June 7, 2024, 9:11 am | Read time: 3 minutes
This year, tenants can get money back from their landlords for the first time. However, in many cases, they need to take action themselves. Find out which costs are involved in this article.
Getting money back from the landlord–that sounds like a great deal. In fact, this year, tenants will receive portions of the so-called “CO2 levy” back from their landlords, which they had to pay as part of heating costs last year. This levy has been due annually since 2021 for heating with oil or gas and will continue to increase until 2027. Previously, tenants had to cover these costs alone. However, this is now changing. Since January 1, 2023, the CO2 levy is being shared between landlords and tenants.
This Much Reimbursement Is Possible
According to calculations by the Munich Tenants’ Association, tenants can benefit from the division of the CO2 price. For a four-person household in a 110-square-meter house, a reimbursement of more than 200 euros per year is possible. For smaller households or apartments, it is correspondingly less.
Beatrix Zurek is the chairwoman of the Munich Tenants’ Association. In a press release, she welcomed the new division: “Many tenants are already heavily burdened by the sharply rising energy costs alongside the ever-increasing rent costs. It is only fair that landlords are now also held accountable and share the costs for poorly insulated buildings.”
However, the federal government is also obliged to create more incentives for energy-efficient renovations through long-term funding. Zurek also suggests adjusting rental laws so that tenants no longer bear the main burden of rent increases due to energy-efficient renovations.
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Apply Now for Heating Cost Relief
Large differences in energy costs between East and West Germany
How Tenants Get a Share of the CO2 Levy Back
“For multi-unit buildings with central heating, landlords must calculate the amount of the CO2 levy and account for it in the utility billing,” explains Zurek. In some cases, tenants must also take action themselves to get the CO2 levy refunded. “For apartments with gas floor heating, where the tenant pays the bill themselves, the tenant must calculate it and bill the landlord,” says the expert.
The following information is needed for the calculation:
- Amount of natural gas consumed in kilowatt-hours during the billing period
- Emission factor of the gas
- Living area
- CO2 price in the billing year
The gas supplier is required to provide the emission factor of the natural gas.
Important: Tenants have six months after the supplier’s billing to inform the landlord of the claims. After that, the claim is time-barred.
Example Calculation by the Tenants’ Association
On average, a household in Germany consumes 13.6 liters of heating oil per square meter annually. For a 50-square-meter apartment, this amounts to an average of 680 liters. In 2023, a CO2 levy of 64.60 euros was due for this. Depending on the building’s energy balance, the landlord must now cover 0 percent to 95 percent of this, in this example, up to a maximum of 61.37 euros. Currently, the relief for tenants is still small, but with the annually rising CO2 prices, this will change.