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New heating cost regulations: Tenants have to calculate exactly from October 1st!
From October 2025, the heating cost regulations for tenants in Bremerhaven will change. New legal adjustments require precise consumption measurements.
New heating cost regulations: Tenants have to calculate exactly from October 1st!
From October 1, 2025, tenants in Germany will have to prepare for fundamental changes to utility billing. The legal regulation that will then come into force primarily affects residential complexes that are heated with central heat pumps. The heat pump privilege that was in effect until then, a transitional regulation, will expire. This regulation has so far made it possible for tenants not to be billed based on individual consumption under certain conditions. From the end of 2025, however, things will get serious.
What does that mean specifically for tenants? In the future, you will be billed for heating and hot water costs based on your actual consumption. How North24 reported, flat-rate utility bills are no longer permitted. Instead, landlords have to install special measuring devices to record their tenants' individual consumption. If you heat less, you pay less. The aim of this regulation is to create transparency and fairness in energy costs.
Obligations for landlords
Landlords are confronted with new obligations: They must ensure that the relevant measuring devices are retrofitted in a timely manner. Loud Sparwasser & Schmidt Tenants are even allowed to reduce their heating and hot water costs by 15 percent if the landlord does not meet this obligation. This regulation applies to all billing periods that begin after October 1, 2025.
Another point that the new regulations affect is the billing of the costs for heat and hot water. Until September 30, 2024, buildings that are predominantly heated with heat pumps were partially exempt from the obligation to bill based on consumption. However, from October 1, 2024, these buildings will be equivalent to traditional heating systems and will also have to use consumption-based billing.
Changes in modernizations and rent increases
Anyone who thinks that the bills will remain the same is mistaken: there will also be clearer limits on modernization rent increases from 2025. After installing a heat pump, a full rent increase is only permitted if the annual performance factor (JAZ) is above 2.5. If this value is not reached, only 50 percent of the costs may be passed on to the tenants. This regulation is intended to ensure that energy improvements actually benefit tenants.
In summary, it can be said that the new heating cost regulation not only strengthens the rights of tenants, but also places a certain amount of responsibility on landlords. It remains exciting to see how this will affect rental prices, especially in cities like Cologne, where the housing market is already highly competitive.