A gas heater for an apartment is a one-off requirement that the Jobcenter must pay for. This was decided by the Essen Regional Social Court (LSG) (L 19 AS 1736/21). In this case, a tenant had sued because the gas heater in her apartment had broken down after almost 50 years. However, the rental agreement with the landlord stipulated that the rented property did not include the radiators.
The tenant was receiving unemployment benefit II, bought a new gas heater for around 1,800 euros and had it installed. She demanded the money for this back from the Jobcenter. A dispute then arose as to whether or not the Jobcenter had to cover the costs. The dispute initially ended up before the Cologne Social Court, which dismissed the claim.
However, the LSG upheld the tenant's (plaintiff) appeal and came to the conclusion that the Jobcenter must bear the costs. The reasons for this were that the tenancy agreement had stipulated that the landlady was not responsible for replacing the radiators, that the purchase of a gas heater was necessary for the usability of the apartment and that the LSG also found the amount for the gas heater to be reasonable.
Source: lsg.nrw.de/(L 19 AS 1736/21)
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