Long-term incentives for energy-efficient building modernization with a focus on energy efficiency and electrification and the reduction of CO2 emissions in the building sector are being called for by three associations at once. The German Heat Pump Association (BWP), the Central Association of German Electrical and Information Technology Trades (ZVEH) and the Association of the Electrical and Digital Industry (ZVEI) make...

Do special rights apply to individual solar modules of a ground-mounted photovoltaic system? The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) recently dealt with this question and referred back four rulings of the Higher Regional Courts (V ZR 225/19/V ZR 8/20/V ZR 44/20 and V ZR 69/20). The plaintiff in these proceedings was an insolvency administrator of a company that had purchased a photovoltaic system in 2010. This had previously been installed on the...

The working group "Die Moderne Küche" (AMK) points out that there are more and more energy- and water-saving built-in appliances for kitchens, which more and more customers are opting for. Thus for example with appropriate dishwashers in the comparison to the normal washing up water can be saved. In addition, built-in appliances from the cooling product range are also particularly sustainable....

The mobile communications standard 5G, which enables high-speed data transmission, may have an impact on the value of real estate. This is the result of a study entitled "Value impact of mobile communications systems on land prices for single-family home use in rural areas". This was presented by Heribert Franz Pölzl in May 2021 at the Department of Construction and Environment at Danube University Krems in...

A new Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is available for sand-lime bricks. Environmental Product Declarations provide information on the environmental impact and life cycle of individual components. The new EPD was prepared in accordance with ISO 14025 and the new DIN 15804+A2 standard and includes data sets from 52 German sand-lime brick manufacturing plants from 2019, and is valid until 2026. According to information from the...

With the "Building Forum Climate Neutral", the German Energy Agency (dena) has created a new platform for climate-neutral building and renovation. On this site, dena has broken down information on topics such as "Serial refurbishment according to the energy-saving principle", "Facts, figures and figures on the building sector" and "Green & Sustainable Finance". In addition...

The sale and installation of a stair lift constitute contracts for work and services that can be revoked within 14 days. This was the decision of the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) following an action brought by a consumer association against a distributor of curved stairlifts. In the case in question, the distributor of the curved stair lifts had not provided its customers - except for one model - with a legal...

What bouquets are in demand in autumn and winter? And how can they be retied? The portal schoener-wohnen.de provides answers to these questions. In addition to simple bouquets, more striking bouquets are also shown in a photo series. Who likes it rather simply, can set for example on a dry flower bouquet from riding grass and foxtail in brown and red color. Also...

A study on the tokenization of real estate using blockchain technology has been published by Hamburg Commercial Bank AG (HCOB) and the Frankfurt School Blockchain Center (FSBC) at the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management. In it, they conclude that this method can revolutionize the conservative real estate market. According to HCBO and FSCB, when tokenizing a property, the...

Creating the conditions for more digitization and less democracy in construction - this is what Tim Müller, Managing Director of the German Construction Industry Federation (HDB), and Oliver Wittke, Managing Director of the Central Real Estate Committee (ZIA), are demanding from politicians. To this end, they propose, among other things, a digital completeness check of application documents for...