Due to the drastic increase in gas prices, a gas supplier may terminate its customer's contract at the end of the contract term. If this is the case, customers usually fall back on replacement care from the basic provider. Basic and replacement supplies are instruments to ensure that no one is left without an energy supply. However, customers often pay a higher price per kilowatt hour in the replacement supply than in their previous tariff. But can the replacement supplier simply charge prices as he wants?

Advance payments

For electricity and gas, consumers pay discounts that are determined and paid in advance and relate to energy consumption. The supplier can estimate consumption or, for example, base it on the previous year. But what if consumers save money and use less energy – do they still have to make higher payments?

Energy price increase despite price guarantee?

Can the supplier increase the gas price even if a price guarantee has been agreed? He's actually not allowed to do that, because a contract is a contract. But: Price guarantees only refer to the supplier's prices, not to taxes, duties and levies. The basic price may not be increased, but factors such as taxes or levies can change and consumers then have to bear this. This also applies, for example, to the gas levy that every gas customer must pay from October 1, 2022. If a provider increases the basic price despite a price guarantee, customers can and should object to such an increase.

Room temperature in the apartment

If you want to save energy and therefore costs, you are well advised to turn down the heating in your apartment a little. In the still relatively new “Ordinance for Securing the Energy Supply via Short-Term Effective Measures” there is a new regulation on the minimum temperature in apartments. This means that tenants no longer have to maintain a certain temperature in their apartments. Corresponding clauses in rental agreements are void. However, tenants still have to make sure that the rental property is not damaged and, for example, ventilate it regularly to prevent it from becoming moldy.

However, the regulation does not affect landlords in this form. Tenants therefore still have the right to a certain minimum temperature depending on the room and time of day. It is not enough that the heating system works, but rather the temperatures actually measured are decisive.

Author: Angelika Scheffler-Ronen
Article image and source: SWR Marktcheck

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