Berlin (epd). The German Tenants’ Association and the BUND are calling for the costs of climate protection in rental apartments to be fairly distributed. Otherwise, climate protection in the building sector will not make progress, they said in Berlin on Wednesday. The traffic light coalition has no concept for a socially acceptable energy renovation of the large stock of rental apartments, criticized the Federal Director of the Tenants’ Association, Melanie Weber-Moritz. Low-income tenants in poorly insulated apartments, with rising rents and high heating costs, suffered the most from the renovation backlog.
BUND managing director Antje von Broock said that the weakening of the climate law decided by the government coalition would not reduce the pressure to act in the building sector. He has been lagging behind climate protection goals for years. Germany is heading towards fines under the EU Buildings Directive. Von Broock emphasized that it would be better to spend the money on renovations that would benefit climate protection, tenants and landlords. The government must ensure a fair distribution of costs between the state, tenants and landlords.
The current funding programs create false incentives, the associations explained. Based on calculations by the Heidelberg Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (ifeu), they called for state funding to be clearly aligned with the lowest energy consumption and thus with climate protection. Landlords should no longer have to pass on subsidies of up to 40 percent to tenants. In return, the modernization levy must fall from eight to three percent of the modernization costs, the associations explained. This surcharge makes the rent more expensive permanently after an energy-efficient renovation and, in most cases, significantly more than the tenants save on heating costs.