Heating Shock: Residents of Leuvensehof and Vijverhorst Flats Face Thousands in Unexpected Energy Bills

Mats Dijkstra lives on the top floor of the Leuvensehof. Twelve storey tower block built in 1975. The 195 small rental apartments are well insulated. They have energy labels from E to G and are heated by block heating.

The entire building is heated through a gas boiler located at the bottom of the apartment building. The flats receive heat and hot water through water pipes. Each radiator in the living room, bathroom and bedroom has a small meter that measures the heat units consumed.

“I don’t shoot much”

Mats received an additional fee of more than 3,200 euros. He does not understand how this is possible. “I don’t shoot much and I never have the radiator knob set higher than position two. ” Mats doesn’t trust the meters on his radiator. According to him, the housing society has promised that a measuring company will check the meters.

Flatmate Jamey Doorstam had to pay more than 3,200 euros more. She doesn’t understand anything. “I work four days a week and the heating is off during the day. So I don’t heat much. And paying 3,218.61 euros more is a lot of money.” Last year, Jamey got 744 euros back. “Nothing has changed in my heating behavior.”

They are not the only ones with problems. TNO investigated how many households live in energy poverty. In 2022, 602,000 households will have to deal with high energy costs and 68 per cent of these energy inefficient households live in a rental home from a corporation and often have a low energy label (F+G) such a house.

Allowance for block heating

At the beginning of this year, the residents of the flats in Nijmegen received a letter from the housing association Portaal with the message: We will send half of your advance payment, because you will get money back through the subsidy scheme temporary for Heat Block (TTB). A few months later, an additional tax of thousands of euros will follow, while the 1,100 euro subsidy has already been removed.

Many residents are eagerly awaiting next year. Then they will no longer receive a TTB subsidy from the government and the price of gas for 2024 will be 0.85 euro cents per cubic meter of gas. The flat is scheduled to be renovated for 2027, so people are very worried about unaffordable energy bills in the coming years.

Evicted from home

Rob Careman, who lives in a distressed flat, says: “People are having sleepless nights and fear they will be evicted if they can’t pay their energy bill. Poor people live in this apartment, they don’t have a few thousand euros lying around.”

The story in Nijmegen does not stand alone. The Housing Association often receives complaints from tenants about high fees as well as block heating. “One of the reasons may be that there is an unequal distribution of costs. Block heating is often found in apartment buildings. People who are very close to the heating system have less heat loss the people on the upper floors,” says Woonbond spokesman Mathijs ten.

Go to the Rent Assessment Committee

The Housing Association advises people with a high additional tax to look at their bill carefully and if it is incorrect go to the Rent Assessment Committee. They can decide if this bill is fair and whether you should pay it or not.

Portaal Housing Association said in a written response to RTL News: “There are additional costs in the final bill due to higher consumption than the prepayment paid. There is no reason to believe that other factors are being play.”

Looking for a solution

The housing association understands that the final high bill is a ‘big impact and very unusual’. Portal will talk individually to all residents with a high bill and look for a solution.

“No one needs to fear having to leave their home. As a corporation, we always look at the appropriateness of housing costs and whether people are able to bear their burden,” said a spokesperson. .