In a property management office the phone rarely rings with good news. It rings because water is coming through a third-floor ceiling, because an item on the service charge statement is not understood, because a fitter is standing in front of a locked cellar door, or because an owner wants to know what was actually resolved at the last meeting. Every one of those calls is justified, and every one costs the same quarter of an hour — including the call whose answer has been sitting unchanged on a sheet of paper in the office for weeks. A website changes none of that as long as it consists of a home page, a team page and a contact form. It changes a great deal as soon as it can do three things: take requests in sorted, capture the property and unit reference at the same time, and keep the status of a case visible. This article shows how a property management website guides owners and tenants online, which details from German trade, condominium and tenancy law belong on that site anyway, and how the same site becomes the basis for winning new mandates.
Why the phone is the most expensive interface
A management office with a few hundred units handles several thousand requests over a year.
The bulk of them fall into a manageable number of patterns: report damage, understand a statement, arrange access, look up a resolution, request a certificate. For the caller the phone is the most convenient route, because it demands no preparation. For the office it is the most expensive, because the information arrives unstructured: the caller does not know the unit number, the location of the damage is described rather than shown, the callback number ends up on a slip of paper. Everything that follows starts with a query back.
The stock behind this is large. According to the 2022 Census there were 43.1 million (Federal Statistical Office, 2022 Census) dwellings in residential buildings in Germany. 9.28 million (Federal Statistical Office, 2022 Census) of them are in buildings whose form of ownership is recorded as a community of condominium owners — that is 21.5 percent (Federal Statistical Office, 2022 Census) of the stock. Every one of those communities needs a manager, has to confirm or re-elect that manager at regular intervals, and compares while doing so. Anyone who shows nothing online but a phone number enters that comparison empty-handed.
On top of that comes an expectation carried over from other areas. People who can track a parcel and book an appointment online ask themselves why reporting a dripping radiator requires a phone call during office hours. The answer to that does not have to be software every tenant installs. It can be a website that offers separate routes and asks each of them in a way that lets the office carry on without a query back. How such a service route for existing customers is built in principle is described in Service forms: looking after existing customers online. Property management adds a peculiarity that is rare elsewhere: two groups with different rights use the same site.
Why the property reference decides everything
The three requests that cover almost everything
Anyone who writes down a week of calls usually ends up with three groups. First the damage or fault report: water, heating, lift, lighting, locking system.
Second the question about the statement: an item in the service charge account, an advance payment, an additional charge, a wish to inspect the receipts. Third the appointment question: a tradesperson needs access, a handover is due, a meter reading has been announced. Everything else — certificates, house rules, resolutions, changes of owner — is rarer and can be caught by a fourth, general route.
The mistake in almost every first draft is a single form for everything, with one free-text field and a subject to choose from. That merely shifts the sorting work: instead of happening on the phone it happens while reading the mail. Separate forms cost more once, when they are built, and save permanently afterwards, because each form asks for exactly the fields this request needs — and no more. What a form may ask without losing the visitor is covered in From visit to enquiry: setting up contact forms properly.
- Property: street and number from a list, not as free text
- Unit: flat or unit number, with a note on where it appears on the statement
- Role: owner, tenant, advisory board or third party — it decides the onward route
- Location in the building: flat, staircase, cellar, underground garage, grounds
- Trade or system: plumbing, heating, electrics, lift, locking system, roof
- Urgency in two levels, with an explanation of what counts as an emergency
- One to three photos, because a picture saves the query about what it looks like
- Reachability: phone number and the time window in which someone is at home
Property [select from the managed buildings]
Unit [number as shown on the statement]
Role [owner | tenant | advisory board | third party]
Location [flat | staircase | cellar | garage | grounds]
Trade [plumbing | heating | electrics | lift | locks]
Urgency [fault | immediate danger]
Description [free text, 3 lines visible]
Photos [up to 3 files]
Reachable [phone number + time window]The difference between a free-text field and this skeleton shows up not on the day of the report but four weeks later, when someone wants to know how often the lift stood still this year. Free text cannot be counted. Nine fields can be sorted, and the answer is available for the next owners meeting without any searching.
The unit number test
From intake to case: what happens after sending
A form that triggers an email and nothing else merely moves the problem into the inbox. The route that actually shortens the work has four stations: confirm receipt, assign, pass on, make the status visible.
The first station is the cheapest and has the strongest effect. A confirmation carrying a case number, the reported property and a sentence about when a reply usually arrives prevents the follow-up call the next day.
The fourth station is the one most often missing. Someone who hears nothing for three weeks calls — not out of impatience, but because they do not know whether the report arrived. A status page reachable through a long, unguessable link and knowing three states replaces that call: received, passed to the trade, closed. It needs no login as long as it shows no data from other units and no names of third parties. Why the promised response time matters more than its length is set out in Answering enquiries: response times that secure jobs. And whether all of this needs an app of its own is settled in Do we need an app? What a website already does today.
