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Landlords in Germany must share the CO2 price with the tenant

Tenants can now claim a small part of their heating bill from the landlord.

What is CO2 cost?

CO2 cost is a tax charged by the EU based on the amount of CO2 emitted by the products and services you use. The same applies to using fossil fuels like gas or oil to heat the house.

However, if you live in a rental property, you cannot influence your property's heating system. Thus, your landlord must cover part of the CO2 costs/tax.

Who is affected?

Everyone who is

• living on rent and
• has a heating system that uses fossil fuels to heat the home.

It doesn't matter if your landlord has the gas contract or you. You can demand the money if your landlord doesn't deduct part of the CO2 costs from the utility bill.

How much money do you get back from the landlord?

You can use Finaztip's CO2 cost calculator to check how much your landlord must contribute to the CO2 costs. The landlord's share is low in well-renovated, energy-efficient buildings. However, the landlord must cover up to 95% of the CO2 costs for low-energy-efficient properties.

You can also use this calculator as a landlord to determine the CO2 cost you share with the tenant.

To enter information in the calculator, you'll need your last year's (2023) gas bill. You'll also need to enter the living space of your rental property, which you can find in your rental contract.

How much money can you expect to get back from the landlord?

• Apartment living space: 100 m²
• Energy usage: 18,000 kWh
• CO2 costs: 105€ (Based on energy usage and living space)—The CO2 cost is included in your gas bill.
• In this example, the landlord shares 50% of the CO2 cost. So, you'll get around 52€ back.

How can you claim the CO2 cost from the landlord?

• Calculate the CO2 cost your landlord must share using the calculator.
• Send your landlord a letter via post or email along with the gas bill.

What should be the content of the letter?

You can use the following as the body of your letter to the landlord.

Is it worth claiming 50€ from the landlord?

Absolutely, yes.

While currently, it may only be a small amount, in the future, it will be much more. The CO2 price will double by 2026 and will continue to rise to meet EU climate targets.

So, in the long term, you'll get more money back. Moreover, it'll also push your landlord to upgrade the property's heating system to avoid high CO2 costs.

Visualization of the week

• Berlin has the highest population density, with around 4033 people living per square km.
• Berlin is also the most populated city in Germany, with a population of 3.42 million.
• Bremen, Berlin, and Hamburg have the highest percentage of expats in Germany.
• 13.89 million foreigners are living in Germany as of 31 Dec 2023.
• The highest number of foreign nationals living in Germany are Turkish.

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