Tenancy law Heating, ancillary costs, hot water: what the landlord is allowed to do

Frankfurt The Dippoldiswalde eG housing association would probably have preferred to spare themselves the public attention. In Saxony, the cooperative from the Ore Mountains stopped the hot water supply at certain times at the beginning of the week in order to reduce the high energy costs for tenants. But the response to it was devastating.

Even the federal building minister from far away Berlin criticized the company. A housing company should “not turn off the hot water for its tenants to save energy,” criticized Klara Geywitz.

But other housing companies have long been thinking about how to react to the high energy prices. As a result of the Russian war in Ukraine, average prices for all types of energy rose by 37 percent up to May, according to the industry association GdW.

For a one-person household, this means an additional burden of 508 euros per year compared to 2021. But can the companies simply throttle the heat or switch off the hot water? Below are answers to the most important questions.