Regularity is what chimney sweeping is all about in Germany. The government mandates how often chimneys must be cleaned and how often modern heating and ventilating systems must be checked. Those jobs used to be assigned by law to chimney sweeps, and a master sweep was in charge of a district of some 2,000 or more households. For decades, residents were prohibited from shopping around because there was a monopoly when it came to chimney sweeps. Residents were also required by law to allow them to come into their homes. However, Germans finally began to wake up to the fact that the business as a monopoly was unfair. That’s when the European Union stepped in and forced the German government to break up the monopoly. While previously some 8,000 or so master chimney sweeps had exclusive work districts that no other sweep could compete against, under the new laws, property owners can to turn to qualified contractors to carry out the sweep services for a negotiated price. While they are still required under law to have their chimneys cleaned, the contractor they choose is up to them.