Case HV-2026-04187
Property [building], unit 07
Reported Living room radiator dripping
Received 24 Sept 2026, 09:12
Reply as a rule within two working days
Status /case/HV-2026-04187-9f3c2aScroll table sideways
| Feature | Call to the office | Report route on the website |
|---|---|---|
| Timing | Only during office hours | Around the clock, processed in office hours |
| Property reference | Asked for, often more than once | Required field before sending |
| Description | Spoken, written down by hand | Text and photo, unchanged in the file |
| Assignment | By hand after the call | Derivable from property, unit and trade |
| Confirmation | A promise made in the call | Number, timestamp, summary |
| Asking about status | Another phone call | Status page via the link from the confirmation |
| Analysis | A tally sheet or nothing at all | Countable per property, trade and month |
| Cover during holidays | The knowledge sits with one person | The case sits in the file, not in someone's head |
The table does not describe a replacement for the phone. Some reports are faster spoken, and some people do not want to write. The point is the distribution: if a share of the routine reports comes through the form, the rest is handled more thoroughly on the phone, because fewer calls arrive at once.
Who is allowed to maintain the site
Two groups, two sets of rights
Owners have rights that a website can satisfy far more cheaply than the post can. Under Section 18 (4) of the German Condominium Act (WEG) every condominium owner may demand inspection of the management records from the community.
The collection of resolutions under Section 24 (7) WEG has to be kept, and the resolutions are to be entered and numbered consecutively. Under Section 28 (4) WEG the manager draws up an asset report after the end of each calendar year, and that report is to be made available to every condominium owner. The meeting itself remains obligatory: under Section 24 (1) WEG the manager convenes it at least once a year (Section 24 (1) WEG), the convocation is made in text form, and the notice period should be at least three weeks (Section 24 (4) WEG) unless there is a case of particular urgency.
Tenants have different rights, and they generate the larger share of the calls. Under Section 556 (3) of the German Civil Code (BGB) the service charge statement is to be communicated to the tenant by the end of the twelfth month (Section 556 (3) BGB) after the end of the accounting period at the latest; objections to the statement are to be communicated to the landlord by the end of the twelfth month after receipt of the statement at the latest. For the receipts, Section 556 (4) BGB applies: the landlord has to grant inspection on request and is entitled to provide the receipts electronically. This is precisely where a website saves postage, appointments and waiting time in the office — provided the form asks for the accounting year and the item instead of offering an empty text box.
Resolutions
The collection of resolutions with consecutive number, date and wording. Anyone who can read it online does not ring the office to ask what was decided about the facade two years ago.
Accounts and plan
Business plan, annual statement and asset report per financial year as PDFs with meaningful file names. The asset report has to be made available to every owner anyway.
Owners meeting
Invitation, agenda, proxy form and afterwards the minutes. The storage location supplements the invitation in text form, it does not replace it.
Open cases
Open damage and commissioned trades per property, without residents' names. The advisory board can see what is being worked on without an interim call.
The line between the open and the protected area is at the same time the line between outward presentation and operations. Publicly you show scope of service, responsibilities, availability and credentials. Protected sits everything that belongs to one particular community. Draw that line cleanly once and you will not have to negotiate it again with every new document.
A management office that posts documents on request pays three times: for the postage, for the search, and for the call that triggered the search.
The page for communities looking for a manager
Changes of manager are foreseeable. Under Section 26 (2) WEG the appointment may be made for a maximum of five years (Section 26 (2) WEG), and for a maximum of three years in the case of the first appointment after condominium ownership has been created. So in every community a decision comes up after five years at the latest, and before that decision people compare. Anyone without a page of their own for that comparison is measured against criteria they did not set. That a page about real estate also has to carry mandatory disclosures is shown by the related case in Estate agent website: showing listings, meeting disclosure duties.
The criteria are set out openly in the law. Anyone who wants to manage the common property of condominium owners, or residential tenancies for third parties, requires a permit from the competent authority under Section 34c (1) sentence 1 no. 4 of the German Trade Regulation Act (GewO). The permit is to be refused if the applicant cannot produce evidence of professional indemnity insurance; under Section 15 (2) of the Estate Agents and Property Developers Ordinance (MaBV) its minimum sum insured is 500,000 euros (Section 15 (2) MaBV) per insured event and 1,000,000 euros (Section 15 (2) MaBV) for all insured events in a year. Under Section 34c (2a) GewO residential property managers are obliged to undertake 20 hours (Section 34c (2a) GewO) of further training within a period of three calendar years; under Section 15b (2) MaBV the evidence of that training is to be kept for three years (Section 15b (2) MaBV) on a durable medium or in digital form.
