A landlord may not simply turn off the hot water to his tenants, not even in summer. This was decided by the Frankfurt Administrative Court (case reference 8 L 1907/22.F). In this case, a landlord had cut off the gas supply to his tenants in the summer due to the Ukraine conflict and the associated supply bottlenecks and price increases.
The landlord stated that he wanted to protect his tenants from price increases. Furthermore, he was not obliged to provide hot water under the tenancy agreement. Furthermore, he was of the opinion that the tenants could have prepared their hot water in the kitchen and switched to electric heating in winter. An elderly resident in need of care then complained. She argued, among other things, that hot water is important for personal hygiene and is also a prerequisite for healthy living.
The housing authority of the city of Frankfurt then issued a housing supervisory order to the landlord (owner) to restore the gas supply to the property within one week. The owner wanted to defend himself against this decision by means of an urgent application. However, the Frankfurt Administrative Court ruled in favor of the resident and thus agreed with the housing authority. According to the administrative court, hot water is one of the minimum standards for decent housing in Germany. In addition, the costs for hot water and heating are covered by the tenants' advance payments for ancillary costs. The actual costs are also determined with the year-end statement.
Source: verwaltungsgerichtsbarkeit.hessen.de/AZ: 8 L 1907/22.F
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