5 ms·

Especially in Germany, where there is a new law coming out every five to ten years where you need to isolate your house or build solar or replace your old gas h

Especially in Germany, where there is a new law coming out every five to ten years where you need to isolate your house or build solar or replace your old gas heater etc etc etc. Its all in the name of environment protection. But makes owning a house more of a risk then anything else..

cheschire 7y ago
If you establish regular communication with your Gemeindeverwaltung, and simply get approval for all changes and renovations, you will never be surprised.
ccozan 7y ago
I live in Germany and I never heard of this "need". Nobody forces you. Yes, you may want to change your old heating (that's what I do), but you get a lot of subvention from the state. You do this, then you also get some good terms on taxing etc. Same with electricity. You get a better insurance policy if you have it new.
- foepys 7y ago
  Actually, you have to replace your heating every 30 years. Unless you are exempt, which is becoming more and more unlikely. See EnEV §10.
  - Bombthecat 7y ago
    A ton people don't hear about stuff like that,until they need a new credit for all those things...
  - ccozan 7y ago
    True ( I didn't know! ), but is damn 30 years!! I'm not sure that they last so long, especially the gas-based. And I am getting an exempt, because I am using Holzpellets ( not sure how are they called in English ) EDIT: Wood pellets, that is.
    - pjc50 7y ago
      I would be astonished to find any heating system more complicated than an open fire that lasted more than 30 years.
      - dsfyu404ed 7y ago
        Here in the US steam boilers routinely last that long as long as your water quality isn't too terrible and you do some teeny tiny bit of maintenance. The natural gas ones tend to last longer than the oil ones but both often have a many decade service life. The radiators and pipes themselves last upwards of a century. Wood stoves last basically indefinitely (i.e they are only taken out of service when the building owner decides they're sick of using wood) but you're probably gonna have to do something to make the seams seal better every several decades. Fireplaces last as long as the masonry they're made from (~250yr and counting) as long as you don't let them fall apart and leak CO everywhere. I know some people who live in a house built in the 1700s and while they have forced hot air for "base load" they use the fireplaces to make the downstairs rooms extra warm almost daily in the winter. That said, this is only one step above your "open fire".
  - Bombthecat 7y ago
    Just checked the paragraph,on the site I found they list related laws .. Jesus,it's worse than I thought.its like a stack of cards.it can happen if you touch one thing,you are forced to renew other things...
adrianN 7y ago
I wish such laws existed in Germany, but I never heard of them. It's still legal to build new houses that depend on fossil fuel for heating and are poorly insulated, even though we need to become carbon neutral in the next fifteen to twenty years if we want to stay below 2° of warming. The Denkmalschutzbehörde can still prevent you from upgrading your windows and adding insulation to your home.
- Bombthecat 7y ago
  Never heard about the payment for streets in front of your house for example?
  - adrianN 7y ago
    That seems to be a form of property tax and very different from insulating your house.
    - sparkling 7y ago
      That "property tax" can - in some cases - cost you 100k Euro or more.
      - adrianN 7y ago
        In return you get a road to your house I suppose. That seems pretty useful. You can also do your research when purchasing a home and check how old the road is and what the local regulations are. That roads need to be redone every twenty five to forty years shouldn't come as a surprise.
vintermann 7y ago
Germany is special in more ways than one, as I understand owning isn't so heavily subsidized vs. renting there compared to other western countries. It's at least far more common to rent in Germany. You also ran pretty clear of the housing bubble. I wonder if there's a connection there.
- pintxo 7y ago
  I'd argue that the connection is that owning real estate here is not as heavily supported by the overall tax and financial framework. Two examples: Mortgage payments are not tax-deductible and and you are personally on the hook for the mortgage, as in you cannot send the keys to the bank and simply walk away without debt.
  - pjc50 7y ago
    Those are also true of the UK with its massive property bubble, although curiously landlords can deduct mortgage from tax but owner-occupiers can't. I think the real difference is that Germany has proper tenant's rights and a functioning social landlord system.

cheschire 7y ago

If you establish regular communication with your Gemeindeverwaltung, and simply get approval for all changes and renovations, you will never be surprised.

ccozan 7y ago

I live in Germany and I never heard of this "need". Nobody forces you. Yes, you may want to change your old heating (that's what I do), but you get a lot of subvention from the state. You do this, then you also get some good terms on taxing etc. Same with electricity. You get a better insurance policy if you have it new.

foepys 7y ago
Actually, you have to replace your heating every 30 years. Unless you are exempt, which is becoming more and more unlikely. See EnEV §10.
- Bombthecat 7y ago
  A ton people don't hear about stuff like that,until they need a new credit for all those things...
- ccozan 7y ago
  True ( I didn't know! ), but is damn 30 years!! I'm not sure that they last so long, especially the gas-based. And I am getting an exempt, because I am using Holzpellets ( not sure how are they called in English ) EDIT: Wood pellets, that is.
  - pjc50 7y ago
    I would be astonished to find any heating system more complicated than an open fire that lasted more than 30 years.
    - dsfyu404ed 7y ago
      Here in the US steam boilers routinely last that long as long as your water quality isn't too terrible and you do some teeny tiny bit of maintenance. The natural gas ones tend to last longer than the oil ones but both often have a many decade service life. The radiators and pipes themselves last upwards of a century. Wood stoves last basically indefinitely (i.e they are only taken out of service when the building owner decides they're sick of using wood) but you're probably gonna have to do something to make the seams seal better every several decades. Fireplaces last as long as the masonry they're made from (~250yr and counting) as long as you don't let them fall apart and leak CO everywhere. I know some people who live in a house built in the 1700s and while they have forced hot air for "base load" they use the fireplaces to make the downstairs rooms extra warm almost daily in the winter. That said, this is only one step above your "open fire".
- Bombthecat 7y ago
  Just checked the paragraph,on the site I found they list related laws .. Jesus,it's worse than I thought.its like a stack of cards.it can happen if you touch one thing,you are forced to renew other things...

adrianN 7y ago

I wish such laws existed in Germany, but I never heard of them. It's still legal to build new houses that depend on fossil fuel for heating and are poorly insulated, even though we need to become carbon neutral in the next fifteen to twenty years if we want to stay below 2° of warming. The Denkmalschutzbehörde can still prevent you from upgrading your windows and adding insulation to your home.

Bombthecat 7y ago
Never heard about the payment for streets in front of your house for example?
- adrianN 7y ago
  That seems to be a form of property tax and very different from insulating your house.
  - sparkling 7y ago
    That "property tax" can - in some cases - cost you 100k Euro or more.
    - adrianN 7y ago
      In return you get a road to your house I suppose. That seems pretty useful. You can also do your research when purchasing a home and check how old the road is and what the local regulations are. That roads need to be redone every twenty five to forty years shouldn't come as a surprise.

vintermann 7y ago

Germany is special in more ways than one, as I understand owning isn't so heavily subsidized vs. renting there compared to other western countries. It's at least far more common to rent in Germany. You also ran pretty clear of the housing bubble. I wonder if there's a connection there.

pintxo 7y ago
I'd argue that the connection is that owning real estate here is not as heavily supported by the overall tax and financial framework. Two examples: Mortgage payments are not tax-deductible and and you are personally on the hook for the mortgage, as in you cannot send the keys to the bank and simply walk away without debt.
- pjc50 7y ago
  Those are also true of the UK with its massive property bubble, although curiously landlords can deduct mortgage from tax but owner-occupiers can't. I think the real difference is that Germany has proper tenant's rights and a functioning social landlord system.