This is a page two story which will barely be noted by the news media in Germany, but Focus discussed it at length this morning.
There is this plan underway (requiring a law to be passed) by the German Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze (from the SPD Party) who wants to ensure cleaner air.
The idea here is to force renovation upon home owners/apartment building owners....who have fireplaces. If you have a fireplace and chimney....for coal/wood heating....you would need to upgrade.
Cost? A ballpark guess right now is around 5,000 Euro ($6,000 roughly).
Right now, the odds are in favor that the CDU and SPD folks will agree on this idea and pass it by the end of February.
The stated law would say that if you replaced or installed a fireplace, coal heating deal, or even a pellet system.....after 1 July of of this year, then you would have to ensure it met the new standards.
How many houses fall into this mandatory deal? Again, you go to ballpark guesses by the experts, but they figure a minimum of one-million.
Naturally, this has upset folks when it got out in full display. Most all villages in Germany require a professional inspection of your chimney every other year....with the idea of promoting public safety. These little inspections can result in a required repair or upgrade....typically running in the 200 to 500 Euro range. To suggest that when this next inspection occurs after 1 July of 2019, and that it might run in the 4,000 to 5,000 Euro range? That'd infuriate most Germans. If you were on a fixed income and retired? It'd be hard to walk into any bank and ask for a loan of this type.
As much as the idea revolves around clean air....it simply made the working-class German just a bit more angry than usual over the cost impact and interference in their life.
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