ᐅ Inspection by the chimney sweep for new construction – who is responsible for paying the chimney sweep?

We had our house built through a construction management service (fixed-price contract). Shortly after moving in, the chimney sweep came to inspect and approve the heating system and chimney. Now, the construction management is refusing to cover these costs. The heating and chimney are, of course, included in the contract. In our opinion, the inspection is simply part of the trade. Does the construction management have to pay for these costs? How was it handled in your case?

That depends on the contract terms regarding who pays for the chimney sweep; if this is not specified in the contract, you need to consider: Is the house considered defect-free without the final inspection of the chimney? I don’t think so, at least not with a "turnkey" agreement.

You might suggest sharing the fee; pursuing legal action over these relatively small costs is probably not the best solution.

In our contract, this was included. However, I also stumbled over this issue because it wasn’t included initially. I then had it added later, which was done without any problems.

If I remember correctly, this fee was included in the construction costs. This was also stated in the contract, which was fulfilled. It is legally required and therefore part of the final inspection, just like the others.

In our case, that was included in the total costs and was paid from there. We did not add anything on top of that. However, this was also specified in the contract.

This is, of course, also a matter of contract design. To me, this is part of the maintenance. Therefore, I am not willing to cover these costs.