The 5 most common pitfalls when buying a flat
After months of searching, you've found your dream flat. Now it's time to close the deal. What pitfalls are still lying in wait for you?
1. The type of reservation agreement
Generally speaking, there are 2 types of reservation agreement: bilateral and tripartite. The first is signed only between you and the estate agency. The second between you, the estate agency and the seller.
Agents who have no cooperation agreement with the seller and are selling the flat, so to speak, on their own initiative will usually offer you the first type of agreement. Since they have no arrangement with the seller, they don't include them in the reservation agreement either. So what does this type of reservation agreement guarantee you? Actually, nothing at all. If you decide to pull out of the deal, your reservation fee is forfeited to the agency. But if the seller pulls out, you lose the flat you reserved and get no compensation whatsoever.
That's why you should always sign a tripartite reservation agreement with a penalty not only for you but also for the seller. It guarantees that if the seller pulls out, you will receive at least some compensation.
2. Handover terms and date
People often leave this point until the last minute, with the excuse “we'll sort something out”. It is important to pin down the terms and date of the handover already in the reservation agreement. Should the owner clear the flat out or not? If we only ask them to clear it out at the end of the transaction, they may have a problem with it, because they weren't expecting the request. Or, the other way round, we want to keep the furniture and the owner, with the best of intentions, clears the flat out.
The move-in date is just as important. Has the owner already found a new flat? Will they get it from the developer on the promised date? All of these situations need to be addressed in the reservation agreement. Ideally, set a move-out date and a penalty of at least the market rent should the owner stay in the flat beyond that date.
3. Floor area of the flat
In many listings you will come across an inaccurate floor area for the property being sold. Many agents and sellers include balconies, terraces or cellars in the floor area.
A balcony is a common part of the building that does not belong to the flat. That's why it isn't counted in the floor area and you won't find it on the title deed (ownership sheet) either. A cellar can be included in the floor area; it is often even part of the flat on the title deed. It's only fair, however, for the listing to state the exact floor area of both the flat and the cellar. That way the buyer won't face an unpleasant surprise at signing.
Or a more extreme example:
An estate agency was selling a 50 m² flat. Later, when the purchase agreement was being signed, they told the buyer that 8 m² of the flat (almost the entire bedroom) had been built out into the common corridor space. This part isn't even registered on the title deed. Its legal status was never properly settled, so it doesn't belong to the flat. It happened at the height of the property boom, when the buyer didn't want to lose the flat, so he was pushed into signing through indirect pressure along the lines of “the neighbours have done the same”. Unfortunately, we only came across this gentleman a year after the transaction, when he wanted the flat valued. The fact that those 8 m² didn't belong to the flat reduced its value by almost EUR 30,000.
How do you find out the actual floor area of a flat? For some flats you can read it from the title deed. For others, it's better to rely on an expert valuation report. In the past this information was also available on the land registry (Cadastre) website, but since 2022 the data is no longer published online.
If you're buying a flat in a prefab panel block, I recommend the website www.akebyty.sk.
4. Co-ownership shares in the common parts
Even before signing the reservation agreement, check whether the owner will include in the purchase agreement not only the flat but also all the common parts that belong to it – e.g. a share in a shared courtyard or in non-residential premises. In most cases the owner leaves them out by mistake, but if you only find out some time later, they may suddenly demand financial compensation for transferring these common parts, even though strictly speaking they shouldn't be entitled to any.
5. Furniture and appliances
In the reservation agreement, always write down precisely which furniture and appliances stay in the flat and which ones the owner is taking. At the viewing, the agent may quite unwittingly say that “everything” stays, but while moving out the owner gradually starts to realise that something might come in handy in their new flat after all. Or something may have sentimental value for them and they want to take it along. That's why you should list every single piece of furniture and equipment that stays in the flat in the reservation agreement.
