Only one in ten property management companies bills heating costs digitally

The heating cost statement is the moment many households first learn how the past year went. By then it is too late for any reaction: winter is over, consumption is fixed, and so is the back payment. That is exactly what lawmakers wanted to change.

What our analysis shows

We analyzed which services the property management companies in our directory list on their own websites. On the subject of heating costs, the picture is thin:

• A digital heating cost statement is mentioned by one in ten property management companies.
• The CO2 cost allocation is mentioned by only about one in a hundred.

For context: we evaluate what a company itself states publicly. A firm that has mastered the topic but does not put it on its website does not show up here. As a lower bound, the finding is still meaningful, because both are topics you advertise if you can deliver them.

The real lever is the monthly consumption update

Since 2022 the rule has been: wherever remotely readable meters are installed, users must receive monthly consumption information. That is what the German Heating Costs Ordinance (Heizkostenverordnung) requires. It is the most effective part of the entire regulation, because it reverses the logic. Those who see every month what they consume can adjust course while the heating season is still running. Those who find out once a year get surprised.

In addition, billing under the Heating Costs Ordinance is largely tied to actual consumption anyway: 50 to 70 percent of the costs are billed by consumption, the rest by floor area. Heating economically therefore has an immediate effect. But that is of little use if the information only arrives once the year is over.

The obligation exists. What is missing is the implementation that turns it into something usable: a monthly overview that is easy to understand, that sits in an online portal instead of a stack of paper, and that can be compared with the previous year.

For landlords it gets concrete

Since 2023, the CO2 costs of fuels in residential buildings have been split between landlord and tenant according to a ten-tier model. The logic behind it: the worse the building's energy performance, the higher the landlord's share. If you rent out a poorly insulated building, you share the bill.

This affects everyone who rents out a condominium, and it makes the difference between a property manager that prepares this cleanly and one that leaves it to you immediately noticeable. The data for the classification comes from the statement of the condominium owners' association (WEG). So in the selection interview, do not hesitate to ask directly how the CO2 allocation is presented and whether you receive the figures ready to use for your own service charge settlement with your tenant.

How a statement is structured and what you should check is explained in our guide on the service charge statement. If you would rather improve the building's energy performance than merely distribute the costs, you will find the right order of measures in our guide on energy-efficient renovation.

Basis: our own analysis of the information published on the websites of the property management companies in our directory, as of January 2026.