Deutschkreutz pays disputed heating bills to protect school supply

The municipality of Deutschkreutz will pay 63,600 euros in disputed district heating bills to maintain heat supplies to three public buildings, including a school, ORF reported. The payment will be made with an explicit reservation of the right to reclaim the money.

The dispute with local supplier Biowärme GmbH concerns heating for the Europaschule, the Vinatrium and the Karl Goldmark Museum. The municipality says the company overcharged for heat between 2021 and 2025, billing more than 140,000 euros gross beyond the amounts agreed in the contract. The company denies the allegations.

The municipality says all existing contracts were legally terminated and no new contracts were signed, meaning price adjustment clauses did not apply. It stopped payments several months ago. Biowärme GmbH’s lawyer, Dominik Konlechner, says more than 60,000 euros gross remains unpaid.

A supply stoppage had been considered, but the company said it would not cut heating to the school. The municipality sought an interim injunction to prevent a stoppage. Mattersburg District Court rejected the application, finding no concrete risk to the heat supply, according to a statement issued Friday by the municipality’s lawyer, Markus A. Reinfeld.

Mayor Jürgen Hofer said the municipality was paying to protect the three buildings’ heat supply, particularly at the school, not because it accepted the bills as correct. He said the municipality had yet to receive an account it considered verifiable and would seek repayment of any overcharges.

Biowärme GmbH was restructured in 2013, and the municipality is involved in the company. One of its managing directors is former Deutschkreutz mayor Manfred Kölly of LBL.