From 1 July 2024, many tenants in Germany could have their television remain black. The reason for this is a change in the law. We will tell you whether you are also affected and what you should do immediately so that you don't miss your favorite TV shows.
Additional cost privilege for cable TV abolished from today
Specifically, this involves the abolition of the so-called “utility costs privilege”. This “affects tenants whose rental contract includes agreements on telecommunications connections and services (TV, Internet, telephone)”, according to the Federal Network Agency.
From July 1, 2024, landlords will no longer be allowed to bill the monthly fee for the TV or broadband connection agreed in the rental agreement as additional costs. Homeowners had previously often concluded collective contracts (multi-user contracts) with cable network operators. Billing is done via collective collection, explains the consumer advice center.
This means that individual tenants or apartment owners pay the costs for the cable connection to the property management via the utility bill. The property management then passes the money on to the cable network operator. But this is now finally over.
Who is affected by the new law and what tenants can do
This means that if you live in rented accommodation and watch TV via cable, you may no longer have a signal from today. Users of satellite dishes, antenna TV or streaming TV are not affected. If you want to continue watching TV via cable, you will have to sign a contract for it yourself from now on.
But for some tenants, the change could be more than welcome. The utility bill privilege was abolished because it has long been considered out of date, according to the consumer advice center: “Television broadcasting is now completely digital and there are also new distribution channels, such as television over the Internet.”
But until now, tenants were prevented from switching to alternative transmission methods because the cable connection still had to be paid for via the utility bill. In case of doubt, you therefore had to pay twice for television reception. This is now changing with the abolition of the utility bill privilege.
Source: Federal Network Agency, Consumer Advice Center
By Véronique Fritsche