Electricity, gas, and heating

When you move in, check which energy costs are included in your rent and which contracts you need to arrange yourself. Record the meter readings at handover and arrange your chosen supply before moving. Basic supply (Grundversorgung) has published local prices, while shared heating follows separate billing rules.

In short

• Check the rent and handover record: electricity or gas may need a contract in your name, while shared heating may be billed through the landlord.
• The basic supplier publishes local prices and conditions. You can compare other suppliers and check the cancellation terms before switching.
• At an ordinary move-in, using energy without arranging another supply contract can create a basic-supply contract. Section 36 makes a specific exception for three months of fallback supply under section 38(1): in that case, drawing energy does not create an implied contract (see ‘Who it applies to’). It is not a general rule for empty flats.
• Section 36 does not apply to closed distribution networks.
• Central heating and central hot water are allocated under the Heating Cost Ordinance. Ask the landlord for the bill and the calculation used for your building.
• Before cancelling or switching, identify the contract type and confirm the end and start dates. Use the official guidance linked below rather than a neighbour’s notice period.

What you need to know

Under section 36 of the Energy Industry Act, companies providing basic supply to household customers in a network area must publish general conditions and prices for low-voltage or low-pressure supply, including online, and supply every household customer on those terms. They cannot vary those general conditions or prices according to when the basic-supply contract was concluded. The online information must be easy to find and clearly identify the basic-supply prices and conditions.

The supply duty does not apply when providing supply would be economically unreasonable for the company. It also does not apply for three months from the start of fallback supply under section 38(1) if the household customer was already supplied at that withdrawal point and the point could no longer be assigned to the previous supplier because a network-use or balancing-group contract was terminated. During that period, for that withdrawal point, drawing energy does not create an implied contract.

For an ordinary move into a home, consuming energy without arranging another supply contract can create a basic-supply contract. If you are unsure who supplies you or whether you are in basic or fallback supply, ask the network operator; the Bundesnetzagentur’s contract guide explains the different cases.

The basic supplier is the energy company that supplies the most household customers in a general-supply network area. The network operator determines that supplier every three years, as of 1 July, and publishes the result on the internet by 30 September. If the basic supplier changes because of that determination, household customers’ basic-supply contracts concluded with the previous supplier under section 36(1) continue at the conditions and prices in force at the change.

Shared heating follows the Heating Cost Ordinance. Section 1 covers how a building owner allocates the costs of central heating and hot-water systems, and of commercial heat and hot-water supply, among users. It also applies when a supplier bills users directly based on shares of total consumption rather than each user’s measured use.

It applies to price-controlled rented housing unless another rule is provided for that housing. Ask your landlord for your building’s calculation and use the tenant-basics guide to check the annual bill; the ordinance does not itself set your monthly advance.

What to do

1. Check the rent and ask the landlord which supplies you must arrange yourself. At handover, record the move date, meter number and reading, and confirm which meter belongs to the home.
2. Arrange the chosen electricity contract before you start consuming electricity; a later supplier choice cannot simply be backdated. Find the Grundversorger’s published prices and compare offers. If your supply status is unclear, ask the network operator who currently supplies the meter.
3. For shared heating or hot water, ask the landlord for the advance, bill and allocation calculation. Use the tenant-basics guide for the yearly operating-cost statement and objection period.
4. Use the official supplier-switching guide to check the process and cancellation conditions. Keep confirmation of the old end date and new start date, and submit the meter reading at the change.

An unexpected supplier or cancellation notice

Do not give meter numbers, customer numbers or bills to an unsolicited caller or visitor before independently checking who they are. For household supply outside basic supply, section 41b requires text form for the supply contract and for a cancellation by the supplier. A phone conversation alone is not enough. If an unfamiliar supplier claims you agreed, object promptly in writing, request proof, and use withdrawal where applicable. Tell the old supplier if you never authorised cancellation and ask it to restore the contract. If supply status is unclear, ask the network operator who supplies the meter. Returning to the previous contract does not happen automatically; preserve all notices and seek consumer advice if disputed. Use the Scams and payment recovery guide if payment or identity details have been misused.

Check the annual heating bill

Compare the billing period and occupancy dates, meter numbers and readings, consumption, allocation method and credited advances with your records. Ask for receipts and query any repair costs presented as operating costs.

