The goal is noble, the way rocky. By 2040, Austria should be able to phase out fossil fuels for heating and hot water in the housing industry. This is what the Renewable Heat Act provides. Depending on the age of the system, the 600,000 oil heaters will be on the mend as early as 2025. The remaining 8,000 coal heating systems must also be shut down by 2035. The draft envisages the end of gas by 2040.
It’s about 900,000 gas boilers in single-family houses, apartment buildings and tenements, especially in Vienna. Now the Association of the Austrian Real Estate Industry (ÖVI) has spoken. Because as clear as the need to exit appears, the legal situation with the pitfalls of the residential property and tenancy law is difficult.
“We have to get the tenants on board,” says ÖVI Managing Director Anton Holzapfel. Because if a landlord wants to get away from gas, the tenant can block it. “The apartment owners are currently the losers,” criticizes ÖVI board member Udo Weinberger. Because even those who go ahead and invest in photovoltaics and heat pumps run the risk of having to keep the gas network in the house for years because of a veto by others. The deduction of 25 percent on benchmark rents for gas boilers proposed by Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler also infuriated the ÖVI. Rather, a modernization levy based on the German model should be considered for tenants if they benefit from climate-friendly investments by landlords with low heating costs. (haas)
Source: Nachrichten
