Buying an apartment - what questions should I ask

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VPS

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So although I'm a bit reluctant to live in an apartment but I've found one I really like. They were built in 2004 and not just a standard block but obviously designed to be a more aeshetic rather than a concrete box.

What questions should I be asking?
 
What type of cladding does it have?

Get a professional to go through the books and the OC minutes to see what problems have been raised and how they're handled.
Are the levies appropriate? Too low and there isn't any money for long-term repairs.
How much money is in the sinking fund and what items are listed to be addressed in the next ten years?

What long-term contracts has the OC entered into?
Do they have any embedded contracts for utilities such as electricity/internet?
How long is the term for the Strata Manager?
How are renewals handled?

Is there friction between residents? What form is it taking? You don't want to walk into a Hatfield/Mc Coy type feud.

How many apartments are let on the short term market, AKA AirBNB. What trouble does it cause, especially on weekends and public holidays?

Is the maintenance up to date? If there are lifts, are they up to standard with a maintenance plan? When are they due for replacement?

These are the basics, there are thousands more to ask and ensure you get appropriate answers.

Good luck.
 
What type of cladding does it have?

Get a professional to go through the books and the OC minutes to see what problems have been raised and how they're handled.
Are the levies appropriate? Too low and there isn't any money for long-term repairs.
How much money is in the sinking fund and what items are listed to be addressed in the next ten years?

What long-term contracts has the OC entered into?
Do they have any embedded contracts for utilities such as electricity/internet?
How long is the term for the Strata Manager?
How are renewals handled?

Is there friction between residents? What form is it taking? You don't want to walk into a Hatfield/Mc Coy type feud.

How many apartments are let on the short term market, AKA AirBNB. What trouble does it cause, especially on weekends and public holidays?

Is the maintenance up to date? If there are lifts, are they up to standard with a maintenance plan? When are they due for replacement?

These are the basics, there are thousands more to ask and ensure you get appropriate answers.

Good luck.

Thanks HVR - great questions.
 
Try parking your cars in the car bays.
Read the strata AGM minutes. If the owners are at war with each other then avoid buying unless it is too good a bargain.
Look at the size of the capital repair fund to see that it is funded ok.
Check your storage if there is any.
Talk to adjacent owners to see if they need a baseball bat behind their front door. Your security is important.
Go there at night to see if there are out of control tenants or owners.
Check the building cladding.
Test the internet, power and lights in every room and see that your mobile phone has a signal in every room.
Check recent sale prices in the building and nearby buildings.
With strata costs you do pay more for the best facilities so look at what you will be wanting to use. There is no point having a heated swimming pool if you will never use it.
I tend to go for a great location adjacent to transport, shops and restaurants.
 
Great points Hvr and cove

15 years is a point where any building should have a fairly detailed 10year plan as its from where things need looking at.

I'd be wanting a sinking fund to have 5+ years funds in it at this point to cover any major items (especially if lifts, pools, central a/c).
Also whether interior/exterior paint has been conducted recently or is planned (12-15years would be a typical life for that).

Definitely check on cladding if there is any aluminium cladding - at that age it's highly likely flammable and will be expensive to replace (my building in Sydney has this issue, and insurers are increasingly wary and requiring full replacement, despite initially allowing cheaper partial replacements)
 
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We have had swimming pool leaks at two different apartments both of which have proven to be difficult to repair. The capital fund could not fully cover one of them so we paid an extra levy of about $7,000 because there are only 12 units for the whole 12 floors.
The idiot tenant on level 11 has locked herself out and has activated the fire alarm all within 2 months of arriving. The locksmith got her back in to her unit thru the fire rated emergency exit door. That door may need to be replaced.
I think the fire call out is about $1500 a time so I think she may modify her cooking methods.
 
So although I'm a bit reluctant to live in an apartment but I've found one I really like. They were built in 2004 and not just a standard block but obviously designed to be a more aeshetic rather than a concrete box.

What questions should I be asking?
Good luck :)
We live in a strata plan situation and you have some excellent questions above which you need to have answered
Just for interest we have ten years plus in our sinking fund now for a small strata that is 15 years old. We have a couple of large remedial works done as well in that time

However do take note that, for us, our regular levies are quite reasonable but we also have had for .....five years or so special levies every quarter which have made the fund in good standing.
I much prefer the two levies than having to down the line to come up with a large lump sum
 
think the fire call out is about $1500 a time so I think she may modify her cooking methods

Think the fire brigades must love the revenue from apartment buildings.
Semi-regular occurrence in my building. Kitchen fans don't do enough so the in apartment alarm goes off.
New resident/tenant opens front door to hallway (when they should open the balcony door instead). Smoke goes into hallway and main alarm goes off and fire brigade automatically called by panel and fee charged.
 
If it were me, I'd knock on the door of the upstairs unit if there is one. Amongst general chit-chat about the building, ask them about their flooring and if it's carpet, if they plan to change it (pointless if they're a tenant I guess). If it is already hard flooring, spend as much time as possible in your prospective apartment in order to get a feel for how much impact-generated noise transfers to yours, and whether you'd find such noise acceptable. Ditto for airborne noise from the adjacent apartments.

If it is carpet, review the building by-laws in relation to flooring changeovers. Good ones these days require acoustic opinions beforehand and testing afterwards, and go beyond the minimum sound insulation standards in the NCC - which is pretty lousy. Bad ones have and do nothing letting owners create a horrible mess as they sell.

The age of your apartment suggests that acoustic separation may have been taken seriously during the design and/or construction. I would not purchase (to live in) an apartment that did not have a decent ceiling cavity with insulation.
 
@Austman knows lots about this subject and can offer excellent advice.

I think the advice given so far looks pretty good!

There are firms around that can, for a fee, supply a strata report. Unless they can access the OC/BC records, I can't see how they can supply more information than has to be offered by law to prospective purchasers anyway. But if the OC/BC records can be accessed, they will contain much more information than eg what was in the last AGM minutes. They'd document all the issues and give a pretty good idea of how active the strata committee and/or the strata manager are in dealing with them. Even the strata roll, for example would give an accurate indication of how many resident owners there are.
 
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Check on any impending works that might need to be done.

Friend of mine had water damage caused by a leaking membrane. $75K they're up for, per unit. It seems it might have been the fault of the builder, but as the block is now 15 years old there's no recourse against the builder.
 
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