Two-thirds of tenants pay for neighbors’ heating costs

If you want to be comfortably warm in your own four walls, you need to warm up now. Those who want to save, wear two sweaters and a winter jacket. In this way, high heating bills can be avoided. Or?

Unfortunately, this does not always apply to tenants. Because for many tenants, heating costs are not just dependent on their own usage behavior. But also how hot it is in the neighbor’s apartment.

Affected old properties

Because many homeowners in Switzerland still calculate their heating costs per square meter rather than based on actual consumption. Even most Swiss tenants are affected, according to new figures from the Energy and Water Cost Billing Association.

According to the SRF consumer magazine “Espresso”, about two-thirds of all residential buildings in Switzerland are billed on a solidarity basis. These are mostly old, poorly insulated residential buildings. Those whose energy balance is already broken.

Tenants association requests correct billing

The tenants’ association finds the situation untenable. “It’s not fair not to charge real consumption,” Linda Rosenkranz (43), Secretary General of the Swiss Tenants Association (MV), told Blick in October. “Today, there are affordable technical options for making an individual heating bill,” she says.

It will be more motivating for tenants to see their own savings, such as electricity, on the bill. Residents can have a large impact on heating costs by their own behavior. According to ZKB, anyone who heats up to 19 degrees instead of 23 degrees can save 35 percent on heating costs. (dvo)

More information on property accounts can be found here: Tenant Sylwina Spiess (33) on the additional cost shock