Heating bill in your rental home: deadlines, objections and back payments

If you pay on account (aconto) for heating to your landlord, you must get a heating bill (varmeregnskab) every year, as a rule no later than 4 months after the end of the accounting year. If you disagree with it, you must object in writing to the landlord no later than 6 weeks after you received it. If the bill arrives too late, the landlord loses the right to demand a back payment (sections 75, 77 and 79 of the Rent Act (lejeloven), in Danish).

The rules here apply to private rental homes, including when you rent an owner-occupied or co-operative apartment from a private landlord. If you live in public housing (almen bolig), the Act on the Renting of Public Housing (lov om leje af almene boliger) applies, and you complain about the bill to your housing association (Copenhagen Municipality, in Danish). If you own your home and get the bill from the owners’ association, you are not a tenant, and the Rent Act does not apply to you.

What is a heating bill, and when should you get it?

If the landlord supplies heating and hot water, the landlord can require you to pay the costs of your consumption, and as a rule they cannot be included in the rent (section 65). Instead, you typically pay an on-account amount together with the rent, and when the year is over, the landlord works out what you actually used. The law calls this a consumption statement (forbrugsregnskab), and there must be a separate statement for each of these: heating and hot water, cooling, water, electricity and gas (section 72(1)). If you rent a single room, however, heating can be included in the rent (section 65(2)), and then you do not get a bill.

When does the heating accounting year begin?

Unless otherwise agreed, the accounting year for heating, cooling, electricity and gas begins on 1 June. If the heating comes from a collective system such as district heating or from natural gas, the bill must instead follow the supplier’s accounting year or meter-reading period. The water bill follows the year the landlord settles with the municipality or the waterworks, but the landlord can choose to have it follow the heating bill (section 74). Your lease shows the date: in the authorised lease, standard form A (typeformular A), it is in section 5 under «Varmeregnskabsåret begynder den» (the heating accounting year begins on). The landlord can move the date with 6 weeks’ notice, and the transitional period may be no more than 18 months (section 74(2)).

The deadlines for the heating bill

What	Deadline	Rent Act
The bill must have reached you	4 months after the end of the accounting year, or 3 months after the landlord received the final statement from district heating or gas, if that is later	Section 75
You object in writing	6 weeks after the bill reached you	Section 77
The landlord brings the case before the Rent Tribunal	6 weeks after your deadline has expired	Section 77
The back payment falls due	With the first rent payment after 1 month has passed since the bill reached you	Section 78
You may withhold on-account payments	When the bill has not arrived 2 months after the deadline	Section 79(2)

An example: your accounting year ends on 31 May 2026, and the landlord got the final statement from the supplier in early June. The bill must then reach you no later than 30 September 2026. If you get it on 15 September, you have until and including 27 October to object, and the landlord has until 8 December to bring the case before the tribunal. If you pay rent on the 1st of the month, a back payment falls due on 1 November.

What the bill must contain

The bill must state your share of the total costs and your right to object. If it arrives after the 4-month deadline because the landlord is waiting for the supplier, it must also state when the landlord received the final statement. If any of this information is missing, the bill is invalid (section 73), and an invalid bill does not give the landlord the right to demand a back payment, writes Copenhagen Municipality (in Danish).

The law also governs what may be included in the heating bill (section 72(2) to (5)):

• Only the cost of energy consumption in the accounting period. If the heating comes from district heating or natural gas, the total cost of the supply is included.
• Costs of checking, inspecting and maintaining the heating system that the landlord is required to carry out under the Act on the Promotion of Energy Savings in Buildings.
• Since 1 January 2024, reasonable costs of the monthly consumption information the landlord must provide when there are remotely read meters (Act no. 1793 of 28 December 2023, in Danish).
• The energy label, spread in equal amounts over the years the label is valid.
• Discounts and the like must be credited to the bill, so the tenants benefit from them.

As a rule, the cost is divided between the tenants according to suitable consumption meters (section 66). You have the right to see the documentation for the bill at the property or somewhere else in the same urban area, and you can send someone else in your place (section 76).

Check this when the bill arrives

• The date it reached you. Your own deadlines are counted from it.
• The period: does it match the accounting year in your lease?
• Your share and the on-account amounts the bill says you have paid. Compare with your own bank statements.
• Whether the information about objecting is there, and for a late bill, the date of the supplier’s final statement.
• The meter readings, if you have noted them yourself.

When the bill is late or incomplete

If the bill has not reached you by the deadline in section 75, the landlord loses the right to demand a back payment (section 79(1)). If you have paid too much on account, you must still get the money back. If the bill has not arrived 2 months after the deadline, you may stop paying on account until you have received the bill and any amount owed to you (section 79(2)). Write to the landlord before you do this, and stick to the dates. Otherwise, on-account payments are a mandatory payment (pligtig pengeydelse), just like the rent (section 72(3)).

