If tenants have to pay thousands of euros for heating, this can also be due to an intermediary service provider – the so-called heat contracting. More and more people affected are refusing to pay.
The tenants of prefabricated apartments on Bernhard-Kellermann-Strasse in Magdeburg are expected to pay thousands of euros in additional costs for their heating costs alone. Although they reduced their consumption by 33 percent, costs increased by 250 percent. Isabell Michel is one of those affected. The geriatric nurse lives in a 48 square meter apartment.
Although she only heated the living room, according to the bill, she incurred 3,227 euros more in heating costs for 2022 than she paid in advance. Your rent should therefore rise from 495 to 690 euros. “That’s crazy. I’ve actually been thinking about moving out of here and looking for a one-room apartment.” A young family in the neighboring house is even supposed to pay 5,100 euros for a 57 square meter apartment.
Financially attractive – for the landlord
One factor that is driving up heating costs, according to legal advisor Zakaria Said from the Magdeburg Tenants’ Association, is the heat supply contract that the landlord has concluded with a company called G & E Gedec Holding GmbH. The apartments are actually supplied with their own gas heating in the basement. However, the landlord has commissioned an external company to manage the heating system. This is called heat contracting.
The person responsible, the contractor, takes care of everything related to the heating system; he maintains the system, carries out repairs or replaces them. This is financially attractive for the landlord: he no longer has to finance the costs for this service himself, but these are passed on to the tenant via the heat price.
“It would certainly be cheaper if there wasn’t a third party involved who has to make a profit from the heating system in order for it to be worthwhile for them. In this case, the tenants pay 100 percent. The tenant is clearly the stupid one here “says legal advisor Said. At least the tenants must be informed about a contracting agreement in accordance with the German Civil Code (BGB). “The landlord must announce the change in text form at least three months in advance,” says the BGB.
A gas boiler becomes expensive district heating
Another reason for the price explosion: Heat contracting is subject to the District Heating Ordinance, even if, as in the Magdeburg case, it is technically a gas system. This means that tenants here do not pay gas, but rather a so-called heat price. This consists of a basic price and a work price. In the case of Magdeburg, the labor price was particularly high: in the 4th quarter of 2022 it was almost 62 cents per kilowatt hour. That was a peak value.
This price apparently does not reflect the actual procurement costs, but is calculated using complicated formulas that are not transparent to laypeople. Max Hengstenberg from the energy consulting firm Senercon analyzed the Magdeburg price formula. According to the expert, a market value from the gas market is included in this. “This then ensures that prices literally explode. The supplier certainly did not buy its gas under these conditions, even if it was a very small part,” says the energy expert.
Because of such pricing formulas and the resulting excessive prices, there are currently several proceedings against heat suppliers across Germany. The Magdeburg company, G & E Gedec Holding GmbH, writes about its price formula: “In our opinion, the price escalation clause in question here meets all legal requirements.”
Tenants refuse to pay
In other cities, too, such as in a residential area in Bottrop, the price formula is apparently the cause of the exploding heating costs. Here, too, the tenants had to pay a lot more. In the case of tenant Marina Scharnowski, it was 1,400 euros for 45 square meters. Heat contracting is also in place in her district. Her landlord, the housing group Vonovia, has also outsourced the heating system to an external company.
The tenants publicly defended themselves against the high back payments, demanded full receipts and refused to make payments. Vonovia finally gave in and gave up a total of 267,000 euros, allegedly as a gesture of goodwill. For Marina Scharnowski, the claim was reduced from just under 1,400 to 49 euros including reminder fees.
But she doesn’t want to pay this reduced amount either. “Like the other tenants, I also invoke the right of retention, and we are entitled to that because Vonovia has not yet managed to provide us with the original contracts and receipts and everything that goes with them,” says Scharnowski.
Joint venture with the Housing group Vonovia
Tenants in Berlin’s Mariendorf-Ost district are also protesting publicly – and in some cases with success. Here, too, the demands have already been reduced. However, this is not due to goodwill, as the landlord, Deutsche Wohnen – now Vonovia – writes to the tenants, but due to “an error in the billing” by the energy supplier. In one specific case, 6,500 euros suddenly became almost 1,300 euros.
Here too, the landlord has transferred the heating system to a contractor. This company, called G+D Gesellschaft für Energiemanagement, is a joint venture between the heating service provider Getec and Deutsche Wohnen, in which Vonovia is the majority shareholder. Specific questions of mdr There is no answer to the exploding costs; in general it is only said that all invoices have been checked and are correct. Vonovia, which has a 49 percent stake in this company through Deutsche Wohnen, again refers to the contractor.
Does the legislature have to intervene?
Such examples show that the legislature is required to intervene in a regulatory manner, say consumer advocates. “He has to create a construct that protects tenants from such a situation,” demands energy expert Hengstenberg.
However, the Federal Ministry of Economics currently sees no gap in the law. Whether the increased prices are legal “can be checked by those affected under civil law or through the abuse supervision by the Federal Cartel Office,” it says ARD-Inquiry.