hTTi

Good day to all you people out there. I have been living and renting a fully furnished 4o sq meter apartment for the past 6 years. I pay my Vermieter 600 euros every month in cash to sidestep the tax issue for her.I have no written contract. Apparently I can appy for Wohngeld once I get to below the 60,000 euros threshold of assets. I am now very close to this threshold.The 600 euros that I pay monthly includes all the utilities heating, electricity, internet , water etc etc etc. I read somewhere that all tenants are liable to pay their 'Kabelfernsehen' as at Jan 2024.
I therefore have 2 questions relating to Wohngeld
- If my Vermieter draws up a contract for me say for example : Kaltmiete 350 euros...Warmmiete 600 euros ( Betriebskosten and Nebenskosten = 250 euros) and the contract says my wlan/Kabelfernsehen is free will the Housing authorities accept this? or
- Is there any way of side stepping this wlan/Kabel issue?
I would appreciate any response from anyone out there. Have a great day.

Yellow Snow wrote: ↑Tue Apr 28, 2026 7:22 am Good day to all you people out there. I have been living and renting a fully furnished 4o sq meter apartment for the past 6 years. I pay my Vermieter 600 euros every month in cash to sidestep the tax issue for her.I have no written contract. Apparently I can appy for Wohngeld once I get to below the 60,000 euros threshold of assets. I am now very close to this threshold.The 600 euros that I pay monthly includes all the utilities heating, electricity, internet , water etc etc etc. I read somewhere that all tenants are liable to pay their 'Kabelfernsehen' as at Jan 2024.
I therefore have 2 questions relating to Wohngeld
- If my Vermieter draws up a contract for me say for example : Kaltmiete 350 euros...Warmmiete 600 euros ( Betriebskosten and Nebenskosten = 250 euros) and the contract says my wlan/Kabelfernsehen is free will the Housing authorities accept this? or
- Is there any way of side stepping this wlan/Kabel issue?
I would appreciate any response from anyone out there. Have a great day.

Your post is a wee confusing and it seems you're confusing matters. I can't help but think you are referring to the Rundfunkbeitrag when stating "wlan/Kabel" and Kabelfernsehen.

Your wlan/kabel is part of your Internet as mentioned in the beginning. Yes, your Landlady is offering you Internet in the contract, which will include your WLAN and Television. Most ISPs bundle the two.

Due to that, I believe you are referring to the Rundfunkbeitrag, formerly known as the GEZ. Unfortunately, you cannot sidestep it. Ok, you can. But do not be surprised if this catches up to you. It is a separate matter that your landlady cannot add to your contract. It is billed by household / flat.

I have other questions, but will leave those alone for now.

Until Jan 2024 we had to pay 25€ a month, along with 4 other families in the house, for Kabel. $1,500 total for nada! It was useless for us cuz we, and each of the other 4, choose and pay our ISP privately and no family uses Kabel TV. When the law changed we got letters stating the monthly rent was reduced by 25€ and you‘re on your own to deal with your ISP. Vodafone recently tried to sell us Kabel TV when we upgraded our router and we had to insist on „no“.

And then, we pay our Rundfunk Beitrag anually, as every household must do I believe. if I understand correctly that supports ARD and ZDF and ARTE und …, all of which have a fair amount of the content I watch, often available with German subtitles. The fee is worth it for me, as it’s been an excellent learning tool in this household.

Yellow Snow wrote: ↑Tue Apr 28, 2026 7:22 amI read somewhere that all tenants are liable to pay their 'Kabelfernsehen' as at Jan 2024.

This has to do with apartment buildings where cable TV has been included in the utilities for all the apartments at a group rate. Everybody had to pay. Now there is no group subscription anymore. Each gets their own if they want it. If your landlady pays for internet and cable TV in your apartment and includes it in the utilities, I don't really see a problem. She is doing it for you so there is no group rate.