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Sidewalk duties ...

Kehrwoche

It is the city's responsibility to keep the roads in passable conditions. However, for keeping the sidewalks in passable conditions (does not mean repairs or so!) the city delegates this responsibility to the owner of the property. He might delegate this duty to his tenants.... Don't think, this is peanuts - especially in winter time.

"Kehrwoche"

• means the duty to keep stairs, entrance and basement clean, all the areas in the house that can be used by all of the tenants.
• means the responsibility of the owner of the property to keep access and the sidewalk in front of his property clean.
• In winter it also means the responsibility to keep access to the house and the sidewalk in passable conditions (e.g. remove ice or grit the sidewalk, remove fallen snow etc.)
• The landlord may delegate this duty to the tenants and establish a schedule (who has when to sweep, shovel or clean). Instead of this often a commercial service is contracted and you don't need to worry. For the winter duties also a professional service could be contracted. The more comfortable the apartment or the bigger the apartment complex the more likely is such a professional cleaning service.

Possible consequences for you, if you live in an apartment:
If you see a "Kehrwochen-Kalender" at the bulletin board or if you see a sign "Kehrwoche" in your stair-case and you have the impression, that this sign keeps moving from apartment to apartment, then you can be quite sure, that there is no cleaning service contracted and the work is done by the tenants on a regular base and schedule. For details ask your neighbours or landlord. In winter this includes the duty to keep the sidewalks passable.

Possible consequences for you, if you live in a house:
If your landlord contracted a service you should know about it. Most likely he did not contract any services and told you to take care of it. In this case it is part of your renting contract and it is your problem.
In Summer: Do what your neigbours do. (Almost nothing except for sweeping occationally)
Here are your winter duties: You need to keep access to the house and sidewalk in passable conditions. From mornings (about 7 a.m.) till evenings (about 10 p.m.). Passable conditions mean, that someone can walk there, considering the special wheather conditions. It does not mean to maintain perfect conditions. If there is ice on the sidewalk, put grit on it. It is enough, if the ice is not so slippery any more. In most cities the use of salt is illegal. There ia a variety of grit available in many stores. You may leave the grit on the sidewalk afterwards. If it is snowing, nothing must be done as long as it snows. Then re-establish passable conditions.
Best, if you check, what are all the other neigbours doing. If they all remove the snow, do so too. If they all let it sit, you may do so too, (grit it to be on the safe side!). Background: Pedestrians may expect at your place the same conditions as in the neigbourhood. If in doubts, ask your landlord or neigbours about the standards in your neigbourhood.

No peanuts: If someone falls (postman, children etc) and gets hurt because you did nothing to prevent this danger, you might be responsible for the costs resulting.

In winter time you also should see my tip about removing the ice from your car.

There are only few things that seem to be so small and unimportant but might have such an impact to our life: No-parking signs, the 8-o'clock evening news ("Tagesschau"), shop-closing-law, and our Kehrwoche. It governs our social life. The Kehrwoche is the instrument to use for giving other neighbours a hard time ("They never clean clean enough"), the source of delightful discussions among neigbours ("Is it my turn to clean?") and a perfect way to evaluate new neigbours ("Will they clean as we expect them to do?"). I know from my own neigbourhood-experience the value of the Kehrwoche....

From poeple who move into a modern apartment complex with cleaning service you often hear a standard relief: "Thank god no Kehrwoche any more!".

www.training-for-germany.de/tips99/tipkw.htm