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Photo: Hauke Christian Dittrich / dpa
A price for CO₂ emissions has been levied in Germany since 2021 - but so far the levy has not scared landlords.
They were able to pass it on to their tenants, although they have little influence if energy costs are high due to poor insulation or an old heating system.
This shall be changed now.
As early as February, the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Economics had developed a phased model that provides for landlords to share in the costs.
On Sunday, Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens), Building Minister Klara Geywitz (SPD) and Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) announced the final model, which should first go into the cabinet and then into the Bundestag.
But what exactly have the ministries agreed on?
What relief can tenants expect?
Answers to the most important questions.
What was decided?
In most cases, tenants should no longer pay the CO₂ price alone.
Instead, landlords should pay part of the price, depending on how climate-friendly their house is.
This means that the worse the house is insulated and the older the heating or the windows are, for example, the more the tenants are relieved and the landlords asked to pay.
Specifically, ten stages are planned: for apartments with a particularly poor energy balance (with annual emissions of more than 52 kilograms of CO₂ per square meter), the landlords will bear 90 percent and the tenants 10 percent of the CO₂ costs.
In the further stages, the proportion of landlords decreases.
In the case of the most climate-friendly buildings with emissions of less than 12 kilograms of CO₂ per square meter, tenants have to bear the full costs.
The phased model should not apply to shops, office buildings and other houses where no one lives.
Here the costs should be divided equally – unless the tenant and landlord agree otherwise in their contract.
What does the federal government expect from this?
The federal government wants to create several incentives with the phased model: On the one hand, landlords should be motivated to invest in the energy-efficient renovation of their houses.
Because if you replace an old oil heating system with a heat pump, for example, you have to pay less CO₂ tax.
At the same time, tenants in well-insulated apartments should be motivated to save energy.
"If the roof and windows are well insulated, the behavior of the tenants in particular could help save energy and thus reduce heating costs," said Habeck.
How should the regulation be implemented?
Tenants should be able to find out which level their own rental apartment falls into in a relatively uncomplicated way every year with the heating bill.
You shouldn't have any extra work.
However, landlords could face considerable additional work because they have to classify their building themselves.
In addition to the amount of fuel supplied, the fuel supplier will in future be obliged to state the amount of the associated CO₂ emissions in kg CO₂ and the emission factor to be applied to the fuel.
Landlords then have to divide the amount of CO₂ by the total living area of the building in square meters, which results in the corresponding level.
How high should the savings for tenants be?
The tenants' association assumes that a model household in an unrenovated apartment has so far incurred additional costs of up to 130 euros a year for gas and 190 euros for heating oil due to the CO₂ tax.
By 2025, they will even rise to 238 euros for gas and 350 euros for heating oil.
According to calculations by the comparison portal Check24, tenants using 20,000 kWh of gas could save up to 150 euros a year.
With a CO₂ price of EUR 35 per tonne, tenants would currently have to pay the full CO₂ tax of EUR 166.60.
If the house is particularly badly renovated, they only have to pay ten percent, i.e. 16.66 euros, for the CO₂ tax with the same consumption.
By 2025, the CO₂ price will gradually rise to 55 euros per tonne.
Tenants with gas heating would then have to pay 261.80 euros for a consumption of 20,000 kWh.
In inefficient buildings, tenants are then relieved of almost 236 euros and only pay 26.18 euros.
Since the burning of heating oil produces more CO₂ emissions than gas, the costs for tenants are also higher.
According to Check24, with a consumption of 20,000 kWh (corresponds to approx. 2,000 liters of heating oil), tenants currently have to pay 220.70 euros, and in the poorly renovated house only 22.07 euros in the future.
However, the costs for tenants can also increase.
For example, when the landlord decides to invest in the energetic renovation of their houses.
Because landlords can currently pass on the costs of such modernization to their tenants.
For some tenants there is a risk that they will have to pay for the modernization in addition to their share of the CO₂ price.
What are the criticisms of the new regulation?
The German Tenants' Association (DMB) complains that the new rules should only apply from January 1, 2023.
"It shows little tact that tenants have to continue paying the full CO₂ price in the year in which heating costs are exploding," says Lukas Siebenkotten, President of the German Tenants' Association.
»It would have been the task of the government to relieve the tenants at this point by the middle of the year at the latest - as described in the coalition agreement - better still from the beginning of 2022, since the tenants had already had to bear the price alone.«
Siebenkotten considers it a mistake that those who live in poorly renovated buildings and who can do little to change their consumption should continue to bear additional costs.
»In any case, those who have little money often live in these buildings.
Leaving the tenants alone there is incomprehensible.«
The Haus & Grund owners' association considers the entire model to be unfair.
"It is and remains a bad solution for social and climate policy reasons, which we reject," says Haus & Grund President Kai Warnecke.
Instead, the association proposes paying low-income tenants per capita climate money from the CO₂ income.
»Low-income tenants and owner-occupiers would be relieved most effectively in this way and the CO₂ price could take full effect.
The traffic light compromise destroys both,” said Warnecke.
He also pointed out that landlords could not just install a new heating system.
Apart from the money, technical solutions were often lacking, for example in old buildings in inner cities.
In addition, there is a lack of energy consultants and installers.
With material from the news agencies