Maintenance and Other Charges

Avatar · 15th November 2006, 23:28

Hi,
I am in the process of buying an Apartment in Gumusluk. We have not yet made the final payment nor received the Tapu but the developer is looking for us to pay maintenance from June to December €630, Pool maintenance €300, Cleaning charge of €120, water for garden €150, electricity €32 and water €15. We have obviously questioned these charges because we are not the complete owners yet, but he as told us he will start charging us interest if he does not receive payment. We have also requested a proper company invoice but he has refused to do this for VAT reasons. The development is still under construction and will not be completed until at least June 2007. He has also refused to provide us with a maintenance contract. If anyone could please give me some advice on what to do or if he is within his right to do this.

kaplumba · 15th November 2006, 23:54

hi Avatar, it does seem like a huge amount of money I haven't heard of anyone paying that much- is that really euros? I calculate that as over £800 for 6 months. Have you moved into your apartment and been using pool etc? If you have a lawyer dealing with your purchase i would get him/her on to it. As he is not prepared to give you an invoice - I smell a rat.

smithy · 16th November 2006, 00:06

Hi
I have just started paying charges on my apartment in Konacik. I havn't got my tapu or paid my final payment over yet.
From what i can understand you get charged from when you get your key and start using your property. Have you had use of your property since June?

Not all of the apartments on my complex have been sold yet so the charges are being split between the owners of the ones that have. We are being charged about £40 a month each and their are about 20 apartments sold.
So over a six month period our complex is costing £240 each.

Moira

smithy · 16th November 2006, 00:11

Is it possible that only a few of apartments are being used and he is spliting the cost between you.
That could explain why its so expensive.

Moira

ceemac · 16th November 2006, 00:34

In my case I had to pay the complex fees (which included upkeep and pool maintenance), from the date I signed the contract even though my apartment lay vacant for 9 months.
If you have agreed with the developer about water for your garden and cleaning then you'll have to pay that too, but those prices don't sound fair to me - I got a post-construction clean done for £50 and it was extremely thorough.
As far as the electric and water goes, I don't think it's your responsibility legally until the developer signs the property over to you and you get the TAPU - that's how it was for me but of course you should talk to someone who can advise you by the numbers.

C

puma · 16th November 2006, 01:19

i think that is a bit steep have you any neighbours there that you can speak to about the charges

Teecee · 16th November 2006, 10:18

wow extortionate we run our own complex 17 apts, actual cost for pool garden utillities is about £260 a year, we add on to this a contingency of around £90 to cover for emergencies and squirrel away some for external redecoration every 5 years.
Write your own contract and go out to contractors for an annual price for the complex, elect a committee of owners to oversee. Obviously May to October will be higher than November to April when your paying for security visits only also make sure contractors are bona fide and have the required tax and insurance cover for there employees. It all sounds complicated, but the hardest part is getting all the other owners on the complex to agree to this strategy.

Avatar · 16th November 2006, 10:38

Before we signed the contract we were told maintenance would be £25/month plus pool maintenance which sounds reasonable. We have this in writing from the agent we purchased through but the developer is not interested in that. I think at this point we need to get a solicitor involved (I know, we should have done from the start), I don't even know what the €120 cleaning is for. The apartment was finished in August when we went over to furnish it. The only problem now is he wont transfer the title deeds until he receives payment. Can anyone recommend a solicitor we can speak to?

Dellol · 16th November 2006, 14:50

Hi Avatar,
Don't know if I can be of any help to you but presumably you will have to pay the balance of the money to your agent, who you signed the contract with, like us. If that is so, get your agent to sort this out or else you won't pay your agent the balance due. They would surely have signed your contract too, so they cannot back out of this. We bought a re-sale, so maybe it works different, but we did not pay the balance to our agent until we were happy with everything, then we received our TAPU.
Good Luck with whatever happens and I hope you manage to get your figures lowered.
Lorna

sarahxx · 17th November 2006, 08:24

Hi, I bought an apartment back in July this year, I paid the balance in October, but I've not yet applied for title deeds, however, I've not paid any mainatenance charges, my agents told me that you don't pay them until all the apartments on the complex are sold, and I've been told the charges will be 100 YTL per month once up and running which includes security/gardening/pool maintenance, so I think your sounds very dodgy.
I would check with your agent, who did you buy through?
Sarah