Reader question: Which baseline costs and rent adjustment do I need to check before the first separate heat pump billing?
So far you have been paying an agreed total amount, including heating, for the German flat. The building is supplied by a heat pump. A consumption-based billing is now to be introduced for the first time. The letter states an additional monthly heating prepayment, while the previous rent remains unchanged. Before you simply compare the new prepayment, the transition from the previous model must be made comprehensible.
Establish the contract and the previous metering status
Provide the complete tenancy agreement and the previous payment statement. Which costs were actually included in the total amount? The colloquial term “warm” does not automatically confirm a gross warm rent (Bruttowarmmiete). Is there already an earlier separate billing or only figures for the building consumption?
The HeizkostenV has a special precedence over contractual provisions, with the express exception of certain buildings occupied by the landlord with at most two flats. [HeizkostenV2] Therefore clarify the building framework before treating the letter as a freely selectable new contractual rule.
Assign the special heat pump transition
§12 paragraph 3 concerns cases in which the proportional consumption from heat pumps was not yet recorded on 1 October 2024. The installation of equipment was planned until 30 September 2025; in these cases the regulation is to be applied for the first time to the billing period beginning after the installation. [HeizkostenV12]
Therefore ask about the actual installation date and the start of the first relevant period. The installation of a unit in the middle of the year is not automatically entered as the start of a full new billing year. A belated installation is also a fact that must be disclosed; the article does not thereby declare every later start to be lawful.
Reconstruct the historical cost share
For a rented building with at least one gross warm rent contract, §12 paragraph 3 requires, before the start of the first billing period after 30 September 2025, the determination of two values: the average of the annual heating and hot water costs for 2022, 2023 and 2024 and the share of the dwelling units in those costs according to their living or usable area. [HeizkostenV12]
In the purely arithmetic example the confirmed annual building costs are €8.000, €10.000 and €12.000. Their average is €10.000. For a unit with a clarified area share of ten per cent in the example, this results in a share of €1.000 per year. These invented values show only the averaging and allocation. They are not a forecast of future consumption and not yet a complete individual rental payment plan.
Treat the costs previously included in the rent
§556a paragraph 2 BGB allows, under its conditions, a declaration in text form for a future consumption-based distribution before the start of the billing period. If the costs were previously included in the rent, this must be reduced accordingly. Paragraph 4 protects against disadvantageous deviations from paragraph 2. [BGB556a]
Please therefore request a separate presentation: previous rent amount, heating share treated therein, rent remaining in future and new prepayment. Have the concrete connection of contractual situation, special transition provision and amendment declaration legally reviewed. An additional prepayment without explanation of the previously included costs leaves the decisive question open.
Complete the conversion with documentation
Compare the meter start date, the first period, the historical average calculation and the future payment schedule. Missing invoices or unclear area shares are to be specified. A calculated example figure will not be unilaterally deducted from the rent. The aim is an understandable transition with a reasoned treatment of the previously included costs before the actual first consumption billing is later examined.