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By Antonis Loizou F.R.I.C.S. – Antonis Loizou & Associates Ltd – Real Estate Valuers & Estate Agents
As the summer season comes closer and closer, so the owners’ visits will increase. It is not advisable that you only pay a visit the last minute in order to check if everything is okay.
Usually, the things that are wrong after a somewhat protracted absence are:
• The electricity goes down and food in the fridge must be then thrown out and of course replaced.
• The air conditioning does not work and needs service/repair.
• The garden is left unattended even if you employ a season gardener.
• White goods, such as dishwasher and washing machine, need a thorough check, so that you do not get surprises.
• If you have an alarm system, make sure that it works – this should be done periodically anyway.
• The much-loved barbecue equipment is working(?) – battery goes flat, unused equipment get stuck, etc.
• If you have a pool, one should protect it with a cover in order to save in running costs (it can become costly both in electricity and chemicals consumption) and it will need ten days or so to bring it back to working condition with “sparkling” water.
Reasonable as you might think, very few people bother to have their home prepared expecting that everything is okay. What is unfortunate is that if something goes wrong, technicians are nowhere to be found during the summer season, especially during the months of July-September, whereas their charges are at the peak. So, in addition to the routine maintenance, you should budget either for your own time and or for others as a budget for EUR 200-300 depending on how unlucky you are and how often you keep an eye on your property.
People are quite happy to pay several hundred thousand euro to buy a property, but spend very little on maintenance, especially those with common or shared expenses who face the “curse” of non-payment by other tenants. Those who do not bother to pay any attention to this routine maintenance will face a cost several times more in the months to come (in addition to keeping one’s asset marketable).
What is also important is having proper insurance. Properties which are left unoccupied for a period of more than 30 days (unless there is a special proviso in the insurance contract) automatically have their insurance cancelled. Also, if your property catches fire from the surrounding bushes, it is again uninsured, unless you refer to your cover with a special clause.
Properties which are near the beach due to humidity require increased maintenance and you will ascertain that metal frames get corroded or destroyed in 2-4 years’ time weakening the house resistance to burglary etc.
It will not be unreasonable to suggest a maintenance cost of around 1/2 per mil. p.a. – e.g. a house worth EUR 300,000 = 1,500 euros; of EUR 500,000 = 2,500 euros p.a., etc, depending of course on the standard of maintenance that one wishes to keep his property.
Our own special concern is the maintenance of the multi-level projects of a high cost and how those will be maintained. It takes a couple of units to be run down causing a reduced demand, whereas rude, careless neighbours and misbehaviour causes all sorts of other problems in cohabitation.
In certain projects, there is a fixed period of maintenance that an owner can carry out — rarely adhered to mind you, but good in theory since the constant noise and interruption of people working at all times is limited.
All buildings upon completion require upkeep, but more often than not after a couple of years and due to the impractical common expenses law they fall apart (as an estimate around 20-25% of the buildings fail in their common expenses, reducing their value). We, in Cyprus, consider buildings over 30 years old as being “old”, whereas if we are to compare the same with abroad, there is no age limit, keeping one’s investment steady (due to their good maintenance).
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