Terraced house according to WEG, is a stainless steel chimney allowed?

Hello everyone,

we have the opportunity to purchase a terraced middle house that is already completed (except for tiles and wall design) in the new development area. The house would be from the German Reihenhaus AG. Since these terraced houses are divided according to WEG, this raises a few questions.

For one thing, their exposé states that each house would be allocated as its own special usage right and you would therefore be solely responsible for its maintenance. So far so good, we find that reasonable because I don’t want to pay if the first one in the row has broken windows. But is this even possible? It also says that everyone is responsible for their own facade; we now want to find out how much freedom there is in such a row. Am I allowed to install a stainless steel chimney on the outside of my terraced house and set up a garden shed as long as the authorities or chimney sweep have no objections? Or would I have to ask the neighbors or get their written permission for such changes?

And what I would be very interested in: does anyone know about noise protection? Maybe someone here lives in such a house? The floor slab is continuous but as far as I understood from the building description, there is a 5cm joint between the houses. What I don’t want, especially if it is a middle house, is to hear someone using the stairs on both sides and then standing vertically in bed.

Regards
Fana

Hello fanalord,

we are currently still living in a terraced mid-terrace house. The structure is as you described. One base slab but separation between the houses at the walls. Our neighbors also have children, and you don't hear anything from them unless they stomp or jump on the stairs. But even then it is not excessively loud. In general, I have to say that it is much quieter in the terraced house than, for example, in a multi-family house.

Regarding the WEG. It is the same for us. WEG only exists because there is quite a bit of communal property in our complex, e.g. the garage yard and the access paths to the terraced houses in the second row. If you want to paint the house differently, as far as I know you do not have to coordinate this with the neighbor, it might at most be that the city does not allow it in the development plan. For example, we are only allowed white. Also, garden sheds do not require a building application depending on the municipality and the size, and as long as you do not place them directly on the border, you also do not need the neighbor's approval.

A chimney in a terraced mid-terrace house could be difficult because it has to extend above the roof ridge. In our case it is only possible if we lead it up inside, and that is almost unaffordable.

Hey,

that’s already good news, as there is a lot of bad stuff written about townhouses, especially middle ones. But here with us in Karlsruhe, a detached house is simply too expensive. Building new with a reasonably large plot, say 600 sqm for example, easily costs 400k, and then you don’t get many extras or an unusual house but rather something standard. In the new development area here in town, a 690 sqm plot was available from the municipality for 259k. That really leaves hardly any room to build on top of that, and I want to finance alone without including my partner. And my goal is to be debt-free in at most 15 years. And that only works with a total price of max 250k.

Besides, I had actually been looking for condominiums lately. And a 100 sqm condominium that is already 16 years old costs about 180-220k, so the jump to a townhouse where you at least have a terrace + small garden is not that big anymore. And it’s something else when you’re only separated from the neighbor by thin walls and share the same stairwell where others might slam doors or talk loudly. And the worst I’ve seen so far was a 95 sqm apartment for almost 200k on the 1st floor, and during the viewing you could hear “Boom Boom Boom” every step from above... No thanks.

The thing with the fireplace would be very unfortunate; it’s simply important to us. But I could arrange myself with not having one, after all, we wouldn’t have one in the condo anyway, along with many other annoying things. Besides, the townhouse is new/construction first occupancy and the condo after 15-20 years already shows significant signs of wear.

Just ask the responsible [Schornsteinfeger], he might be able to give you some tips.