Scroll table sideways
| Detail | Where it comes from | How it belongs on the site |
|---|---|---|
| Permit under Section 34c GewO | Competent authority at the place of business | With the issuing authority, without the file number in the open area |
| Supervisory authority | Mandatory detail under Section 5 (1) no. 3 DDG | In the imprint, not only on the about page |
| Professional indemnity insurance | Insurance certificate | Name that it exists and the sums insured, without the policy number |
| Further training | Your own records under Section 15b MaBV | State the scope and period, outline the topics |
| Certified manager | Examination before a chamber of industry and commerce | By name per person, with chamber and year |
| Managed portfolio | Your own figures | Order of magnitude and region, no property lists with addresses |
| Scope of service | The management contract | What is included and what is charged separately |
| Contacts | Your own organisation | Function and availability, not just a collective address |
The certified manager deserves a paragraph of its own, because it has become a matter for resolutions. Under Section 26a (1) WEG a person may call themselves a certified manager if they have proved before a chamber of industry and commerce, by way of an examination, that they possess the necessary legal, commercial and technical knowledge. Under Section 3 of the Certified Manager Examination Ordinance (ZertVerwV) the examination consists of a written and an oral part; the written part lasts at least 90 minutes (Section 3 ZertVerwV), and in the oral part at least 15 minutes (Section 3 ZertVerwV) of examination time must fall to each candidate. Under Section 5 (2) ZertVerwV the written part is passed if at least 50 percent (Section 5 (2) ZertVerwV) of the attainable points are achieved in every subject area. And under Section 19 (2) no. 6 WEG appointing a certified manager forms part of proper management, unless the exception named there for communities with fewer than nine units (Section 19 (2) no. 6 WEG) of separate ownership applies. How such credentials are shown without tipping into a certification claim is covered in Trust on the website: seals, master craftsman certificates, reviews; the same task in a different field is shown by Energy consultants: showing credentials and funding fit.
Availability, emergencies and the limit of responsibility
The Sunday-evening water damage is the reason management offices keep an emergency number — and the emergency number is the reason those same offices get Sunday calls about dripping taps.
The line does not run where the caller draws it, but where the law draws it: under Section 27 (1) WEG the manager may take measures of proper management vis-a-vis the community that are of subordinate significance and do not lead to substantial obligations, or that are necessary to observe a deadline or to avert a disadvantage. That is exactly what belongs on the site, in plain words rather than in section numbers. How a different field solves the same demarcation is shown in Veterinary practice: appointments, out-of-hours care and fees explained.
- Distinguish and name two cases: danger to people or to the building fabric on one side, everything else on the other.
- For the first group, name the numbers that do not sit with the management office: fire brigade, ambulance service, network operator for a gas smell, utility for a burst main in the street.
- For the second group, show your own number with clear times and the form as an equally valid route.
- Write three to five examples per group, because nobody reads abstract definitions on a Sunday evening.
- Describe the first steps people can take themselves: main stopcock, fuse box, close the windows, tell the neighbours.
- After every emergency, check whether one sentence on the site would have prevented the call — and add the sentence.
Office hours belong in the same context and are the part of a website that goes stale fastest. Company holidays, a move of the office, a changed phone time on Fridays: each of those changes usually sits in three places and is forgotten in one. How to solve that without maintaining it twice is set out in Keeping opening hours and availability permanently current.
What has no place on a management website
What can be read off after three months
Whether the rebuild was worth it is often answered with a feeling. It becomes readable if you decide beforehand what will be counted. Three months is a usable interval: long enough for existing tenants to know the route, short enough that the memory of the situation before still carries.
- Share of reports arriving through the form rather than the phone — per property, because portfolios differ
- Number of queries back per report before it can be passed to a trade
- Time between intake and the first reply, split by type of request
- Views of the status page per case: many views show interest, absent calls show effect
- Drop-off point in the form: at which field do visitors leave the page
- Enquiries from communities looking for a manager, together with the page they came in through
The last point carries the investment. Report routes save time, new mandates bring revenue. If the page for searching communities has an address of its own, the two can be told apart — and you can see whether the effort put into the credentials has an effect or whether only the report route is being used. Anyone running several offices keeps the figures apart per location as well; the structure for that is described in Several locations: making every branch locally visible.
Mistakes that repeat themselves in this field
Five patterns turn up on property management sites so regularly that they can be ticked off in advance.
- A site addressing owners only, although a large share of the reports comes from tenants
- A login as the only route, so that a simple damage report requires an account
- Service charge questions without a note on the deadline, although the deadline triggers the most frequent query
- Credentials as running text on the about page instead of a section of their own for searching communities
- An imprint without the competent supervisory authority, although the activity requires a permit
The last point is the most annoying, because it is purely formal and can be fixed in a few minutes. Under Section 5 (1) no. 3 of the German Digital Services Act (DDG), where the service is offered or provided as part of an activity requiring official authorisation, details of the competent supervisory authority belong in the imprint. For a management office holding a permit under Section 34c GewO that condition is met. Which other details are mandatory and how they can be kept current is set out in Imprint and privacy policy: mandatory details under control.