Obligation to provide heating in tenancy agreements: What temperatures landlords must guarantee

The hea­ting sea­son has been under­way in Ger­ma­ny again sin­ce 1 Octo­ber and usual­ly lasts until 30 April. For land­lords, this means that during this peri­od they are obli­ged to keep the hea­ting sys­tem in working order so that ten­ants can main­tain cer­tain mini­mum tem­pe­ra­tures in their rooms. Anyo­ne who negle­cts this duty risks a reduc­tion in rent, which can be sub­stan­ti­al depen­ding on the seve­ri­ty of the fault.

What the law stipulates and what case law clarifies

The Ger­man Civil Code does not spe­ci­fy any par­ti­cu­lar tem­pe­ra­tu­re figu­res. Under Sec­tion 535 of the Ger­man Civil Code, a land­lord is mere­ly obli­ged to pro­vi­de a flat that is in a con­di­ti­on sui­ta­ble for the use spe­ci­fied in the con­tract. Case law has, over the cour­se of deca­des, estab­lished exact­ly what tem­pe­ra­tures this entails.

The reco­g­nis­ed gui­de­line is that, during the day – that is, from 6 am to 11 pm – the tem­pe­ra­tu­re in living are­as should be at least 20 degrees Cel­si­us. In the bath­room, the tem­pe­ra­tu­re must even be 21 degrees, as the Lands­hut Regio­nal Court ruled as far back as 1985 (Lands­hut Regio­nal Court, jud­ge­ment of 18 Decem­ber 1985, 1 S 1222/85). For the night-time hours, i.e. bet­ween 11 pm and 6 am, a reduc­tion to around 16 to 18 degrees Cel­si­us is per­mis­si­ble accor­ding to the case law of various local courts (Bonn Local Court, jud­ge­ment of 26 Janu­ary 2021, 206 C 18/19; Colo­gne Local Court, judgment of 5 July 2016, 205 C 36/16).

The Fede­ral Court of Jus­ti­ce has also addres­sed this issue. Whilst it express­ly left the exact thres­hold open, it con­side­red a day­ti­me tem­pe­ra­tu­re of at least 20 degrees Cel­si­us to be reasonable (Fede­ral Court of Jus­ti­ce, jud­ge­ment of 15 May 1991, VIII ZR 38/90).

Heating even outside the heating season

The obli­ga­ti­on to pro­vi­de hea­ting does not app­ly exclu­si­ve­ly bet­ween Octo­ber and April. If the out­side tem­pe­ra­tu­re falls below 12 degrees Cel­si­us for more than three con­se­cu­ti­ve days, the land­lord must switch on the hea­ting even out­side the regu­lar hea­ting sea­son. This has been ruled by both the Uel­zen Magis­tra­tes’ Court (jud­ge­ment of 9 April 1986, 4a C 272/86) and the Colo­gne Magis­tra­tes’ Court (jud­ge­ment of 9 April 2008, 220 C 152/07).

How much can the rent reduction amount to?

If the hea­ting remains cold or the mini­mum tem­pe­ra­tures are con­sis­t­ent­ly not rea­ched, this gene­ral­ly con­sti­tu­tes a defect in the ten­an­cy. The amount of any rent reduc­tion depends on the ext­ent of the disruption.

• Accor­ding to the Ber­lin Regio­nal Court, a devia­ti­on of just one degree from the mini­mum tem­pe­ra­tu­re may alre­a­dy jus­ti­fy a reduc­tion of five per cent (Ber­lin Regio­nal Court, jud­ge­ment of 8 June 2012, 63 S 423/11).
• Whe­re tem­pe­ra­tures rea­ched an avera­ge of just 18 degrees Cel­si­us, courts in Ber­lin and Pots­dam award­ed a ten per cent reduction.
• Accor­ding to the Colo­gne Local Court, tem­pe­ra­tures bet­ween 16 and 18 degrees Cel­si­us may even jus­ti­fy a 20 per cent reduction.
• In the event of a com­ple­te break­down of the hea­ting sys­tem during the hea­ting sea­son, the Char­lot­ten­burg Local Court reco­g­nis­ed a 70 per cent reduc­tion (Char­lot­ten­burg Local Court, jud­ge­ment of 7 June 2013, 216 C 7/13).

Short-term or minor devia­ti­ons, on the other hand, are regard­ed as minor defects. A ten­ant wis­hing to redu­ce the rent can­not do so on the grounds of an insi­gni­fi­cant defect (Fede­ral Court of Jus­ti­ce, jud­ge­ment of 30 June 2004, XII ZR 251/02). The decisi­ve fac­tor here is the tem­pe­ra­tu­re actual­ly mea­su­red, not the sub­jec­ti­ve per­cep­ti­on of cold.

Contractual clauses and hot water

Accor­ding to a ruling by the Hei­del­berg Regio­nal Court, clau­ses in ten­an­cy agree­ments sti­pu­la­ting that 18 degrees Cel­si­us is suf­fi­ci­ent are inva­lid (Hei­del­berg Regio­nal Court, ruling of 11 Sep­tem­ber 1981, 5 S 80/81). Land­lords can­not the­r­e­fo­re use such wor­ding to exempt them­sel­ves from their obli­ga­ti­on to pro­vi­de heating.

The hot water sup­p­ly must also be gua­ran­teed round the clock. It is not per­mit­ted to redu­ce the hot water tem­pe­ra­tu­re at night. If the water tem­pe­ra­tu­re is con­sis­t­ent­ly too low, or if it takes too long for hot water to reach the tap, a rent reduc­tion may also be justified.

Any ten­ant or land­lord who is unsu­re how to assess the legal situa­ti­on in a spe­ci­fic case should seek legal advice, as the cir­cum­s­tances of each indi­vi­du­al case play a decisi­ve role in rent reductions.