How to recognize if you are buying a (not) quality apartment?

Check the condition of the property you like. Antonio Bolanča from the company Construction Bolanč and Bernarda Sočev from the agency Euro-interiors list what you should do before you cash out money for your new home

What is the definition of a quality or substandard apartment? How to recognize such a space? What to pay attention to if we are in the role of buyers in order to successfully distinguish a good from a poorly designed apartment? We talked about this important topic with Bernard Sochev from agency Euro-Interijeri and Antoni Bolanč from Companies Construction Bolanča.

- There are a lot of parameters that should be paid attention to when buying an apartment. To begin with, each buyer needs to determine in which location he wants to buy an apartment at all and how much he is willing to pay for it, and only then comes the decision whether to buy a new or old apartment. Because, in addition to the price, the location is often decisive, more precisely whether there are new apartments in the desired locations at all — says Bernarda Sočev from the agency Euro-interijeri.

To begin with, each buyer should determine in which location he wants to buy an apartment and how much he is willing to pay for it, and only then come decisions whether to buy a new building or an old building

FORTUNE TELLING

Antonio Bolanča from the company Izgradnja Bolanča, which has been involved in space adaptations for years, adds that, in addition to the location, the quality of the apartment should also be determined by parameters such as the distance between buildings, parking lots and garages, and the environment.

- This is in terms of general items, and when we talk precisely about the quality of the interior of the apartment, the situation is as follows: in a new building, the most important thing is to check the information about the investor and the contractor. We can discover a lot in their references and data from the past.

• After visiting the building, already at the very entrance you see how much was invested in finishing work.
• Appearance and quality of the entrance door to the staircase, the appearance and quality of the elevator, floor and wall cladding of staircases and staircases. If the ceramic is on the floor, knock with your hand, stick or umbrella to see if it adheres well to the substrate. In doing so, keep in mind that a deep, dull sound is not good.
• See where and how complex the outdoor units of air conditioners are and who their manufacturer is.
• In the staircases, check the condition of the walls: whether there are cracks, traces of paint coating, what are the joints with the ceiling.

• Pay attention to how the ceramic plinths and moldings are finished. Inform yourself about the manufacturer and the price of the anti-burglary doors and feel free to open and close them, talk and knock in front of them while someone is inside the apartment, so try to assess whether the noise transmission is acceptable.
• In the apartment itself, in turn, it is necessary to inspect the quality of all finishing wall and floor coverings.
• I recommend typing the same on parquet and ceramic tiles and checking the joints with walls and ceilings.
• Bend over and look at the surfaces of the parquet against the light source to see if, by any chance, the parquet is twisted or uneven.
• Take a spotlight or some lamp and darken the apartment to see if the walls are flat and with a quality finish because the shadows on the later lighting can show what no one wants.
• In bathrooms, run the water on the taps and let it drain for a while to see what happens. Of course, do not forget to close it.
• Write down the manufacturers of sanitary ware and inform yourself about the price range and quality (cisterns, push-buttons, water mixers, shell, board, washbasin, bathtub...).
• Bend under the sink and check the manufacturer of the angle valves because if someone saved on it, it does not look good.
• Inquire about the heating system, check the radiators or any heating elements, water heater, thermostatic heads on the radiators. Furthermore, turn on the heating in the apartment while you are inside to see if everything works and feel the surfaces of the radiators.

• Pay attention to the built-in exterior carpentry, inquire about the manufacturer, open and close the windows, run your hand over all the joints of the windows and sills and try to feel the flowing air.
• Windows, when you open them and stop them with your hand, must stand in place.
• Open and close the room door, turn off the lights and check if the door and jamb joints can see the light from another room, check if the door has keys and whether the door can be unlocked and locked.
• In general it is necessary to pay attention to the mounting elements you see and check the quality and price (switches, sockets, thermostats, intercom, fans...).
• In a constructive sense, it is best to ask for the keys to the apartments above or below and bang, step in and shout so that someone who is in the apartment you want to buy can feel the transmissions of sound and blows.

Finally, the smell of dampness in the apartments is not acceptable. In the old building, be sure to pay attention to the angles between the walls and ceilings and check if there are visible traces or mold erasure- details Antonio Bolanča from the company Construction Bolanča.

In addition to quality, the documentation that the building must have (building and use permit) is also important. Also inform yourself if the investors already have a finished building and go see what it looks like from the outside, says Bernarda Sočev.

PROJECT

Accordingly, the situation in the real estate market “forced” buyers to have to figure out the quality of the apartment depending on the type of apartment they are buying.

- In the last year or two, it is almost impossible to buy a new ready-made apartment ready for occupancy. We at Euro-Interijeri are currently selling new apartments already under construction, so most of the apartments are sold while the building is still in its foundations. These customers are really the worst because they can only trust that the building will be built according to the project, that indeed all the materials that the developer cites will also be installed and that the building will be built within the agreed time frame. Of course, in addition to the quality of construction, the documentation that the building must have is very important (building permit — generally everyone has it because without it they can not even start work, use permit — the developer is the result after the building is finished and after it has passed the technical inspection, the elaboration of the condominium...).

It is best for these buyers to inform themselves if their investors have a finished building, find out the location, look at what it looks like from the outside, possibly talk to the owners of the apartments how satisfied they are with the quality of the construction. That is, it is important for any serious investor that his customer is satisfied. Of course, it is also very important who you talk to because some buyers are willing to express their dissatisfaction with the apartment without actually being the fault of the investor (for example, they do not agree with the neighbor, they do not ventilate the apartment enough so they form fungi, they are dissatisfied with the location...).

