Reg­is­ter­ing with an util­i­ties supplier

Make sure you find out which util­i­ty charges are includ­ed in your rent. Usu­al­ly, you will only have to reg­is­ter with an elec­tric­i­ty or gas sup­pli­er. You can do this with Stadtwerke Karl­sruhe – the city’s pub­lic util­i­ty com­pa­ny – or oth­er sup­pli­ers. It is help­ful and con­ve­nient to set up a SEPA direct deb­it with your bank. Your elec­tric­i­ty costs will then be deb­it­ed direct­ly from your account every month.

What do util­i­ty charges include?

The rent for your apart­ment is made up of the Kalt­mi­ete (basic rent) + Nebenkosten (util­i­ty charges)

Basic rent and util­i­ty charges togeth­er are some­times described as War­m­mi­ete (WM).

Util­i­ty charges con­sist of water, electricity/gas and waste dis­pos­al fees. Make sure you find out which util­i­ty charges are includ­ed in your rent. Some­times you pay the util­i­ty charges direct­ly to the land­lord. How­ev­er, you may also have to reg­is­ter with an elec­tric­i­ty sup­pli­er and pay the elec­tric­i­ty bills yourself.