Privilege for additional costs no longer applies: cancel cable TV – this applies to tenants and homeowners’ associations

• As of July 1, 2024, the so-called additional cost privilege will be repealed.
• This means that costs for cable TV can no longer be allocated via operating cost accounting.
• Tenants can sign a new contract and stay with cable, or freely switch to IPTV, satellite reception or streaming.

In a few months, the additional cost privilege will expire – different times will dawn for tenants when it comes to TV: While many are currently forced to pay for cable television through the additional costs, from July 1, 2024, the choice of the reception method for the television program will be completely free.

While cable providers like Vodafone are worried about their customers, IPTV and streaming providers like Zattoo and Waipu.tv are hoping for a large increase in subscribers and are therefore pushing hard. Some landlords may even install a satellite dish and some tenants will simply forgo TV because they didn’t use it before and still had to pay.

But what will happen to the contracts of tenant households and homeowners’ associations on the deadline? This is what the transition from the period of additional cost privileges to the free choice of TV reception will look like:

Tenants don’t have to stick with cable TV

Anyone who has previously paid the costs for their cable TV through the additional costs and therefore has no direct contractual relationship with the provider does not have to cancel the connection. Instead, the network operator will probably proactively contact you with an offer and try to reach an individual agreement in order to retain you as a customer.

Important: You do not have to enter into a contract with Vodafone or PYUR in order to continue watching television. There are numerous alternatives to TV reception via cable where you can save monthly.

Even if company representatives ring your door and threaten to turn off your cable connection, you are not under any pressure to act. If you want to conclude your own cable TV subscription agreement and continue to use the connection, you can contact the local provider at any time.

If you do not sign a contract with the cable network operator, the corresponding socket in your home may be sealed. The provider does this to avoid using the connection by non-paying households. Because there is no free basic service with TV reception via cable, unlike with antenna and satellite. The ability to use the cable network for other services such as the Internet remains unaffected.

Homeowners’ associations: The majority decides

The situation is somewhat more complicated for the connections of properties with owners’ associations. According to the consumer advice center, the community decides by majority vote on whether to continue existing contracts with the cable network operator.

Even if the costs can no longer be allocated and the tenants can no longer be asked to pay, each owner of the community must continue to pay their share of the connection when deciding whether to continue the contract.

Differences of opinion are particularly likely to arise in apartment buildings in which apartments are partly used by the owners themselves as living space and partly as rental properties. While the apartment owners living in the house are certainly interested in continuing the joint contract and could probably save in the medium term compared to individual contracts, a paid share of the cable contract for pure landlords only means additional costs without any profit.

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