Water, heating and other general costs related to the apartment (e.g. garbage disposal, service charges, building insurance and taxes) are included in the ‘warm’ rent as agreed in the rental agreement. They are prepaid as part of the monthly rent at a fixed rate, which is mentioned in the rental agreement. Once a year the heat cost allocators on the radiators (or heat meters), along with the water and electricity meters, are being read and the actual heat and water usage of each household is calculated. According to the resulting annual bills that you will receive by your landlord and electricity company, any difference between the pre-paid lump sums and your actual usage will either be refunded (if you overpaid) by the owner or the respective company or, on the other hand, you will be charged the difference (if you underpaid and used more)