Changes to cost apportionment for cable TV in the ancillary costs

With the new Telecommunications Act, cable TV charges can no longer be passed on. This means that since July 2024, landlords are no longer allowed to pass on cable TV fees to tenants in their ancillary costs. Since 1 July 2024 at the latest, those affected had to decide whether they want to continue using their existing cable TV connection or switch to a different TV signal.

The change affects all tenants who pay a charge for cable television via the ancillary rental costs. This is currently estimated to be over 12 million households in Germany. You can check your tenancy agreement or your last utility bill to see if you are affected. If you are not sure, simply ask your landlord or property management company.

In many tenancy agreements signed before December 2021, cable charges are still regularly included in the ancillary costs. In these cases, there is a transitional period during which the charges for cable TV may still be passed on to tenants. This also applies to rental agreements concluded after the cut-off date of 1 December 2021.

You do not need a new tenancy agreement. The abolition simply means that, as a tenant, you will no longer have to pay for the cable TV connection via the ancillary costs since 1 July 2024.

Since 30.06.24, it will no longer be permissible to pass on the costs of cable connections to tenants. It can happen that landlords overlook this change and still include the costs in the ancillary cost calculation. In such cases, tenants should lodge an objection and deduct incorrectly charged costs from back payments or, in the case of credit balances, demand that they be paid out.

You can obtain information directly from your landlord/landlady or your property management company. On the internet you can find general information on the elimination of cost apportionment for cable TV.

Since 1 July 2024, landlords will no longer be allowed to pass on the costs of cable TV contracts to tenants. They will then either have to conclude an individual cable connection contract or switch to digital television alternatives.

If it is already clear to you that you definitely no longer want to watch cable TV, you can contact your landlord/landlady today and give notice of termination yourself with effect from 30 June.

If you want to keep cable TV, you should enquire about offers from your local cable provider in advance.

Tenants can choose any provider they like. There is no obligation to stay with the old provider. A comparison is worthwhile. There are reception methods such as TV streaming that offer more convenience and flexibility and may even be cheaper. However, it is usually not possible to change the cable provider as the regional cable network belongs to a specific provider.

If the cable connection 2024 is no longer used, it will probably be blocked by the cable provider. This is done either centrally for all flats in the house or via a so-called blocking socket exclusively in the affected flat.

If the apportionability is discontinued, it is basically only a matter of paying for the cable connection via the ancillary rental costs. The signal or cable will continue to exist. If you would like to continue to receive internet via cable after 1 July, but no longer your television, your cable provider may contact you. If you want to be on the safe side, you can also ask your cable provider in advance whether you have to pay a cable connection fee for your cable internet. In principle, it is no problem to receive only Internet (without TV) via cable these days. Simply install an appropriate filter box.

After 1 July 2024, tenants will no longer be entitled to the provision of cable TV by landlords. If the collective agreement is terminated by 30 June 2024 and tenants have not organised an alternative television option, TV reception via cable could theoretically no longer be possible from 1 July 2024. Anyone who researches TV reception options early on and signs a new contract with a provider will not experience any interruptions in TV reception after July 1. Affected tenants should carefully examine various offers in terms of price-performance ratio before possibly hastily accepting bait-and-switch offers or concluding long-term contracts.

The consumer advice centre in Germany assumes that a cable connection will become approx. 2-3 euros more expensive from July 2024. However, there are numerous alternative TV reception methods that are already significantly cheaper than cable TV. Experts also assume that cable providers will try to keep as many rented households as possible connected to cable TV with corresponding offers. The consumer advice centre therefore also warns against so-called door-to-door sales which may urge you to sign a new contract.

An alternative to cable TV is TV streaming, i.e. watching TV over the internet. Here you simply use your existing internet connection to receive your TV signal. With today's infrastructure, the internet bandwidth is usually sufficient to watch TV in the best picture quality and without interference. Other well-known alternatives are satellite television and DVB-T2, i.e. television via antenna.

With TV streaming apps such as Zattoo, you can watch TV easily and flexibly. All you need is an internet connection and you can watch TV anywhere, whether at home or on the move, on your TV, laptop or smartphone. Installation is very easy and you don't need any additional hardware such as a receiver. This saves you additional hardware costs and expensive set-up fees. With TV streaming, you also have the option to test the service for 30 days free of charge and can cancel at any time on a monthly basis without long contract periods.

The consumer advice centre warns against media consultants at the front door. Tenants should not let anyone into their home. According to the consumer advice centre, these so-called media consultants are freelance salespeople who work on behalf of the cable network operator and are paid on a commission basis. Don't let yourself be rushed into signing anything on the spot. Your cable TV will not be switched off overnight. For further information, please contact the consumer advice centre.

In order to protect consumers, the legislator grants a right of cancellation for such contracts concluded outside the business premises of the provider. Consumers must be made aware of this right of cancellation. Therefore, if such a contract has been signed, the " fine print" in particular should also be read. Consumers have a cancellation period of 14 days from the day the contract is concluded if the cancellation policy has been properly explained. The contract can be cancelled within this period without further justification. If consumers have not been informed about the right of cancellation or have not been informed correctly, they can even cancel for one year and 14 days. However, it is recommended to avoid such " door-to-door sales" as a matter of principle.

This depends on how your house is wired.. With newer cabling, which is set up like a star network, no access to your home is necessary as everything can be controlled from the basement. However, with older wiring that branches out like a tree, the technician will need to enter your home to install a special lock. Even if the exact legal rules are a bit complicated, the basic rule is that you should allow the technician access, especially if you no longer have a cable contract. This will prevent the connection from being used illegally. Once a lock has been installed, it should not be removed as this can have legal consequences.

No. The monthly payments for operating costs are advance payments. The amount of the advance payments can only be changed unilaterally after a statement of account. Section 560 (4) BGB applies here. If advance payments for operating costs have been agreed, either party can adjust the amount to an appropriate level by means of a declaration in text form following a statement of account. For tenants, this means that if they have a credit balance, they can reduce the advance payments to an appropriate amount. It is therefore important to wait for the next statement of operating costs.

Tenants are strongly advised not to simply watch television via cable without paying. It will be extremely difficult to convince them that they did not know about the changeover. Providers, landlords and property managers have largely pointed this out. The information was also present in the media. Without a contract, you are simply not allowed to use cable TV, even if it cannot be technically prevented by the providers on your own home connection in individual cases. Anyone who uses a television without a cable contract is liable for damages. This could also be relevant under criminal law. This is because you could be accused of deliberately using a service that you know is subject to a charge.

Mehrere Kabelnetzbetreiber haben bereits angefangen die TV-Anschlüsse von Schwarzsehern ohne gültigen Vertrag abzuschalten. Nachdem beispielsweise Vodafone bereits in mehreren Städten Anschlüsse gesperrt hat, beginnt nun auch Netcologne schrittweise TV-Anschlüsse abzuschalten, die nach dem Ende des Nebenkostenprivilegs am 1. Juli 2024 ohne gültigen Vertrag genutzt werden. Der Kabelnetzbetreiber bot betroffenen Mieter*innen zuvor Vertragsoptionen an und informiert seit Monaten über die bevorstehende Abschaltung. Netcologne bietet dennoch eine Hotline für Mieter*innen an, die kurz vor der Abschaltung noch einen Vertrag abschließen möchten. Mehr liest du im Artikel Netcologne schaltet Schwarzseher ab.