In 2020, Germans generated around 31 kilograms of self-compostable waste per capita. This is according to estimates carried out by the Federal Statistical Office for the first time. Excluding biowaste from agriculture or the manufacturing industry, the total volume of biowaste from the municipal sector amounted to 14.4 million tons in 2020. In addition to the self-composted...

If owners need additional space in their property, for example for a home office, a hobby room or an apartment, this can often be realized in the basement. The FMI Mineral Wool Industry Association points this out. However, owners should consider various aspects of the basement extension in advance, namely the building physics, the structural requirements and the...

Thermal insulation of buildings is effective and easy to implement - this is the view of the FMI Mineral Wool Industry Association. Mineral wool can also help to achieve the climate targets in the building sector, writes the trade association on its website "der-daemstoff.de". To achieve this, however, the house must be insulated from the roof to the façade to the basement ceiling. For...

A property seller cannot necessarily be held responsible for the remediation of a property if contaminated sites are suspected there. This is because it is necessary to check in advance whether the soil is actually contaminated. This has now been decided by the Federal Court of Justice (V ZR 213/21) and therefore referred the case back to the Munich Higher Regional Court (OLG). In the case in question, a...

Whether lightweight furniture panels, plant pots or decking boards - they can all be made (in part) from fast-growing poplars or from their ground bark and branches. Several experts have discovered this in recent years as part of the Dendromass4Europe (D4EU) research project. It was carried out under the leadership of Norbert Weber, Professor of...

The Urban Land Institute (ULI) and JLL provide information about co-living in a best practice guide. Co-living involves people living together in a property for a period of time, usually in a city. There are many reasons for this: too expensive living space, being alone or the desire for greater energy efficiency lead to co-living. Co-living is aimed, for example, at...

According to a survey by the Bauherren-Schutzbund, more and more modernizations are being postponed or abandoned altogether. In August 2022, only 34.3% of homeowners surveyed with a 15-year-old or older property stated that they wanted to have modernization measures carried out. Around half a year earlier, the figure was 50.2 percent. In addition, more than half of...

Owners of buildings with a central gas heating system and six or more residential units must have a hydronic balancing of the heating system carried out in the coming years. Owners of ten residential units and more have until September 30, 2023 to do this, while owners of six to nine residential units have until September 15, 2024.

When tenants move into a new apartment, they automatically receive electricity from a basic supplier - unless they opt for an optional supplier. But what happens if a tenant has opted for an optional supplier, but the meter numbers of two neighboring apartments are mixed up? The Frankfurt am Main district court has now ruled on this. In the case in question, the...

He himself admits that this is an experiment, but schoener-wohnen.de author Jan Kahl dared to try it anyway. In a series of pictures, he shows what alternatives there are to the Christmas tree. For example, a wooden ladder can be decorated with Christmas decorations, fairy lights and fir greenery to create a Christmassy flair. Arrangements in shades of green and berry can also be...