Owner Reporting for a Rented Apartment in Belgrade: What Belongs in the Report

If you rent out an apartment in Belgrade from Germany, Austria, Switzerland or elsewhere, you rarely see it in person. What you know about your property comes almost entirely from your management company's report. The report is therefore not a formality but your only tool for oversight: it shows whether the rent arrives on time, whether the utility bills are paid, what was repaired and what it cost. It is also the basis for two tax returns, the Serbian one and the one in your home country.

Many owners still receive only a short message with a figure, or a table in Serbian they cannot check. This article describes what a good owner report for a Belgrade apartment should contain, at what rhythm it makes sense, how a monthly report can be structured in practice, and which warning signs point to poor reporting. What a management company should deliver overall is covered in our checklist for a good property management company. Here we focus only on the report itself.

Owner reporting for a Belgrade apartment: the seven building blocks

A complete report answers seven questions. Not every one carries equal weight every month, but none should be missing for long.

1. Rent received: what came in, and when?

The core of every report is the rent received, with date, amount and payment method. In Serbia, rents are often agreed in euros but paid in dinars (RSD). The report should therefore show both amounts and state the exchange rate used, together with its date, usually the midpoint rate of the National Bank of Serbia (NBS). Without the rate, you cannot follow why the amount paid out to you varies from month to month.

Rent reporting also includes the deposit. It should be shown in the first report after the lease begins and at least once a year afterwards, with the amount and where it is held.

2. Utility bills: is everything paid?

In Belgrade, the main utility charges run through the shared Infostan bill. This bill covers, among other things, district heating, water and sewage, maintenance of the building and, where applicable, the lift, cleaning of the entrance, and waste collection. Electricity is billed separately by the supplier EPS. Even if the tenant pays these bills directly, the report should still confirm that they have been settled, ideally with a copy or photo of the paid bill.

The reason is simple: unpaid balances stay attached to the apartment and often only surface when a tenant moves out. District heating in Belgrade is billed by floor area and is due even outside the heating season. A report that mentions Infostan only in winter is incomplete. How utility costs are regulated in the lease is covered in our article Utility Bills in Serbia: How the System Works.

3. Repairs and expenses: with a receipt, not a round figure

Every expense paid from your money belongs in the report with date, description, tradesperson and amount, and every expense needs a receipt. In Serbia, traders and many service providers are subject to fiscalisation. A fiscal receipt (fiskalni račun) carries a QR code that anyone can use to check, in the tax administration's (Poreska uprava) system, whether the receipt is actually recorded there. Tradespeople registered as entrepreneurs issue an invoice. A handwritten note or a figure in a chat message is not a receipt.

For larger jobs, the report should also show who approved the work and whether more than one quote was obtained. The threshold above which your approval is required should be agreed in the management contract.

4. Vacancy and tenant turnover

If the apartment is empty, the report should show what is happening: how long it has been vacant, where it is listed, at what price, how many enquiries and viewings there have been, and what feedback prospective tenants gave. After two to three months without a tenant, you need a recommendation on whether price, furnishing or photos should be adjusted. When a tenant changes, the handover record, meter readings and the deposit settlement belong in the report.

5. Condition of the apartment, with photos

At least once a year, and ideally at every handover, the manager should walk through the apartment and document it with dated photos: bathroom, kitchen, windows, walls, floors, appliances, meter readings. Issues such as damp, cracks or damage to the flooring belong in a short written note with an assessment. Without these photos, you have no basis if a dispute over the deposit arises.

6. The building community

Decisions made in the building affect your costs. The report should summarise resolutions of the building community (stambena zajednica), planned special levies, works on the building and announcements from the building manager (upravnik), in your language and with a note on whether you need to decide anything. A special levy for the roof, façade or lift in particular is something you should know about weeks in advance, not only once the payment request arrives.

7. Tax documentation for Serbia and your home country

Rental income from a Serbian apartment is taxed in Serbia. If you let as a private person to a private person for more than 30 days, Serbian tax rules require you to calculate the tax yourself and declare and pay it within 30 days of receiving the rent, using form PP OPO. The tax is 20 percent on the gross rent after deducting a flat 25 percent for costs. If your manager or accountant handles this filing for you, every monthly report should confirm that it has been declared and paid, with proof of payment.

For your home-country tax return, you need the year's rental income and costs in a form your accountant can work with directly. How the two tax systems interact under the double taxation treaty is explained in Avoiding Double Taxation on Rental Income Between Germany and Serbia. For reporting, that means the Serbian tax records must be complete, dated and understandable for your accountant at home.

