From Hildburg Bruns
As a lawyer, Maren Kern (64) has paragraphs in her blood. This emotional outburst by the head of the Association of Berlin-Brandenburg Housing Companies (BBU) is all the more surprising: “Housing is facing a severe storm!”
In the case of the BBU member companies, this is not due to the rents. They rose moderately by 1 percent/year and averaged EUR 6.41 in 2021, and EUR 10.27 per m²/net for first-time rentals. What explodes are the additional costs.
Example 60 m² apartment: On average, heating costs will increase by half in 2022 alone, which means additional costs of 360 euros. Trend for 2023 further increasing. Kern: “The costs are running away from the advance payments with seven-league boots.” The taxable one-off payment from the federal government of 300 euros in September for wage taxpayers is hardly enough to compensate.
87 percent of the companies already have or want to offer their tenants a precautionary increase in advance payments. The BBU is demanding that increases in advance payments should also be legally possible several times a year.
The companies themselves are facing bills from the energy suppliers that are worth millions – they are paying up to 300 percent more this year! Because most areas are heated directly by gas heating or, more often, by district heating generated by gas.
What to do, Ms Kern?
BBU boss Maren Kern (64) Photo: DAVIDS/Sven Darmer
► Enable lower temperatures! According to current case law, the temperature in common rooms must be 20 to 22 degrees – otherwise tenants could insist on a rent reduction. “The ancillary costs are becoming a social issue. I therefore think it makes sense to adjust the legal situation to regulate the living room temperature to 18 degrees,” supports CDU construction expert Stefanie Bung (44) in the request to the BZ
► Cap warm operating costs! According to the BBU, tenants should have to pay a maximum of 40 percent for their operating costs compared to the net cold rent. The federal government or the state of Berlin should pay the difference to the market prices. The state has already set up a hardship fund (380 million euros) – but above all for the rising costs of its own buildings. So far, only 110 million euros have been earmarked for tenants – how it will be distributed is still open.
► Craftsmen should give priority to modernizing heating systems.
Almost 80 percent of the companies are currently in the process of optimizing their heating systems or are planning to do so. According to BBU estimates, drastic price jumps in energy can be mitigated in this way.