Prices of Our Düsseldorf Detective Agency

The Aaden Detectives Düsseldorf are qualified professional investigators with many years of experience in the fields of commercial and private investigations. Most of our operatives have careers in public authorities behind them, including the police, criminal investigation departments, or intelligence services, and therefore possess exceptional expertise. We place these qualities at the service of our clients with maximum motivation and are equally committed to presenting you with a fair fee model.

Below you will find an overview of the costs of our basic services. Our detective agency fundamentally refrains from charging hidden additional fees. Information on fees for flat-rate investigations (for example vehicle owner identifications, address investigations, and others) is available upon request, as these flat rates are always based on the individually calculated effort required.

The Fees in Detail

• Initial assignment fee                                   96,00 €

• Hourly rate per investigator deployed          94,00 €

• Mileage rate per kilometer driven                   1,50 €

All prices are gross (including statutory VAT) for private individuals and net for clients subject to value-added tax.

Mileage is calculated either from our base in Düsseldorf or, for more distant areas of operation, by individual agreement at favorable rates, which we can offer thanks to our network of qualified local professional investigators.

The hourly fee is billed fairly in 15-minute increments.

Included Services

At Aaden Commercial Detective Agency GmbH, no additional fees apply; therefore, our fees include, among other things:

• Costs for the initial consultation and assignment discussion
• Costs for the provision of video and photographic material
• Telephone costs (excluding international calls)
• Costs for the provision of the necessary standard investigative equipment (excluding surveillance vans, video surveillance systems, and GPS trackers)
• Postage costs (excluding express deliveries and international shipments)

No surcharges—common elsewhere—are applied for the following factors:

• Flat-rate expenses
• Meal costs
• Night operations
• Weekend operations
• Public holiday operations (excluding Christmas, New Year’s Eve, and New Year’s Day)

Free and Non-Binding Initial Consultation

As the saying goes, asking questions costs nothing—and at Aaden Commercial Detective Agency GmbH, this saying is a lived reality. Our professional detectives are happy to advise you on any legitimate matter free of charge and without obligation—by phone (+49 211 9874 011-0), via email (info@aaden-detektive-duesseldorf.de), and/or in person at our office, at your home or company, or at a neutral location.

Reimbursability of Detective Costs

If detective operations serve to clarify a legally relevant matter and this matter could not be resolved by less intrusive means—which can generally be assumed when commissioning a detective agency—the resulting costs are reimbursable. This means, for example, that an employer harmed by continued wage payment fraud can recover the detective costs incurred in the court-admissible clarification of the fraud case from the employee responsible for the costs. The same applies to a mother who commissions detectives to prove that the father has violated his duty of care in supervising their shared child.

As a rule of thumb: the party responsible bears the costs. In court practice, this legal view is upheld with few exceptions. Accordingly, our clients must initially settle the invoices issued by us themselves, but they are often reimbursed the amount afterward by the party responsible for the costs.

Among the various rulings that declare detective costs to be reimbursable as out-of-court party expenses, provided they were necessary for legal prosecution or defense pursuant to Section 91 (1) of the German Code of Civil Procedure (ZPO), are, among others, case reference 14 NW 671/90 of the Higher Regional Court of Koblenz, case reference 8 WF 96/88 of the Higher Regional Court of Stuttgart (maintenance dispute), case reference 13 T 97/99 of the Regional Court of Cologne (tenancy dispute), case reference W 1234/76 of the Higher Regional Court of Munich, and many more.

Especially of Interest for Companies:

"If the client of a detective agency is a business owner or a self-employed professional, the invoice of a detective agency is generally deductible as a business expense." (Hesse Finance Court, case reference 8 K 3370/88, EFG. 89, p. 576)