Germany’s largest real estate group Vonovia does not want to terminate tenants in connection with high energy costs. “No one will lose an apartment with us just because the heating costs cannot be paid,” quoted the “Welt” (Wednesday) CEO Rolf Buch.
Intensive care is taken of individual cases in which tenants have gotten into difficulties because of high energy prices. If necessary, agreements on installment payments can be made. The group also helps in the search for government support services. “We will not give notice of termination because of high energy costs.”
Federal Building Minister Klara Geywitz (SPD) recently announced that in view of the rapidly increasing electricity and heating costs, she wants to give tenants better protection against terminating their contracts because of arrears with payments. The President of the Federal Association of German Housing and Real Estate Companies (GdW), Axel Gedaschko, said nobody should lose their apartment because of payment problems caused by the crisis.
In view of the sharp rise in energy prices, however, Vonovia is doubling the monthly deductions for its tenants’ heating costs, as the “Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung” (WAZ) reported online. A group spokeswoman said on Tuesday when asked by dpa that this would not apply immediately to all 490,000 apartments, but would be implemented gradually.
First of all, the tenants were advised at an early stage to increase the monthly deductions themselves in order to take precautions against the high additional payments to be expected. In addition, information was provided on ways to save energy. “But we see that we have to take even more precautions and have now gone one step further,” said the spokeswoman. Other companies would also have increased the monthly discounts.
