In view of the war in Ukraine, according to the head of the real estate group LEG Immobilien, the population must be made clear: Now it’s time to do without – namely a “waiver of heat”. At the same time, he is calling for a legal option to be able to lower temperatures more than before.
After the industry leader Vonovia, the second largest German real estate group LEG Immobilien is also preparing tenants for lower heating temperatures. “I believe that in the current war situation in Germany, it must be made clear to the population that renunciation is now the order of the day,” the manager told the “Handelsblatt”: “And that will be a renunciation of heat – you have to say it clearly politically.” Lackum called for a legal option to be able to lower temperatures more than before.
Vonovia had already announced at the beginning of the month that it wanted to save gas and reduce the heating output in many of its apartments at night. “We need a legal way for the winter to be able to lower the temperatures more than before,” Lackum told the newspaper. “We don’t benefit if we’re all warm privately but nobody goes to work anymore because the companies are shutting down production in droves,” he added. “If we don’t make tough decisions, we’ll run into big problems in the winter,” he underscored.
The LEG boss also called for a moratorium on termination for tenants who can no longer pay the high heating bills. He expects “that up to 20 percent of tenants nationwide can no longer get the problem with energy prices under control financially alone”. The German Tenants’ Association had called for protection against dismissal for tenants who can no longer pay their heating bills.
“In order to save as much gas as possible in our stocks, we will successively introduce a night-time lowering of the heating temperature for the gas central heating systems in our stocks,” Vonovia had announced. Vonovia reduces the heating output between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. to 17 degrees Celsius. During the day and in the evening hours, the tenants could continue to heat as usual. 55 percent of the heaters in the Vonvia stocks are supplied with gas. Vonovia boss Rolf Buch had warned against significantly increasing utility bills in view of the rapidly increasing energy costs in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions from the West.