Maintenance reserve - mandatory? From what age of the house?

How should I proceed if no reserves have really been formed? Demand that these be made retroactively? If yes, in what amount?!

You write that the surpluses were reserved. Thus, a reserve was formed. You can only demand regular reserve formation for the future. According to paragraph 21 WEG, it must be appropriate. Whether you make friends with your future neighbors is up to you. By the way, appropriate is flexible.

The right option is to bring this up at the next owners' meeting. In a relatively new building, the expenses are manageable, so it is initially sufficient to save only a little. However, you should start as early as possible. Do the other owners live in the building? If so, I would simply stop by and introduce myself. Say that you are interested in the apartment and want to get to know your potential neighbors beforehand. Then decide based on your feelings whether you want to own a building together with these people.

But if there is a reserve, it must be disclosed. You bought it along with it. Otherwise, I find it funny. What remains. Does that mean that the one who massively overpays their ancillary costs subsidizes the one who underpays?

the house fee was only increased once from €2 to €3 per sqm.

So that was a 50% increase......

everything that is left flows into the reserve fund

...the property management should be able to specify that or have it on a separate account; if necessary, the community could also redistribute this overpayment among themselves or is it stated somewhere that the overpayment automatically goes into the reserve fund? Understandably, they won’t grant you any share of what you haven’t previously paid in.

But in my opinion, this has to be recorded and shown somewhere, right?!

Of course. I wouldn’t expect proper conduct from every property management company.

As I said, the house was only first occupied at the beginning of 2018. What do you think about that?

I did that myself with my three units and we saved costs because of it. Unfortunately, we also took some things a bit lightly and especially neglected the maintenance reserve because one lady mostly complained. Ultimately, no major repair came up but it was always tight or there was always a request from the lady for a delay until suddenly she stopped paying altogether. You may be right then, but having the right and getting the right..... well..... after several lawyer appointments she eventually paid, but all three of us paid the legal fees. It was tough...... simply everything.
Therefore, I would recommend a clear regulation regarding this because with larger repairs, which can happen, one or two suddenly might not have money and then...?
So I wouldn’t see any reason NOT to do it with such a reserve fund.
Maybe you can ask the management how the community feels about it or the current owner.
But I also know people who do it without and there are no problems..... the usual and also safer way is WITH.
Regarding your copy: "equal share." Are the apartments all really the same size??

no, the apartments are not all the same size, that surprised me too. But since mine would be the largest in the building, I have no problem with this rule... ;o

I will follow up on that and contact the administration. Thank you all!

@pagoni2020 no, the apartments are not all the same size, that also surprised me. But since mine would be the largest in the building, I have nothing against this regulation... ;o

Great :D, this doesn’t seem particularly well-prepared to me. Every owner has their percentage share, which is anchored in many places. Not applying this in the area of costs seems like nonsense to me and could eventually cause unrest because people are aware of it. They also calculate...... I’m curious, unfortunately I have often experienced superficiality with property management companies.