A defect in a used apartment

The qualities of the apartment must be as stated in the deed of sale or otherwise agreed between the parties. The beginning to assess a defect in the apartment is the contract between the buyer and the vendor.

Unless the vendor and the buyer have agreed otherwise, ordinary properties in the apartment, including the fridge, dishwasher, freezer and cooker, are part of the sale.

Rather than relying on verbal agreements, it is a good idea to write down all essential facts in the deed of sale.

The vendor must tell the buyer if the apartment is in some way different from normal standards. The vendor has an obligation to tell the buyer about both faults that they know about and those which they have a concrete reason to suspect.
The buyer has no obligation to check if the information the vendor provides about the apartment is correct unless the vendor encourages them to do so, or because of some other special reason. The buyer cannot claim compensation for something they should have noticed in a normal inspection of the apartment before the sale.

The information given to the buyer may also concern the financial situation of the housing company. The vendor may be liable if they have given the buyer false, misleading or incomplete information about the financial obligations or liabilities related to owning or using the apartment, and it can be expected that the information provided to the buyer influenced their decision to buy. Such information may concern management charges, share of the housing company’s debts or the other financial circumstances of the housing company.

The vendor’s liability for defects also includes the information that the estate agent provides and that also includes information in the house manager’s certificate.

The liability for a defect does not depend on whether the vendor knew that the information was false or incomplete. The vendor is liable if the information would have had an impact on the buyer’s decision to buy the apartment and the sale price. This means that false or incomplete information does not automatically entitle the buyer for compensation.

Disputes related to the sale of a used apartment often concern a defect that the vendor did not know about and the buyer could not notice before the sale was concluded.

For example, moisture and mould damage are often hidden defects, as they affect structural elements you cannot see, and the buyer cannot prove that the vendor knew about the defect. Defects that have not been noticed in a condition inspection are often regarded as hidden defects.

A hidden defect is assessed in each individual case, taking all elements into consideration. In addition to the sale price and age of the apartment the facts that can be taken into account include if the damage was unexpected, how extensive it is and how long it takes to repair it. In principle, the vendor is only liable for both the defects and their repair costs if they are large.
When an apartment gets older, it needs maintenance and repairs. The vendor is not liable for repairs that are needed because of the ageing and normal wear and tear of the building.

The basic rule is that the housing company is responsible for the costs of repairing structures, and the apartment owner is responsible for repairing surfaces.

For example, in typical cases of moisture damage in the bathroom, the repair costs are usually mostly paid by the housing company. In this situation, the buyer normally cannot claim compensation from the vendor because they do not have to pay large repair costs.

Sometimes a defect in a new apartment is due to defective building work. Within certain restrictions, the buyer has the right to complain about an initial defect in the apartment directly to the first vendor, or the founding shareholder.

The most common consequence of a defect is reducing the sale price. You should be realistic when you ask for a price reduction. Reimbursing full repair costs as a price reduction is usually not recommended in dispute resolution.

The older the house is, the greater the improvement in its quality and the extension of its service life after the repairs have been made. You should also note that only the costs necessary to rectify the defect are taken into account when determining the price reduction. It must be possible to separate the costs of any other renovation work carried out when the defect is rectified from the price reduction demanded as compensation.

In the sale of a used apartment, the vendor does not usually have the right to rectify the defect. In a sale between private (natural) persons, the buyer cannot demand that the vendor rectifies the defect, and similarly, the buyer has no obligation to accept the vendor’s offer to rectify it. The buyer can only demand that the vendor rectifies the defect if the vendor is a trader and the defect concerns repairs or improvements carried out by the trader.

If the fault has caused financial losses, the buyer may in some cases have the right to compensation. When the vendor is a private (natural) person, they may not be liable to pay compensation if they can show that the defect was not caused by their negligence. The buyer cannot claim compensation for losses in case of a hidden defect.

The sale can only be cancelled because of an essential breach of contract by the vendor. The threshold for cancelling the sale is very high, and these cases are rare. Cancelling the sale may be possible mainly if the defect cannot be rectified without significant inconvenience, and the defect is so large that a price reduction cannot be considered reasonable.