New regulation on heating costs: Landlords can bear up to 90 percent of the costs

Created: 01/14/2023 13:01

By: Linus Prien

Landlords will have to pay more for fossil heating forms in the future (symbol image).

© IMAGO/ MiS

If you heat with fossil fuels, you should offset CO₂ emissions.

A regulation that exists wide.

What should change, however, is who pays: the landlord - up to 90 percent of the costs.

Berlin - Heating with fossil fuels, such as oil or gas, has been subject to the so-called CO₂ price since 2021.

The following applies: if you use more fuel, you also have to pay more for it.

Owners currently pay the fee directly with the heating costs to the supplier.

The costs are then passed on to the tenant with the utility bill.

With the beginning of the new year, landlords can no longer always pass the CO₂ price on to their tenants in full.

This is only possible if your property meets particularly high energy standards (EH 55).

The poorer the energy quality of the building, the higher the share of costs that landlords have to bear - up to 90 percent.

This applies to billing periods from January 1, 2023.

Heating with fossil fuels: This is how Germany heats

This new regulation will affect many people in Germany.

According to the Federal Ministry of Economics, “48.2 percent of the 40.6 million apartments in Germany use natural gas as an energy source.

That's 19.6 million homes." The second most popular type of heating, it continues, is also fossil fuel: "Heating with oil comes in second place - for example for central heating and oil stoves.

Around a quarter (25.6%) and thus 10.4 million of all German apartments are heated in this way.” The data for the previous classification is from 2019, but it can be assumed that there have been no significant changes in the meantime.

Heating with oil and gas: Landlords must state specific CO₂ emissions

According to the new regulation, landlords must state the specific CO₂ emissions of their building in kilograms of carbon dioxide per square meter of living space on the annual heating bill: “This value is then used to classify one of ten levels that determine which party has which share of the CO₂ costs has to bear,” says Florian Munder, energy expert at the Federation of Consumer Organizations.

Heating with oil and gas heaters: Tenants may ask the landlord to inspect the receipt

Tenants can check whether the landlord has made the classification correctly by comparing it with the level model of the Federal Ministry of Economics.

If you want to check whether the specific CO₂ emissions have been calculated correctly at all, you can request an inspection of the receipt from your landlord.

"The energy supply companies are obliged to provide the necessary information on the CO₂ value of their delivery in their invoices," says Munder.

Dividing the total CO₂ value by the living area of ​​the building gives the specific CO₂ emissions.