Living - Tenants' association: high demand for advice on operating costs
The Hessian Tenants' Association has recorded a high demand for advice on utility bills. "The trend is going upwards," reported Eva-Maria Winckelmann, Managing Director of the Hessian state association in Wiesbaden, when asked. According to the association, in the first three quarters of this year alone, around 20,000 tenants in Hesse received advice on the subject of operating costs.
In comparison: While the Hessian Tenants' Association recorded around 21,000 specialist consultations in 2021 as a whole, around 25,000 Hessian tenants sought support with questions about billing for heating and hot water in 2022. The tenants' association expects that the previous year's figures could even be exceeded by the end of the current year. Winckelmann explained that operating costs have been the most popular area of advice for years.
According to the regional association, the fall in energy prices in the Rhine-Main region is hardly providing any relief. The reason for this is the rent increases that have taken place in many places, which place an additional burden on tenants. Winckelmann said that any increase in costs could lead to the burden on tenants becoming too high.
This no longer only affects people on low incomes, but also middle-class families, who often have to spend more than half of their income on rent and operating costs in Hessian cities. Winckelmann therefore generally recommends that tenants find out whether they are entitled to subsidies, for example in the form of housing benefit.
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- The Tenants' association in Hesse has been advocating for the consideration of operating cost accounting in the energy sector, arguing that it could help reduce the financial burden on consumers.
- In response to the rising operating costs, the Hesse-based music venue, Live, decided to partner with local energy suppliers to offer more sustainable and cost-effective energy solutions for its patrons, as suggested by Hesse's Tenants' association.
- The Hesse-based author Hermann Hesse once wrote about the importance of considering the community's needs in energy consumption, a topic that is still relevant today as Tenants' associations across Germany push for fair operating cost accounting.
Source: www.stern.de
