Buying an apartment with a VvE: what to check

With an apartment you also buy a share in the building and you become a member of the owners association (Vereniging van Eigenaars, VvE). What you pay each month does not yet tell you whether there is enough money for the maintenance that is coming.

Ask for the minutes, the annual accounts, the maintenance plan and the deed of division before your offer. They show which obligations and decisions you are taking on.

Is the association actually active?

Start with the recent minutes. They show whether the owners meet and which decisions they record. Ask as well who serves on the board, who handles the management, and whether the owners are paying their contributions.

Missing documents, or maintenance that has been put off for a long time, are reasons to look further.

Does the reserve match the maintenance?

Set the reserve against the maintenance planned for the roof, the facade and the installations. What matters is what that money has to pay for. Even a large amount is not automatically enough.

The long-term maintenance plan, usually called the MJOP, shows which work is expected when and what it is estimated to cost. Check how current that estimate is and which work has already been carried out.

A VvE is legally obliged to reserve for major maintenance. That amount is set in one of two ways: through a long-term maintenance plan, or, where there is none, since 2018 at a minimum of 0.5% of the rebuild value of the building per year. Such a plan looks at least ten years ahead.

What is in the monthly contribution?

Ask how the monthly contribution is made up: which part goes to management, insurance, cleaning and maintenance? Read the minutes for any increases or additional contributions that have been agreed. Those belong in your own housing budget.

Take the contribution into your housing budget alongside the mortgage and your other costs. A low contribution can mean more has to be paid in later.

Read private and communal separately

The deed of division and the regulations determine which parts belong to your apartment and which are communal. That matters for repairs, for insurance and for any plan to renovate.

Look up what the documents say about the window frames and the pipework, for instance. What you see from the inside during the viewing does not tell you how those are divided. Where you are unsure, ask who is responsible according to the deed of division and the regulations.

Look at decisions and planned projects

Read the recent minutes for painting, the lift, sustainability work and other large outlays. Ask which work is paid for before and which after your transfer.

Go through any unclear arrangements with your agent before you bid. Discuss what they mean for your financing with your mortgage adviser, and for your renovation plan with whoever will carry that work out. That tells you which questions about the building are still open.

What to do now

• ask for the minutes of the last two meetings and the MJOP
• find out how large the reserve fund is and whether that matches the maintenance plan
• read the deed of division and the regulations for what you may and may not do
• count the monthly contribution into your housing costs, not only into your offer