District heating and gas prices skyrocketed two years ago, they have now stabilized, but the consequences can still be felt in the form of high additional payments. A settlement in the Berlin district of Treptow-Köpenick received huge utility bills from the Vonovia real estate group. Individual tenants would have to pay up to 3,500 euros for the district heating used. But it now turns out that around 680 additional demands in the aforementioned housing estate are excessive and therefore ineffective, reports Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB).
G+E Getec Holding GmbH, responsible for billing, admitted deviations in the quantities delivered “in the monthly distribution controlled by the system.” According to the RBB, utility bills are currently being corrected. “The landlord must behave economically,” warned the general director of the Berlin tenants' association, Sebastian Bartels.
Utility billing is very complex
Property managers, suppliers, landlords and tenants face a mammoth task. The invoices for winter 2023 are complex and therefore sometimes incorrect. Because the federal government introduced price controls and paid gas bills in December 2022. All this makes billing difficult. On social media, tenants are reporting late payments of around four figures.
The tenant initiative Novonovia had already criticized in an open letter that the largest real estate company, Vonovia, demands additional payments of several thousand euros from its tenants in many cities. The final bill was especially harsh in the Berlin district of Wedding. In a Vonovia rental building with 31 homes, families had to pay up to 6,000 euros more for the gas connection. The background was that the supplier Vattenfall Energy Solutions had linked the gas exploitation price to the EGIX gas exchange price. When this exploded due to the energy crisis, the price of labor automatically went up.
The company Mineko has also discovered that heating costs are calculated incorrectly, which harms tenants. “A look at our database reveals that a surprising 91 percent of all heating bills we check are actually incorrect,” says Chris Möller, CEO of the platform, which checks utility bills for errors. in exchange for a fee. In the invoices analyzed, private costs would have been overpaid by an average of 317 euros. “It affects employers a lot: the average amount of the error is 8,511 euros,” says Möller.
The tenants association warns of incorrect billing
Consumer advocates warn that single-family and family households would have to expect additional payments in at least triple digits. At the same time, tenant associations warn of many errors that result from more complicated billing.
But what are they? FOCUS online summarizes the most important information for renters.
These traps lurk on your utility bill
First of all, when it comes to billing additional costs: stay calm. Those affected should then take a closer look at the bill. If an error has occurred, the utility bill is invalid and should be corrected accordingly.
Invoices should be designed in such a way that the tenant can check at a glance whether only legally permitted and contractually agreed types of costs are actually charged. If tenants have concerns about the accuracy, they should take the time to check and, if necessary, seek help from a tenants' association.
“It is often useful to compare the turnover with the operating cost table and the turnover from the previous year,” advises Ulrich Ropertz from the Hamburg Consumer Center. Ropertz was also CEO of the German Tenants Association (DMB). If individual cost types arise or there are significant price differences for individual operating costs, the owner may be asked to explain this or provide receipts and invoices.
The most common errors in current billing are:
Gas and district heating bill in December 2022
In December 2022, the State took over the costs of gas and district heating. The landlord cannot pass these expenses on to the tenant. Rather, this relief should also be reflected in your utility bill.
Price brake for gas, electricity and district heating
From March 1 to December 31, 2023 inclusive, price caps for electricity, district heating and gas were applied in Germany, retroactive to January 1, 2023. The upper limits were 40 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity, twelve cents per kilowatt hour for gas and for district heating at 9.5 cents per kilowatt hour. The maximum price applied to 80 percent of annual consumption in 2022 (September value).
The remaining stock of heating oil must be indicated.
At the beginning and end of a billing period, tenants and landlords should pay attention to their remaining heating oil inventory. An error is often made in accounting for heating costs by specifying both the beginning and ending inventory as 0 liters. However, this is usually not correct.
It is very unlikely that the basement tank will be completely empty after a heating season, says the Federal Association of Consumer Care Centers. Therefore, it is important to check whether the values of the initial and remaining stocks of heating oil and liquefied gas are plausible. The values must be transmitted to the owner or lessor by the billing service provider. He, in turn, must communicate the values to his tenant, allowing him to access the original invoices.
Correctly record CO2 emissions
Whoever heats their home with fossil fuels pays the so-called CO2 price. The following applies: the higher the consumption, the more you will have to pay.
The owners transfer the tariff directly to the energy supplier. They usually then pass them on to the tenants at additional costs, but since last year they have only been allowed to do so in part. The worse the energy quality of the building, the higher the proportion of costs that the owners have to bear: up to 90 percent.
Most common mistake? The calculation is based on the energy certificate of the property. In fact, the actual measured consumption is effective, as explained by the German tenants' association.
In 2022, the emission of one ton of CO2 will cost 30 euros. In 2024 the price will rise to 45 euros and in 2025 to 55 euros. This results in a surcharge of 9.55 cents per liter for heating oil for 2023. For natural gas, the surcharge is 0.58 cents per kilowatt hour.
According to the German Tenants Association (DMB), the average CO2 costs for an apartment in an apartment building in 2022 amounted to around 67 euros for gas heating and 98 euros for oil heating.