arXiv:2509.17710v3 Announce Type: replace Abstract: We derive two forms of conditional a posteriori error estimates for a finite volume scheme approximating the parabolic-elliptic Keller-Segel system. The estimates control the error in the $L^\infty(0,T, L^2(\Omega))$-norm and exhibit linear convergence in the mesh size, as observed in numerical experiments. Crucially, we show that, as long as the condition of the error estimate is satisfied, a weak solution exists. This means, as long as the numerical solution has good properties, we can rigorously infer existence of an exact solution.