It is also important who sells apartments and if it is a sale through a real estate agency, you should definitely check what experience buyers have with that agency. Nowadays, checking an agency online is very easy to do. Ask the question of how long the agency has existed. It is important that the agency operates only with quality investors — says Bernarda Sochev and points out that after this first part has been done and the buyer pays a lump sum, it remains for him to monitor the construction of his future home.

After visiting the building, you can already see in the entrance itself how much was invested in the finishing works: the appearance and quality of the front door, elevator, staircase and floor and wall cladding of the staircase.

WINDOW

The second category of apartments, Sochev tells, would be newer apartments up to 15 years of age.

‍In such apartments, all the flaws have already shown themselves, so it is enough when viewing such a property to carefully inspect, and primarily the corners of the rooms (whether fungi form). Of course, one has to be very careful here too because it does not necessarily mean that the apartment is not well insulated if fungi form. I know from many years of experience that some owners are not inclined to ventilate their apartments and thus create an apartment full of fungus and an unpleasant smell from a good new building. In addition, you should look at the floors, because if the parquet has peeled off, separated, it means that something is not done right.

• Along the edges of the window, it is important to see if the window may be leaking.
• If something is freshly painted, you should check with the owner what and why it was painted right now that the apartment is being sold.
• If the apartment is purchased in the winter, the best indicator of quality carpentry is to stand 30-50 cm from the window and try not to feel the flow of cold air.
• Check if the windows close easily or close, if the blinds are plastic or metal, if the tiles in the bathroom are durable or if some have already been changed.
• Also check if the door closes easily or latches, which can be an indicator of uneven walls.
• Of course, there is still the possibility of checking utilities, more precisely heating bills, but this can be subjective because someone may have smaller heating bills because they do not like their apartment temperature to exceed 20 degrees Celsius in winter.

- The energy certificate should give a clearer energy picture, but, unfortunately, most sellers still sell an apartment out of need and are simply not able to obtain an energy certificate before the sale, and when they do, the energy class often does not reflect the energy state of the apartment in practice.

For example, it is not possible to know whether the apartment/building is really built with porotherm brick and whether the styrofoam has 5.8 or 15 centimeters? But if the apartment saved on sockets, so the owners of such apartments stretch the extension ones or have one only outlet in the bathroom, which, well, accidentally found just behind the “radiator” (radiator), and in the part where it is most dense, and to meet the needs of technical inspection it has a cover and is completely unusable, it is difficult to believe that the investor is such closed the bracket with polystyrene 15 centimeters thick — explains Bernarda Sochev.

The last category is old pre-war real estate or as they are called in the Euro-Interiors agency “apartments from the past system”.

- There are the most such apartments on the market and if it is not a strict city center, we generally have larger buildings of several well-known investors (for that time). Today they generally no longer exist or at least not in that form and are almost all built according to several models, depending on who the apartments were built for. With the exception of a few buildings that were built for the leading staff of the companies of the time, most were built as standard, and almost all of them require renovation or were recently renovated and this is where we actually come to the key problems. Of course, for all of us, at first glance, a skyscraper with a renovated facade is much more attractive. But, the restoration of the building costs. In most cases, it is paid in part from EU funds, and in part it is paid by the owners of apartments from the reserve. It is not uncommon for residential buildings to raise loans, and the price of the reserve rises quite a lot, depending on what everything along the facade has been done. Mostly the exterior carpentry, the roofing, the lifts are repaired...

Recently, it has become popular that some tenants pay for the renovation from the reserve, and some prefer to pay their part at once, so they save on interest and pass more favorably. With such apartments, if the renovation was carried out, it is important to check how much the reserve accounts amount, as well as for what year it is contracted. If the renovation has not been carried out, you have to count on slightly higher bills, but also on the fact that the existing tenants will decide to renovate in the near future. There are also buildings that necessarily had to renew the roof because it leaked, repair elevators or change them due to wear and tear. All this increases the price of the reserve, and it may not be visible at first, so the best indicator is the account for the reserve - explains Sočev.

SANATION

He notes that there is another additional category, which is buildings/houses in the narrower and wider city center that are 100 years old and older. Often, cultural monuments are protected, so the restoration of their facade requires special/elevated standards, which is accompanied by higher prices. In all apartments sold in such buildings, various adaptations have been made, but most of them require re-adaptations.

• Attention should be paid to the floors, whether they are wooden beams or the floors are made of concrete. How are they performed, are they flat, do they creak? That is, the repair of floors in such buildings can be a big expense.
• Then it is important how and when the installations inside the apartment are replaced, e.g. water and drainage, electrical wiring, sanitary facilities.
• If it is possible to check what the situation is in the apartment above, as well as who lives above, because if a flood occurs, problems also arise in the apartment below. You should try to get to know the neighbors.

In addition, perhaps the seller of the apartment still has receipts as proof of what and how he arranged in the apartment. Someone also has pictures by stages of how he was editing something. All this, points out Bernarda Sochev, can help in the decision.

Antonio Bolanča company Construction Bolanča;

“Take a lamp and darken the apartment to see if the walls are flat and of good quality because the shadows in the later lighting can show what you don't want”

Bernarda Sočev Agency Euro-Interijeri

“Some owners are not inclined to ventilate their apartments and thus create an apartment full of fungus and an unpleasant smell from a fairly good new building”

Jutarnji list, contribution Home and Design

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published on March 11, 2019

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