France in Focus

Hi,
Has anyone ever had an insurance company inquire about a certificate for cleaning a chimney. Everyone round here seem to clean their own, including me, and most of my neighbours borrow my brushes.

When we first arrived I had heard about the requirements for a certificate and tried to get someone to do it without much joy, so bought brushes and did it myself, since then I have rebuilt the chimney, and it is lined with about 5 meters of stainless steel flu, it goes vertical from the poêle, rarely gets any buildup, and takes me about 15 minutes to clean, most of that is dismantling the poêle enough to get the brushes in, I dont see why I should pay someone lots of money and a callout for nothing.

I have had it suggested to just buy one of the ramonage bricks that you burn in the fire that come with a certificate, but all the ones the had when I looked in castorama either didn't come with a certificate or a disclaimer saying something like in some regions this is not a substitute for mechanical cleaning.

I presume that in the case of a claim, the cause of a fire, would have to be shown to be bad maintenance of the chimney before the insurance company could refuse to cover you. Maybe I will take a few pictures up the flue after i clean it next time to show how clean and shiny it is.

Has anyone ever had any issues with insurance companys over chimney cleaning.

Dave

Over all these years in France, our insurance company has never asked us about chimney sweeps. However, they have stated they were required, though I have not looked at our current policy to see if they still are. I just presume they are. I'm not sure they ever inquire, unless there is a fire, then I'd expect them to inquire.

We still have it done each year and keep the certificate/receipt. I think we paid 89€ for the last one done last month.

I’ve had mine cleaned every year. It’s an open chimney and costs 70€ now.

I’ve never been required to send anything to my insurers, but talking to a French friend who has had a fire it is requested under such circumstances.

I did mine about a week ago. A bit of a faff but effective. Only bother is the fear of being stung by critters living in the hornet nest near the top.

This is what I found in the AXA website
“Faites ramoner vos conduits de cheminée, d’inserts ou de poêles. La loi impose désormais que le ramonage soit fait par un professionnel. La fréquence, une ou deux fois par an généralement, est fixée dans le « règlement sanitaire départemental » de votre lieu de résidence.”