Heating Expenses Act
| Basic data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Heating Expenses Act |
| Long title: | Federal law on the more economical use of energy through consumption-dependent billing of heating and hot water costs (Heizkostenabrechnungsgesetz - HeizKG) as well as changes to the Apartment Ownership Act 1975, the Charitable Housing Act and the Tenancy Law |
| Abbreviation: | HeizKG |
| Type: | Federal law |
| Scope: | Republic of Austria |
| Legal matter: | civil right |
| Reference: | Federal Law Gazette No. 827/1992 |
| Date of law: | December 29, 1992 |
| Effective date: | October 1, 1992 |
| Last change: | BGBl. I No. 25/2009 |
| Legal text: | Heating Expenses Act |
| Please note the note on the applicable legal version ! | |
The Austrian Heating Costs Billing Act ( HeizKG ) is a federal law and essentially came into force on October 1, 1992. It regulates the billing of heating and hot water costs in buildings with more than four usage units (e.g. apartments, shops, etc.), which are heated and supplied with hot water via a common heat supply system (heating system).
background
With a ruling from October 1991, the Constitutional Court on September 30, 1992 repealed the regulation of heating and hot water cost allocation in the Charitable Housing Act, which had been in effect until then . In the Condominium Act 1975, which was in force at the time, as well as in the Tenancy Act , similar modes of division were provided, which were assumed to be unconstitutional as well. For this reason, the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Federal Ministry of Justice drafted a law that summarized the matter previously regulated in three different laws in a set of rules and also the scope of application to, among other things, simple co-ownership and other building uses that were not previously covered by were covered by a corresponding regulation, should expand. Furthermore, the previous unconstitutional regulations have been replaced or repealed and various terms and billing modes have been defined more precisely.
One of the goals of the law, however, is to promote a more economical use of energy (defined in § 1 HeizKG as rational and economical use of energy ) through a consumption-based billing of energy costs and the resulting direct effects on heating and hot water costs . One reason for setting this goal, which is also reflected in the title of the law, was the so-called energy-saving state treaty concluded in 1980 between the federal government and the states.
structure
The heating cost accounting law is divided into thirty paragraphs in eight sections and three articles.
The sections are divided as follows:
- Section I. General provisions
- Section II: Distribution of the consumption-dependent heating and hot water costs and determination of the consumption shares
- III. Section: Billing
- IV. Section: Special procedural provisions
- Section V: Amendment of the Condominium Act 1975
- VI. Section: Amendment of the Charitable Housing Act
- VII. Section: Amendment of the Tenancy Law
- VIII. Section: Final and Transitional Provisions; Completion
scope
The scope of the HeizKG is defined in Section 3. In principle, the provisions apply to all buildings with at least four usage objects that are supplied with heat by a joint heat supply system and are equipped with devices for determining the consumption shares.
A usage object is understood here to mean all units that can be supplied with heat, so, for example, in objects where apartment ownership has been established, not only apartments, business premises, ordinations, etc., but also saunas, cellar compartments, hobby or bicycle rooms from this regulation, even if, for example, it would not be possible to use it independently or if it would not be suitable for home ownership. These provisions also apply to apartment buildings. The caretaker's apartments that were previously not recorded are also subject to the provisions of the HeizKG. In the law, heat is defined as energy for space heating and hot water preparation, a joint heat supply system as a facility that generates or provides heat, regardless of the energy source used. For the purposes of this definition, a common district heating connection for a building also counts as a common heat supply system. The operator of a joint heat supply system (e.g. a community of owners or the owner of an apartment building) is referred to as a heat sender, even if, as in the case of a district heating connection, he only sells heat provided by another person in his own name.
In § 3 (2), exceptions are made in the event that a commercial company (e.g. a district heating company) has concluded direct supply contracts with the tenants concerned.
Breakdown of costs
Definition of terms
In Section 2 (8), heating and hot water costs are defined as energy costs and other costs of operating the heat supply system. Section 2 (9) defines energy costs as the costs of the energy carriers from which heat is generated, for example coal, oil, gas, electricity, etc., as well as other costs for energy carriers, the HeizKG cites electricity for a circulation pump or a burner as an example . Other operating costs are, in accordance with Section 2 (10), all other operating costs, e.g. for maintenance and support of the heat supply system and the replacement of wearing parts. Expressly excluded from this are costs for the maintenance of the heat supply system. If the heat is supplied by a commercial company within the framework of direct supply contracts, the officially determined or contractually agreed prices for the energy are defined as heating and hot water costs.
requirements
If the consumption shares of the individual heat consumers (subscribers) in the heating and hot water supply can be determined using state-of-the-art measuring devices and the energy consumption can mainly be influenced by the heat consumer (e.g. by heating elements that can be switched off), the costs are mainly according to share actual consumption. If, however, this is not the case, all costs are to be allocated exclusively according to the heatable usable area. In any case, the usable area defined in the Condominium Act 2002 (WEG 2002) counts as heatable usable area, with the exception of open loggias and, as described above, plus general rooms that are also heated.
According to § 6 HeizKG, an individual heat consumer can request the retrofitting of measuring devices to determine consumption (meters) from the heat emitter if he can influence the actual energy consumption himself and a saving of 10 percent of energy costs can be expected over the service life of the measuring devices. Such an invoice must be drawn up by a qualified civil engineer before the installation is requested. Each heat consumer must in any case tolerate the subsequent installation of measuring devices.