Example: a monthly report for a Belgrade apartment owner

The table below shows one possible structure for a rented apartment in Belgrade. All amounts are example figures for illustration, not market data and not the pricing of any particular management company.

Below the table, a short note ideally follows: what happened during the month, what is coming up, and whether you need to decide anything. Receipts sit in a shared folder, sorted by month, labelled the same way as the line in the report.

Reporting rhythm: month, quarter, year and immediate notice

Not everything needs to come in detail every month. A rhythm of four levels works well.

For owners abroad, the annual overview is the single most important document. It should structure income and costs so your accountant can use them without follow-up questions: rental income, maintenance, management fees, insurance, charges, Serbian taxes paid. Clarify with your accountant which structure and which exchange rate should be used for your home-country return, and pass that requirement on to your management company. Exgentum is not a tax adviser. The tax assessment stays with your adviser; the report provides them with the figures.

Formats: what actually works

A good report is short to read and fully documented. A combination of three parts has proven effective.

• A PDF report with a table and a short note, in your language. It can be archived and forwarded easily.
• A receipts folder in the cloud, sorted by year and month, holding the Serbian originals. For important documents, such as tax assessments or building community resolutions, a short summary in your language helps.
• A spreadsheet export (Excel or CSV) for your accountant, so nobody has to retype figures.

Messengers such as WhatsApp or Viber are useful for immediate notices, but they do not replace a report. What only exists in a chat is hard to find again a year later.

Warning signs: how to spot poor reporting

Most problems with a management company announce themselves in the report, long before they become expensive. Watch for these patterns:

1. Amounts without receipts. Repairs show up as round figures, and receipts come "later" or never.
2. The report does not match the bank statement. The payout differs from the calculated balance, and nobody explains the gap.
3. No exchange rate. The rent amount in euros varies without the rate and date ever being stated.
4. Utility bills never appear. Nobody confirms that Infostan and electricity are paid, until an unpaid balance turns up at move-out.
5. No photos over the years. You only know the condition of your apartment from descriptions.
6. An irregular rhythm. Reports arrive after two weeks sometimes, after two months other times, usually only after you ask.
7. Serbian tax left unclear. There is no clear answer and no proof of payment when you ask who files the rental tax.
8. Hard-to-understand language. The report is visibly machine-translated, and technical terms are wrong or missing.

A single signal is not yet proof of a problem. If several appear together, you should request a full statement with all receipts for the last twelve months.

Put reporting in the contract

What is not written into the management contract is hard to enforce later. Before you start, agree in writing: the report's language, its rhythm and deadline, the content of monthly and annual reports, how receipts are filed, the threshold above which repairs need your approval, the deadline for immediate notices, and who files the Serbian tax return. Ask for an anonymised sample report before signing. It will tell you more about how a management company actually works than any conversation. How to test a provider's language quality in everyday practice is covered in Rental Management in Belgrade with a German-Speaking Contact.

How Exgentum helps

Exgentum manages apartments for German-speaking owners in Belgrade. We agree the format and rhythm of your report with you before we start, including the structure your accountant needs for the annual overview. Your contact speaks German or English. We do not provide tax advice. For the Serbian filing, you work with a bookkeeper or tax adviser in Serbia, and for your home-country return, with your own adviser there. We make sure both receive the figures and receipts in full.

Frequently asked questions

How often should I receive a report on my Belgrade apartment?

Monthly for rent received, expenses and tax, and once a year as an overview for your tax return. Damage, late payment and official mail should be reported immediately, not only in the next regular report.

Does the report have to be in German or English?

Not legally, but in practice yes, if you want to check the figures yourself and pass them to your own accountant. The original Serbian receipts stay in Serbian. What matters is an understandable summary alongside them.

Which receipts do I need for my home-country tax return?

Your accountant decides that. As a rule, it is the rent received, the receipts for deductible costs, and proof of the tax paid in Serbia. The more complete the annual overview, the fewer follow-up questions arise.

Is it enough if my management company just transfers the net amount?

No. Without a breakdown, you do not know which costs were deducted, whether the Serbian tax has been paid, or whether utility bills are outstanding. The net amount is the result of the report, not a substitute for it.

Conclusion

A good owner report for a Belgrade apartment shows, every month, rent received with the exchange rate, documented expenses, the status of Infostan and electricity, the Serbian rental tax, and anything happening in the building. Once a year, it summarises the figures so your accountant at home can use them directly. Agree the content, rhythm and format in your contract, ask to see a sample report, and check the first reports against your bank statement. If you are looking for a management company that reports this way, get in touch with us.