French landlord faces questions over near 300% increase in heating costs

Residents of a large apartment block in the Parisian suburbs are taking their landlord to court after heating costs tripled over a one-year period. 

Residents are refusing to pay the increasing costs, with some facing debts of thousands of euros and eviction threats.

Heating costs for the 198-unit ‘Ermitage’ building in La Queue-en-Brie (Val-de-Marne) went from €82,000 in 2022, to €268,000 in 2023 before a further 20% increase in 2024.

The building, which has communal heating, is owned and managed by Antin Résidences, a housing group.

Antin Résidences says the high costs are unavoidable, resulting from the end of an advantageous contract for heating the building and the impact of the War in Ukraine on energy costs. 

“We tried to anticipate these increases so that we could smooth them out over time,” a spokesperson for the group said to Le Parisien (paywall article). 

“But right now we are still waiting for the bill for the application of the energy shield [editor’s note: the bouclier tarifaire, a policy which limited price increases for energy bills during the energy crisis] for the second half of 2023 from our energy supplier.”

It says residents were well-informed in advance about the increases.

Read more: Confirmed: Electricity bills to drop by 15% from February for most French households

Residents fight back

“They have this bill [allowing the energy shield to be implemented], but they don't want to pass it on to us so that we can finally check the charges,” said Aurore Cornette, president of the building’s tenants association.

Although the landlord says that it has a debt repayment plan in place for tenants, “they [Antin Résidences] have refused to pay the debts of one of the tenants, they are taking her to court [and are trying to evict],” Ms Cornette added. 

The tenant, aged in her seventies, is over €5,000 in debt due to the increased costs and faces a court summons over her eviction in February. 

The association is now planning legal action over the costs against the building owner  who has been summoned to appear in front of local authorities at the end of the month. 

Read more: Many older French properties hit by energy audit