Anxious expectations regarding the next gas and electricity bills are currently clouding the autumn mood for many people. In a settlement in Fürstenried-West, many residents are already feeling like protesting. Because the residents of Appenzeller and Bellinzonastrasse as well as Forst-Kasten-Allee recently received the utility bills for 2021, and they are quite a challenge. Additional demands of up to 2,000 euros are made, whereby not even the energy costs are in the foreground, but items such as caretaker services, insurance or maintenance work on elevators. Rows of tenants have lodged objections to the settlements. After a heated meeting of more than 50 people affected, the property management announced a review of the accounts.
The almost 1,500 apartments in the so-called Swiss Quarter belong to the Bavarian Supply Chamber (BVK) or its offshoot Quartier Fürstenried West GmbH. They are managed by Ackermann Property Services GmbH. The anger of the tenants is directed at both. At their meeting in a Fürstenrieder inn, their spokeswoman Marita Reim called the utility bills “incorrect”, “horrendous” and “completely chaotic”. All in all, it was a “quite a shock” that overtook her roommates. Many are “stunned” by the additional demands. For a while, the property management did not even respond to objections. Rhyme: “This is all a fiasco.”
The district association advises checking direct debit authorizations
The chairman of the district association Pro Fürstenried, Andreas Art, shares the impression that “a complete mess” prevails at the Ackermann company. He advised the tenants to check the direct debits in their accounts until the contradictions are resolved. One does not understand how a housing company of the size of BVK could have chosen a property management company “where the shortage of skilled workers is already so pronounced”. In any case, the residents of the settlement in Fürstenried-West continued to wait for “coherent accounts”.
In fact, the residents are confronted with exorbitant additional demands. The SZ has received some of the statements. For example, insurance costs rose by 151 percent within a year, from 2020 to 2021, and in one case the share of maintaining a passenger elevator exploded by 121 percent. In another case, the cost of drinking water increased by 58 percent. Everything hardly understandable.
For the time being, the property management is doing without transfers and direct debits
Immediately after the protest meeting of the tenants, Ackermann managing director Henning Schrödter reacted and had letters distributed in the neighborhood in which he promised a review of all bills and “corrections”. The property management temporarily refrains from transfers and direct debits. “Talks with tenants in the neighborhood” are also intended to serve the purpose of pacification.
The BVK is well informed about the events in Fürstenried-West, where people have been excited for years because of an imminent increase in density by 660 apartments. The company reports that tenants have also contacted the owner companies directly about the utility bills. For her, there is no question “that the utility bills must be correct and comprehensible for the tenants”. In order to achieve this goal, the “accounting systems” of the companies Ackermann and BVK are to be “aligned”.
Apart from that, according to the BVK, there are good reasons for the criticized cost increases. Existing insurance policies expired at the end of 2020 and could not be extended under the old conditions. In addition, the caretaker tasks had been transferred to a company and were therefore no longer in the hands of permanent staff. “Such a step,” said Andreas Art from Pro Fürstenried, “is usually a cost driver”.