Organizing Against High Operating and Heating Costs — An Exchange of Experiences

Rising operating and heating costs are increasingly becoming a social issue. High additional heating cost claims at Vonovia, Adler, LEG and Co. have increasingly made the headlines, especially in the winter of 2023-24. But there is also resistance: tenants in Bottrop, Leipzig, Göttingen and Berlin are going on "heating cost strike" and refuse to pay until the landlord has presented them all the receipts. Rental initiatives were already successful in various places: In Bottrop-Welheim, Vonovia waived additional claims amounting to 240,000 euros, and tenants in Berlin-Mariendorf also achieved a correction of their heating bills due to their protests.

In this workshop, we want to share our experiences and make plans for the future: How do we organize our neighborhoods as effectively as possible to fight back together against high operating and heating costs? What experience did we have in recent years with resisting against exaggerated operating and heating costs through voucher audits? What lessons have we learned and what challenges are we facing? What do we learn from the reactions of landlords? How can we prepare for the upcoming billing period next winter together? And how can we become even more, to activate and support even more initiatives to defend ourselves against operating and heating cost rip-offs?