If you believe Sepp Müller, vice-president of the Union parliamentary group, then tenants will not have to worry about rising heating costs in the future. At least not because of the new building modernization law, which is intended to regulate the installation of new heating systems. “There is no heating cost trap,” says the CDU energy expert to ZEIT. “I trust in the individual’s freedom of choice.”

But that doesn’t seem to reassure tenant advocates – not even them Wording in the key points paperthat they wanted to protect “tenants from excessive additional costs due to the installation of new, uneconomical heating systems”. Since the plans were announced, stakeholders have loudly warned of financial burdens, especially the German Tenants’ Association: The association criticizes the proposals, which assume that owners know best what belongs in their boiler room. However, the heating and investment costs would be passed on to the tenants.