Final demand for payment before a court payment order (Germany)
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This document is in German
The PDF you download is in German — that is the language it has to be filed in, so it is not translated. Everything on this page is here to tell you what it says.
The last reminder to a debtor who has not paid, before you start the German court payment-order procedure (Mahnverfahren): the sum outstanding, the due date, default, default interest under § 288 of the German Civil Code (BGB) — five or nine points above the base rate, with the €40 flat fee only from business debtors — a final deadline, your account and notice of the payment order. Laid out as a German business letter (DIN 5008), in German, for private and business creditors. No set form; the answers below explain proof of receipt and the application that follows.
What you fill in
The details the document asks for.
- Creditor
- Creditor's address
- Debtor
- Debtor's postal address (street and number, postcode and town)
- City
- Date
- Document proving the debt (e.g. loan agreement of …)
- Amount due
- Due date
- Rate of default interest
- Payment deadline
- IBAN
- Attachments
Preview
This document is produced for you. Your answers are typed into it and the finished PDF is yours to keep.
Common questions
- Is a reminder needed to put a debtor in Germany in default?
- Not always. If a calendar date was agreed, such as 'by 30 September 2026', the debtor is in default from the next day without any reminder (§ 286(2) no. 1 BGB). With an invoice, default begins at the latest 30 days after it fell due and arrived — but against a consumer only if the invoice said so (§ 286(3) BGB). In every other case it is the reminder that puts the debtor in default. A final demand is worth sending anyway: it sets a clear deadline and announces the next step.
- How much default interest can be charged in Germany, and when is the €40 flat fee due?
- Default interest is five percentage points above the base rate (§ 288(1) BGB); for payment claims from a transaction with no consumer involved, nine points (§ 288(2) BGB). The base rate has been 1.52 % since 1 July 2026, so default interest is 6.52 % or 10.52 % a year; the base rate changes on 1 January and 1 July. The €40 flat fee is owed only by a debtor who is not a consumer (§ 288(5) BGB). Choose in the form what fits your case.
- How do I apply for a German payment order (Mahnbescheid) after the final demand?
- The application goes to the court itself: you fill it in free of charge on the Länder's portal online-mahnantrag.de and file it either as a printout with a barcode by post or electronically. The court is the central payment-order court of the Land where you live or have your seat (§ 689(2) ZPO). The court fee is half a fee, at least €38. The debtor has two weeks to object. Service of the payment order stops the limitation clock (§ 204(1) no. 3 BGB); the final demand itself does not.
- Which central payment-order court serves each German Land?
- Baden-Württemberg: AG Stuttgart; Bavaria: AG Coburg; Berlin and Brandenburg: AG Wedding; Bremen: AG Bremen; Hamburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: AG Hamburg; Hesse: AG Hünfeld; Lower Saxony: AG Uelzen; North Rhine-Westphalia: AG Hagen, and AG Euskirchen for the Cologne court district; Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland: AG Mayen; Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia: AG Aschersleben; Schleswig-Holstein: AG Schleswig (AG stands for local court). What counts is where you live or have your seat, not where the debtor does. If you have no residence or seat in Germany, AG Wedding in Berlin has exclusive jurisdiction (§ 689(2), second sentence, ZPO).
- How should a final demand be sent in Germany so that receipt can be proved?
- A final demand needs no particular form; a letter or an e-mail will do. But it takes effect only when it reaches the debtor (§ 130 BGB), and in a dispute you must prove that. According to the Federal Labour Court, the tracking status of a registered letter dropped in the letterbox (Einwurf-Einschreiben) does not prove receipt (BAG, 30 January 2025, 2 AZR 68/24). The safe route is a messenger who reads the letter, witnesses it going into the letterbox and notes the date and time; if you post it, also request the delivery record (Auslieferungsbeleg).
How you can sign this document
- Print it and sign by hand. The signature lines in the document are left blank on purpose — sign on them in ink.
- Sign it yourself with a qualified electronic signature. If you already hold a QES — Evrotrust, B-Trust, StampIT, ZealiD or any qualified provider on the EU Trusted List, on a card, a USB token, in a mobile app or in the cloud — our signing guide explains step by step how to sign this exact file without invalidating it. Step-by-step help, and a way to check it worked
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