Currently, landlords must guarantee tenants a minimum temperature of 20 to 22 degrees. Because of the gas shortage, the housing industry is proposing to lower the requirement. The building minister disagrees.
Russia has drastically reduced gas supplies to Germany – and the first voices are calling for the minimum temperature to which landlords have to heat their apartments to be lowered. Currently, landlords have to guarantee a minimum temperature of 20 to 22 degrees Celsius in winter. The Federal Association of German housing and real estate companies (GdW) and the Federal Network Agency had suggested changing the specification. This could mean that many people’s homes will be cooler in the future.
But now there is objection from the Federal Government by Minister of Construction Klara Geywitz (SPD). “I think legally prescribed freezing is nonsensical,” said Geywitz of the German Press Agency in Berlin. The President of the Federal Network Agency, Klaus Müller, had proposed lowering the heating requirements. Landlords should no longer have to turn up the heating system to at least 20 to 22 degrees during the heating period, but the specifications could drop at times, according to Müller’s suggestion.
The Federal Association of German Housing and Real Estate Companies (GdW) also joined the demand and suggested reducing the minimum temperature in the apartments by up to six degrees Celsius: “Should gas deliveries to Germany be further restricted significantly in the future and there should be a shortage, the legal framework should be adjusted so that further reductions in the minimum temperature to a maximum lower limit of 18 degrees during the day and 16 degrees at night are possible,” GdW President Axel Gedaschko told the newspapers of the Funke media group.
Anything below 20 degrees can be hazardous to health, says Geywitz
Geywitz responds to the advances: “The case law stipulates a minimum of 20 degrees.” Anything below that could even be a health hazard and was also not thought of enough in terms of building technology. The debate leads nowhere, because with an amendment to the heating cost ordinance at the beginning of January, monthly information about consumption would be sent to tenants. “So you can check your consumption regularly and are doing so more and more just because of the prices,” said Geywitz.
The existing practical information from consumer centers and the federal government made more sense than a falling minimum temperature. “On the other hand, we also have to knock on the door of those who keep an eye on the heating systems, such as the caretaker,” said Geywitz. The minister announced: “We will provide something together with the housing industry.”