Section 5 places a home’s carbon-dioxide emissions in one of ten tiers. The landlord rounds the specific emissions value to one decimal place before choosing the tier. Your share of the carbon costs depends on kilograms of CO₂ per square metre of living space a year:

• Below 12 kg: 100 percent.
• From 12 kg to under 17 kg: 90 percent.
• From 17 kg to under 22 kg: 80 percent.
• From 22 kg to under 27 kg: 70 percent.
• From 27 kg to under 32 kg: 60 percent.
• From 32 kg to under 37 kg: 50 percent.
• From 37 kg to under 42 kg: 40 percent.
• From 42 kg to under 47 kg: 30 percent.
• From 47 kg to under 52 kg: 20 percent.
• 52 kg or more: 5 percent.

The landlord pays the rest. For a billing period shorter than a year, the thresholds are reduced proportionally; other exceptions in the Act still apply. If you buy heating fuel or heat yourself and the cost-sharing law applies, section 6(2) requires you to claim reimbursement from the landlord in text form within twelve months of the supplier’s bill. Keep the bill and proof of your claim. If the calculation is unclear, seek tenants’ or independent energy advice before making a deduction.

If the Heating Cost Ordinance applies to your building, ask about remote readings and consumption information. Section 5(2) requires consumption-recording equipment installed after 1 December 2021 to be remote-readable. An exception applies when a single meter or heat-cost allocator is replaced or added to an existing system whose other meters or allocators are not remote-readable at that time. Equipment installed under that exception, and older equipment that cannot be read remotely, generally must be retrofitted or replaced by 31 December 2026. Section 5(3) allows exceptions where special circumstances make this technically impossible, disproportionately burdensome or otherwise an undue hardship.

Where remote-reading equipment is installed, section 6a requires monthly heating and hot-water billing or consumption information based on actual consumption or allocator readings. Ask the landlord how you receive it; this is separate from the annual bill.

Section 12(1) provides three reductions to a user’s share of heating and hot-water costs:

• 15 percent when heating or hot water is not billed by consumption even though the ordinance requires it.
• 3 percent when the remote-readable metering or allocation equipment required by section 5(2), or by section 5(3) after the 31 December 2026 deadline, is missing.
• A further 3 percent when the monthly consumption information required by section 6a is missing or incomplete.

The exceptions in section 5(3) still apply. None of the three reductions applies between an individual apartment owner and the owners’ association. Get advice before deducting any amount.

When you move out

Arrange termination or continuation before the move; key handover does not end the supply contract. Basic supply ordinarily has two weeks’ notice. For other household energy contracts, section 41b gives a moving right with six weeks’ notice, effective at move-out or at a later date. It does not apply if, within two weeks of receiving the notice, the supplier offers continuation in text form on unchanged terms and can supply the new withdrawal point. The notice has to give the new address or the identification number of that new point. Ask for the confirmed end date, photograph final readings and meter numbers, send them to the supplier and keep the final bill for checking. A quick technical switch does not shorten the contractual notice period. Close contracts before you leave has the departure checklist.

Challenge an electricity or gas bill

If an electricity or gas advance, or the annual bill, looks wrong, write to the supplier and ask it to explain or correct the charge. Under the regulator’s complaint procedure, the supplier has four weeks to answer once the complaint reaches it. A higher advance is not automatically unlawful, and a question is not a cancellation.

Check the meter readings, the price against the contract or the latest price notice, and the payments against your bank statements. The regulator says an advance follows the agreed tariff and expected use, and that an increase is generally considered only when the price has risen or expected use has changed. Do not cut the advance yourself. Section 17 of the electricity and gas basic-supply ordinances makes the advance due at the time the basic supplier states, and no earlier than two weeks after the payment request arrives. The consumer centre’s bill guidance is a place to get help checking the figures.

For that complaint procedure, write to the supplier, not to the regulator, with Verbraucherbeschwerde nach § 111a EnWG in the subject. That letter asks for a correction. It does not end the supply contract. Ending the contract is the cancellation process already on this page. In basic supply, section 17 of the electricity and gas basic-supply ordinances lets you withhold all or part of a bill only in two situations. One is a serious possibility of an obvious error. The consumer centre gives examples such as a missing address, missing opening and closing readings, or missing prices. The other is where the bill shows more than twice the comparable use from the previous billing period without an apparent reason. You must have requested a meter test, and you may withhold payment only until the test finds the meter is working. Under section 8(2), the basic supplier pays for the test if the meter’s deviation exceeds the legal limits for meter error in use; otherwise the customer pays. If you used energy, pay at least the part that is clearly due. A special contract follows its own conditions. Ask the consumer centre before you withhold.

Common mistakes

• Treating the basic supplier as a supplier you must use forever. Compare the published tariff with other offers and check the cancellation conditions.
• Reading the three-month exclusion of an implied contract as a rule for every empty flat. It is written for the fallback situation in section 36.
• Expecting the Heating Cost Ordinance to state your monthly advance. Section 1 states the scope, not an amount.