A new initiative by the Left Party in the election campaign aims to win over tenants by offering a heat cost check. Since mid-December, the party has been promoting a dedicated portal where interested individuals can upload their supplementary expense statements and have them reviewed by experts.
According to the Left Party, nearly 2,500 expense statements have been submitted, with around 2,000 of them having been checked. The initial results after the first four weeks show that more than one in four clearly verifiable heat cost statements contained errors. In cases where heat costs were incorrectly billed, affected tenants are entitled to a reimbursement of 15 percent of the costs for heating and hot water, with the average sums being in the three-digit range.
“Already in Munich, we have helped over 500 people to reduce their excessive heat costs” said Left Party leader Jan van Aken. “We can ‘stand together against the greed of those in power’.” Often, neighboring apartments were also affected when a false statement was presented. The largest case of incorrectly billed heat costs, according to the party, occurred in a residential complex in Berlin’s city center, which is owned by a state-owned company. The Left Party’s federal office estimates that around 200 affected tenants are involved in this case.