Questions to ask when buying apartment

102419947

Hi all,
I will be looking to buy an apartment or duplex in Dublin in the next few months. My friends & family have bought houses in the past so I'm not too sure what questions I should be asking the estate agent or vendor and can't find any threads with relevant info. Does anyone have any experience that they could share? At the moment, all I can think of is:
1. How much is the management fee?
2. What does the management fee cover?
3. What contents are included?
4. When was the development built?
5. Dedicated/guest parking.

Thanks

iceman777

Some more questions:

1. Insulation levels
2. Monthly Heating costs as they use electric heaters
3. Are they quiet in terms of neighbours and people coming/going?
4. What is the build quality?
5. Are the walls thick between apartments – can you hear your neighbours whispering to each other?
6. What TV and Broadband provider is in the building e.g. Sky or UPC?
7. Is parking extra or included?
8. Do you recommend different floor apartments over others?
9. Dealings with Management company
10. Break-ins & Security
11. General upkeep of common areas e.g. are lifts always broken/out of service?
12. Are bins included in the fees?
13. Any leaks, water damage etc.?
14. Clamping Procedure for Residents / Guests

Paddy3

First of all as an owner you are part of the management company. Most management companies engage management agents to tun the OMC.
Some questions I would ask are
1. How many Management companies are in the estate?
2. What is the financial state of the management company/companies?

worded

Does the place have fire reg certs and who were the builders?

pinkypinky

What is the excess on the insurance policy?

The above questions are great but I don't think estate agents will be able to answer many of them. Even the managing agent or OMC won't be to tell you if some floors are quieter than others, for example.

I suggest that if you find a place you like, you try approaching some residents of the development and ask them for the details. Try for an owner-occupier, as renters will not know anything about the management company side of things.

Drop the Ball

What is the break down of the Annual Management fees (insurance, landscaping, electricity, etc, etc...)?
Is the insurance Block cover only or dose it also include apartment content insurance?
Is there provisions for a sinking fund?
What is the amount paid for the annual Local Property Tax?
Has the builder handed over control of the common areas?
What is the ration between owner occupied units and rented units?
Is it wired for an alarm?
Is it wired to an intercom system (for gates or doors access to common areas)?
How many previous owners?
Is it owner occupied or a rental property?

Check the property price register to see history of recent sales in the development and of similar propertied in that area.
Speak to the community guard assigned to that area, they might be able to give you a picture of crime rates & trends in the area.

If you like the place and intend to get seious about negotiating, you should ask for the minutes of the meetings of the management company for the past five years.

These will give you a good flavour of the issues.

superman28

The best advice I can give, is call around as many neighbours as you can,, just be honest,, say Hi I am thinking about buying here and am just wondering how you like it? I was surprised how honest people were,, the more honest replies come from renters,, I found out that the communal Shed for bikes was robbed a few months before etc..

From the estate agent,, say you would like to know if their is a sufficient sinking fund, what were the increases in management fees over the years? And now more than ever investigate the fire safety issues with the apartment.. If it was built in 2004,2005,2006,2007 it is possible that it is a fire death trap... the government has washed its hands of this issue so you should take this very seriously IMO..

This is a new issue for me I would take into consideration,, I'm not sure how to go about it even,, but you don't want to be caught out..

Nekarsulm

Excellent point about the Sinking Fund, Superman. Also are the lifts currently operating properly?
Ask the neighbours, people like to talk.

athtrasna

Definitely speak to the neighbours. An apartment near me was raided last year as a cannabis growhouse but is being sold by the bank so the estate agent knew nothing about it or so it was claimed. A prospective buyer spoke to the neighbours and because of that info they realised the place needed new glazing and complete rewiring.

Nekarsulm

http://www.propertyrock.ie/news-and-advice/buying-an-apartment-in-a-managed-complex/
I
And these considerations are the reason <snip> like me are averse to anything other than Freehold title. Or at least long lease (999 years) on stand alone properties. Never owning the ground your home stands on, nor more importantly the roof overhead gives us the shivers......

102419947

Thanks all for the info.

seamus

Deleted User wrote: »

If you like the place and intend to get seious about negotiating, you should ask for the minutes of the meetings of the management company for the past five years.

These will give you a good flavour of the issues.

Might be a big ask. The vendor is unlikely to have held onto these (though you might get lucky) and I doubt the management company will hand these out to a non-member.

Darith

Is it right to say that an estate agent is unwilling or unable to answer alot of these questions? Only chatting to residents or engaging the management company through your solicitor or Surveyor at negotiation stage seems the only way to clarify these questions?

Finally i want to engage a surveyor if i want to buy an apartment? Do i need to remind a surveyor of certain questions to be asked when surveying an apartment as opposed to a house? Can a surveyor gauge the build quality of that part of the relevant complex overall?

Samuel T. Cogley

Most EAs would be wise to keep stum about most of these questions, it's really the purview of the solicitor/surveyor. Get a recommendation on a surveyor if you can and ask them the questions before hand, they will tell you the ones they can't answer.

harr

Estate agents won't answer most of those questions or probably won't answer them in a truthful matter...the only way is to knock on doors and ask the people actually living in the area but make you ask owners not tenants
Security and anti social behaviour in the general area as well also find out who built them and do some research on the builders to see if any other of his developments are in trouble.

Darith

If one has the information on the builders; how would one use this? I presume just googling them to find out about reputation would be a start?