Separation of heating and hot water costs
If both heating energy and hot water are generated with a joint heat supply system, the costs - also from a sales tax point of view - are to be divided according to the respective energy share that is attributable to the heating and hot water energy. The respective proportions are to be determined with consumption recording (measurement). If this is not possible, at least 60 percent and at most 80 percent of the costs are to be allocated to heating energy and the rest to hot water energy. Unless all heat sources make a different agreement, according to Section 13 Paragraph 3 Z 1, 70 percent of the heating energy and 30 percent of the hot water energy are to be allocated.
Separation into consumption-dependent and consumption-independent costs
The costs determined as above are divided into consumption-dependent and consumption-independent costs. Consumption-dependent costs are those that also increase with an actual additional consumption of heat in the building (e.g. for heating oil, gas, electricity for a burner). Consumption-independent costs, on the other hand, are those that are regularly incurred regardless of the actual consumption of heat (e.g. for maintenance and support or meter reading). The consumption-dependent and consumption-independent costs may have to be divided into heating and hot water costs for billing. A portion of the consumption-dependent costs is then added to the consumption-independent costs (according to § 10 between 25 and 45 percent; if no agreement has been made, it is 35 percent).
Billing
Breakdown of costs
The billing of the consumption-dependent costs is to be carried out according to the consumption shares determined by the measuring devices (meters), namely in which these are put in relation. Every heat consumer has to tolerate the measurement of the share of consumption (for example by direct reading by a billing company in his apartment) or, if necessary, the determination of the heatable usable area (this is to be taken in natural dimensions). The costs for the measurement are consumption-independent heating costs. If the consumption shares cannot be determined for certain usage units, these can be determined through an estimate or extrapolation; the proportion of the heatable usable area of these usage units in the total of the heatable usable area in the building must not be more than a quarter.
The consumption-independent costs are to be divided in total in relation to the heatable usable area. If it is not possible to determine the consumption values or to influence the consumption by the heat consumer, all costs must be divided in proportion to the heatable usable area.
Accounting period
The billing period is generally twelve months long, the beginning and therefore also the end are determined by the heat emitter. Billing periods that coincide with the calendar years are common, with a heating season (autumn and winter) being divided into two periods. Therefore, the accounting period often starts on July 1st or October 1st.
Content and consequences of billing
The billing must be sent in writing by the heat supplier to the heat consumer no later than six months after the end of the billing period. According to § 18, the billing must contain the least information about the beginning and the end of the billing period, the sum of the heating and hot water costs as well as the breakdown into consumption-dependent and consumption-independent heating costs, the sum of the heatable area and the share attributable to the heat consumer, the total heat consumption and the share attributable to the heat consumer, the ratio of the breakdown into consumption-dependent and consumption-independent heating costs, the share of the costs attributable to the respective object of use, the payments on account, the surplus or deficit, the location and period at and in which complete billing and collection of documents can be viewed as well as a note on the consequences of billing (e.g. adjustment of the amounts on account).
Surpluses (credits) and shortfalls (additional claims) from the billing must be paid back or subsequently paid within two months from the date of billing. On the basis of the billing, new amounts on account may have to be determined by the heat sender, which then have to apply for the entire following billing period, provided that no unforeseen events (e.g. a particularly cold winter) occur. Sections 22 and 23 regulate any subsequent correction of the billing as well as an interim determination in the event of a change in the heat consumer during the billing period (relocation).
Objections to the billing are to be raised within six months from the date of billing.
Scheme
Billing works according to the following scheme (all values are used as examples):
| usage-dependent costs | Consumption-independent costs | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Heating oil | € 1,000.00 | Reading | € 500.00 |
| Electricity for burners | € 100.00 | Boiler cleaning | € 250.00 |
| total | € 1,100.00 | total | € 750.00 |
| Sum of heating and hot water costs = € 1,850.00 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consumption-dependent (mainly) costs = € 1,100.00 | Consumption-independent (vua.) costs = € 750.00 | ||||||
| 70% heating costs = € 770.00 | 30% hot water costs = € 330.00 | 70% heating costs = € 525.00 | 30% hot water costs = € 225.00 | ||||
| 65% especially Cost = € 500.50 | 35% vua. Cost = € 269.50 | 65% especially Cost = € 214.50 | 35% vua. Cost = € 115.50 | ||||
| heating costs | Hot water costs | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Consumption-dependent = € 500.50 | consumption-independent = € 794.50 | consumption-dependent = € 214.50 | consumption-independent = € 340.50 |
| Usage unit | heatable usable area | proportion of | vua. heating costs | Consumption of heating energy | proportion of | va. heating costs | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apartment 1 | 85 m² | 26.56% | € 211.04 | 5 MWh | 17.86% | € 89.38 | € 300.42 |
| Apartment 2 | 80 m² | 25.00% | € 198.63 | 8 MWh | 28.57% | € 143.00 | € 341.63 |
| Apartment 3 | 70 m² | 21.88% | € 173.80 | 9 MWh | 32.14% | € 160.88 | € 334.68 |
| Apartment 4 | 85 m² | 26.56% | € 211.04 | 6 MWh | 21.43% | € 107.25 | € 318.29 |
| to hum | 320 m² | 100.00% | € 794.51 | 28 MWh | 100.00% | € 500.51 | € 1,295.02 |
Rounding differences in the range of less than 10 cents are often not taken into account in practice and therefore also in this example.
Others
The Heating Costs Billing Act also defines options for applications in proceedings other than litigation, e.g. for determining the relationship between heating and hot water costs, and the necessary changes in WEG 1975, MRG and WGG are standardized.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Ministerialrat Dr. Sefelin: draft of a heating billing law ; Sending for assessment. In: parlament.gv.at. Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs, July 15, 1992, accessed on May 25, 2019 .
