Dates for turning central heating on and off

Can anyone tell me what/if the rules still exist for landlords and when heating must be turned on? I seem to recall there were dates for turning on and off.

in some buildings they turn the heating on centrally, in others they don't
you need to check with your hausmeister or with your neighbours, it varies

Thanks, but what I really meant was: is there a German law that states a date that a landlord must have heating turned on?
Sorry.

There's a "heating season" that usually goes from October 1st to April 30th, but this depends on the rental contract.

However, there's also a minimum indoor temperature defined (18° C indoors, 16°C outdoors for longer than a day) at which the tenant can usually demand heating being turned on, and there's a minimum temperature (22° C during the day, 18°C at night) to which the living spaces have to be heated.

This has been upheld in several court decisions where tenants were allowed to cut rental payments (usually by 10-20%) for these reasons.

http://www.mieterbund.de/

There are no dates set in law, and it should be stated in your rental contract, but it's generally accepted that the heating should be on (or at least available to the tenant) from October to April, or outside of this period if the outdoor temperature drops under 18 for a period of time. There have been varying legal opinions from German courts, including heating must be on if: "outdoor temperature under 12 degrees for more than 3 days", "room temperature under 16 degrees" and "room temperature maintainable at 20-23 degrees in the day, 17-18 degrees at night"

The heating in our building seems to go on and off at whim which is really annoying. I need to talk to someone about it. It seems to be "on" at the moment...

Renia, it may be that it is regulated based on outside temperature. In the house I lived in in Heidelberg, it was set to be turned on if outside temperatures dropped under a certain temp, not sure which exactly anymore.
Not sure how the weather is in Germany at the moment, is it cold enough for this to be a possible cause?

I know East of Munich is bloody cold this morning with quite thick fog. In our apartment our radiators all have temperature gauges so have had them all off since July, but will probably switch them on this week and see if the place gets warm.

So, its now the 8th of October am I the only person who doesn't have their heating available yet?

I must admit I'm not one for having a hot & stuffy house and tend not to have many radiators on, even in the winter, but the past few nights temparatures have dropped pretty low, and whilst I have a large hairy husband and dog to keep me warm I do worry about the little old lady downstairs...

The weather has been pretty consistant over the past few days and has been an average daytime temparature of 13 degrees dropping to 5 at night.

Looks like another e-mail to the management company ... joy

same issue here. i turned on one heater this morning and it seemed to finally be on. i'll try again tonight to see, but yeah, my bedroom was 18° this morning. a bit too cold for my tastes (getting out of bed is a beatch).

I will never, I repeat never, live in another wohnung here in Germany where I cannot control my own heat all year round. Over the last 10 years I've had so many bad experiences with this. There's nothing more frustrating to me than being cold inside my flat. I'm very fortunate now to live in a place with gas heat with a thermostat and I control my own heat 24/7 all year round.

My house owner refuses to turn on the heating until November 1st earliest. If I want to keep warm I close a window now and then.

My bf said ours was regulated to turn on if the inside temp got under 9 degrees...not sure about that but I had to turn it on last night because it was cold. At least it worked...

...and I'm sure your bf enjoyed it too. Or did you mean the heating?