Every year, a “very special time of year” is approaching for many tenants, when it is gradually getting colder outside, the wind and weather are getting worse and worse and, while drinking punch, you are already looking forward to returning home to your cozy, warm apartment……. and discover that the boiler is broken!
The government bill submitted to the National Council on 11.11.2014 (352 BlgNR 25. GP) plans fundamental changes to the MRG (in particular with regard to the maintenance of heating boilers, hot water boilers and other heat-generating appliances). The planned changes affect rental objects both in the full and partial area of application of the MRG. The landlord‘s maintenance obligation is to be extended by one, albeit rather controversial, task: In future, he is to be obliged to maintain heating boilers, hot water boilers and other heat-generating appliances inside the rented property – also in the area of partial application of the MRG.
It is constitutionally questionable that this provision will come into force on March 1, 2015 and will also apply to rental agreements concluded before this date. This means that even if a tenancy agreement effectively stipulates an obligation to maintain the boiler at the tenant’s expense, this mutually agreed contractual provision would be derogated by law. It is therefore clear that a new regulation in the manner proposed in the government bill would retroactively encroach on the landlord’s sphere of assets.