land subject to the heritable building right you pay once: **€30,000** The amount covers the ground rent for **10 years** in full in advance. The **€30,000** may then **not** be taken into account in full as running expenditure of the year of payment. Spread evenly, the result is **€30,000 ÷ 10 years = €3,000** a year, which is posted annually or converted to monthly amounts to the **"**[**Costs for ground rent, heritable building rights and long leases**](/en/anleitung/einnahmen-und-ausgaben/buchhaltung-erweiterung/kosten-fur-erbbauzins-erbzins-erbbaurecht-erbpacht.md)**"** category. #### **Adjusting the ground rent** Heritable building right agreements can contain provisions under which the ground rent can be adjusted during the term of the contract. With a heritable building right whose structure serves residential purposes, Section 9a ErbbauRG contains special limits on such increases. An increase may in particular only be demanded as far as it is not inequitable taking the circumstances of the individual case into account. A claim for an increase may in principle be asserted at the earliest **three years after the contract was concluded or three years after the last increase**. The following applies to the entry in Immodio: Where the ground rent has been effectively adjusted, for example from **€3,600 a year** to **€3,900 a year**, post the new ground rent actually owed and paid **from the relevant date**. #### **Ground rent is in principle not a recoverable operating cost item** The running payment of the ground rent is admittedly a regular expense of the holder of the heritable building right. That does **not automatically make it a recoverable operating cost of the residential tenant**, however. The Operating Costs Ordinance defines the recoverable operating costs and lists their typical types of cost in Section 2 BetrKV. The ground rent itself does not belong to that catalogue of operating costs. ([gesetze-im-internet.de](https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/betrkv/__1.html)) That is to be distinguished from other costs of the land subject to the heritable building right. For example, **property tax** can in principle be a recoverable operating cost item where the requirements in the rental agreement are met. The **ground rent itself**, by contrast, remains a cost item of the holder of the heritable building right. #### **Assignment in Immodio** With this category the assignment is to the **owner or to the property or unit.** Select the owner who actually bears the ground rent economically, or the property or the unit for which the long lease charge arises. #### **Do not recover from the tenant** The ground rent is not an ordinary recoverable operating cost item of a residential tenancy. The **"Recoverable in the operating cost statement" switch therefore has to stay disabled**. #### **For your records** Keep in particular: * the heritable building right agreement, * addenda and agreements on ground rent adjustments, * proof of payment, * where applicable, WEG or manager's statements, * and with mixed use, documentation of the cost split used permanently. That keeps it comprehensible in particular which payments are actually **running ground rent** and which amounts arising from the same contractual or land-related context have to be assigned to a different category for tax.