If the landlord has left out an item of expenditure through an excusable mistake, the item may be carried over to next year’s bill, but only up to an amount of 10 per cent of the total costs in the first bill, and the landlord must inform you of the amount (section 80(1)). If the costs have been divided wrongly between the tenants, the landlord must correct the mistake in writing as soon as possible for the tenants affected (section 80(2)).

If, for example, you live in a gable-end apartment and think the bill should adjust for the exposed location, that is not a question the Rent Tribunal can decide. It belongs to the housing court (boligretten), writes Copenhagen Municipality (in Danish).

How to object to the heating bill

1. Note the date the bill reached you. Your deadline is 6 weeks from that day (section 77). If you do not object in time, the back payment stands, writes Copenhagen Municipality.
2. Ask to see the documentation if you want to check the figures (section 76). Do it straight away, so you do not lose time.
3. Write the objection and state exactly which points you cannot accept. An objection without that information does not meet the requirements of the law.
4. Send it to the landlord or the property manager. Not to the Rent Tribunal, and not to the company that prepared the bill (Copenhagen Municipality). Send it well before the deadline, and keep a copy and proof of when you sent it.
5. Pay the back payment when it falls due, even if you disagree.
6. If the landlord wants to maintain the claim, the landlord must bring the case before the Rent Tribunal no later than 6 weeks after your deadline has expired. Otherwise, the claim lapses. If the landlord does not do so, you can bring the case yourself, as long as you objected in time.

An example of an objection you can adapt:

I hereby object to the heating bill for the period 1 June 2025 to 31 May 2026, which I received on 15 September 2026. I cannot accept the following points: (write the points). I also ask to go through the documentation for the bill, cf. section 76 of the Rent Act.

If the property has tenants’ representatives (beboerrepræsentanter), they can object on behalf of all tenants (section 77). The Rent Tribunal decides disagreements about payment for heating, water, electricity and gas, including on-account payments (section 82). Read how to complain to the Rent Tribunal in Copenhagen, and what it costs.

Back payments and refunds

If you have paid too little on account, the landlord can demand an extra payment with the first rent payment due after 1 month has passed since the bill reached you. If the amount is more than 3 months’ rent, you have the right to pay it in 3 equal monthly instalments, and the first instalment falls due at the same time. If you move out, the extra payment must be paid no later than the day you move out (section 78(1)).

An example: your rent is DKK 10,000 a month, and the back payment is DKK 36,000. That is more than 3 months’ rent, so you can pay it in three monthly instalments of DKK 12,000, the first on the day the back payment falls due.

The back payment is a mandatory payment, and that matters. Copenhagen Municipality writes that you must pay it when the landlord demands it, even if the case has been brought before the Rent Tribunal, and that failing to pay can lead to the tenancy being terminated. So pay and object. One does not rule out the other.

If you have paid too much, the surplus must be paid back to you or deducted from the first rent payment after the bill has reached you (section 78(2)).

On-account payments: how much can the landlord charge?

With 6 weeks’ notice before a payment date, the landlord can require you to pay on account, or increase the amount. The contribution is paid in equal amounts together with the rent (section 71(1) and (2)). There is a ceiling: the total contributions for a year may be no more than the cost expected for the accounting period, and after an increase, the monthly contribution may be no more than 1/12 of the expected annual cost (section 71(3)).

If you got a large back payment, it can be to your advantage for the on-account amount to go up to a realistic level, so you are not left with a new bill next year. If, on the other hand, you think the landlord is charging more than the expected cost, the disagreement can be brought before the Rent Tribunal (section 82). On-account payments are not part of the rent itself, and adjustments to the rent follow other rules. Read about rent adjustment.

The heating bill when you move out

The Rent Act has no special deadline for a bill when you move out. The deadlines are counted from the end of the accounting year, so if you move in the middle of the year, the settlement of your heating typically only comes when the year is over. The deadlines also apply to you even though you have moved, and so does your 6-week deadline for objecting.

• Give the landlord your new address no later than 8 days before you move out (section 186(2)). That way, the bill and other notices can reach you.
• Take a photo of the heat meters and the water meter on the day you hand over the keys, and get the readings into the move-out report if there is an inspection.
• If a bill has reached you before you move, a back payment must be paid no later than the day you move out (section 78).

What the landlord may deduct from your deposit, and when you get the rest back, is covered in the guide get your deposit back. If you have not yet given notice, read about giving notice on your rental home and the notice period. And if you want to see how utilities and on-account payments are written into a new lease, we go through standard form A10 field by field.

Sources

• The Rent Act (lov om leje, lejeloven), Act no. 341 of 22 March 2022 as amended (Retsinformation, in Danish)
• Act no. 1793 of 28 December 2023 amending the Rent Act and others, reimbursement of costs of monthly consumption readings (Retsinformation, in Danish)
• Water, heating and electricity bills (Copenhagen Municipality, in Danish)
• What the rent tribunals can deal with (Copenhagen Municipality, in Danish)
• Heating and water bills in public housing (Copenhagen Municipality, in Danish)
• Standard form A, 10th edition, with guidance (Ministry of Social Affairs and Housing, in Danish)