Below we have listed some decisions of German courts for you, according to Detective costs for companies and individuals can be deductible or recoverable. The court decisions are only for general information and not legal advice dar.
In order to inform you any further and to consult, we ask you to consult a lawyer.

Basically, the courts provide in matters relating to reimbursement from the fact that the use of the detective agency was necessary and proportionate, or whether there were also simpler, more reasonable methods.

First, the cost to determine the detective be borne by the buyer himself. In many cases, reimbursement by convicted persons in accordance with Code of Civil Procedure is possible.
Some examples on reimbursement, see below (subject to mistakes).


According to § 91 para 1 sentence ZPO (Civil processor extension), the unsuccessful party to pay the opponent's legal costs, where these for appropriate legal action or defense was necessary. This also applies to detective, to the extent they are necessary and likely to improve the procedural position. In sec. § 823 BGB can be claimed detective costs in an action for damages, insofar as these have led to the clarification of an accident.

This means that the cost of using a detective agency, up to the amount recoverable, in their use of type and scope was justified.


Detective costs are recoverable where the measures taken by the responsible detective findings were gain to the circumstances of the case need not otherwise simple, which is made credible by presenting the investigation report and detailed billing. The direct process-related findings of the detective agency must also procedural position of the client have changed advantageous.
OLG München, 11 W1592/93 of 18/06/1993


If the client is a detective, a trader or freelancer, it is usually the account of one detective deductible as a business expense.
Tax Court of Hesse, AZ 8 K 3370/88, EFG. 89, p. 576


Litigation detective costs are eligible if the intervention is a detective agency directly related to a specific case and the assignment of a detective, viewed objectively from the perspective of the party to keep a dispute - in terms of a court, appropriate prosecution or defense - necessary for the purposes of § 91, para 1 CCP was.
OLG Koblenz, AZ 14NW 671/90


In summary it can be said that when hiring a detective agency cost issue very often in the foreground. The decision to use a detective falls many clients easier, the more likely it is that the opposing party has to take the detective costs. Many court decisions show that it always depends on the individual case and the legal support from a qualified lawyer.