The traffic light proposes a ten-step model for dividing the carbon dioxide costs between tenants and landlords. But that is “neither fair nor plausible,” criticizes the Federal Consumer Association. Tenants would continue to bear most of the costs.
The plans of the traffic light coalition to split the CO2 costs between tenants and landlords are met with clear criticism from consumer advocates. There is a “considerable imbalance” at the expense of the tenants, said the head of the energy and construction team at the Federal Consumer Association (vzbv), Thomas Engelke, the “Handelsblatt”. Many tenants are already under severe financial pressure due to the energy price crisis.
“The federal government must therefore do more to take the pressure off the boiler and to share the costs more fairly,” Engelke demanded. It is incomprehensible why tenants in buildings in the lowest energy category should pay ten percent of the CO2 price, while landlords in buildings in the best category no longer have to bear any costs.
The background is a draft law on the allocation of carbon dioxide costs, which is to be passed by the federal cabinet this Wednesday. The cost allocation is to be based on a ten-step model. In the case of houses with very high CO2 emissions per square meter – i.e. a particularly poor energy balance – landlords would pay 90 percent of the CO2 price, while tenants with very low emissions would pay 100 percent of the costs themselves.
The vzbv, on the other hand, is calling for a solution that would allow tenants to bear a maximum of half of the CO2 costs. “The step-by-step model for cost allocation proposed by the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Economic Affairs is neither fair nor plausible,” said Engelke. Rather, it will mean that the majority of tenants will continue to have to pay the majority of the CO2 price, although they have no influence on the heating system or the energy standard of their apartment.
