scrubbedexpat142

CathyG - when we asked for the second viewing we asked for & got (via the Agent) - the search, energy certificate, evidence of boiler installation, servicing & inspection, House Articles of Association, evidence of house funding including renovation fund, evidence of common cost payments & utility bills.

Checked all these before making the offer.

FenTiger

Have just seen some enlarged plans of the house my wife prefers but they are the same as those on Ingatlan. Also they do not match the current layout. The bigger half of the property has one room marked as being a 'szoba' is actually the 'konyha'. The 'konyha' has been changed to a 'szoba'! Part of the wall between where the actual 'konyha' is has been removed but this is not noted on the plans on Ingtatlan. As this property is split in two it seems they are using one half as the bedrooms and the other half for day time use! Looks like I will have to make a flying visit to check it out myself. Probably won't be able to fly out for another three weeks.

FenTiger

If any renovation work is carried out do the local council have to be informed of this?

Peter_in_Hungary

It depends what you call 'renovation' Generally - no. You can more or less do anything internally without notification or permission. Externally replacing like with like should be ok but for anything that alters the appearance or size then ask, but be guided by what your local builder who will do the work says.

Anything that involves mains gas you need a qualified gas fitter, and best to use one for bottled gas boilers or water heaters. Gas cookers need professional installation when the location will also be checked. The same applies to bottled gas cookers which is a bit of a nonsense since these can be moved as soon as the fitter goes. For electrical work you are free to do anything yourself (if you consider yourself competent) that is on your side of the meter. The same with water, anything your side of the meter you can DIY. Central heating you can DIY up to the gas boiler where the gas fitter has to take over. Chimney modifications should be approved and inspected. By law here chimneys need professional cleaning once a year, which also includes an inspection, although what happens seems to vary place to place. Some places get annual visits where every chimney is looked at - even unused ones, but we have never seen a chimney sweep in 25 years and I have always swept my own.

FenTiger

Gee, another property came onto the market recently after my wife returned from Hungary. It's only about £2,600 more than the house my wife likes but overall it appears in much better condition, requires much less work, has a larger plot of land, has a second smaller house on the plot, which my mother-in-law has said she'll move there as soon as we move over! I think this would be a much better option than spending several £1,000s to knock the other property into shape!

My sister-in-law has explained the buying process as being: 1) 5-10% deposit, 2) 2/3rd of the balance to be paid on a fixed date, 3) followed by the 1/3rd balance) by a fixed date. I'm comfortable with this.

scrubbedexpat142

System we have used successfully is: Immediately - Binding offer / Letter of agreement with 1 or 2% (max) deposit. Subsequently - 10% deposit on signing of contract, balance on completion. Letter of agreement states intended contract signing period / date & intended completion date, etc.

Up to you of course...

FenTiger

I'd be comfortable with that too.

FenTiger

What is it with kitchens in Hungarian properties being so small and compact? On Ingatlan I have been alerted to a property with rooms totalling 120 sq.m. It's a really nice property, albeit a little too high for me. All rooms are a decent size and it has two nice terraces front and back of the property but the kitchen is only 9 sq.m. Our kitchen in UK is 13.6 sq.m. and includes a washing machine and dishwasher, as well as a tall fridge/freezer. In Hungary all properties seem to have the washing machine in the bathroom, fridge/freezer in the larder or even outside (!), only one sink and no draining board (arrghhh), and the cooker in the most awkward place (from my perspective)! But recently a friend whose partner is in a nursing home has been de-cluttering his house as it's likely his partner won't be coming home and he has reminded me on an every day basis if you are not using something every day store it. I think he has a good point. In our kitchen cabinets we have about 15 mugs, 10 smaller cups and various small coffee cups/mugs and there's only two of us living in our UK house!!! In my defence I can only argue we used to have alot of parties and at the end of the night .... nearly everyone wanted a coffee or tea before they drove home .... but it's been a long time since we had a large party so I suppose my defence isn't justified. We have a toaster and food mixer taking up space on the kitchen work top but again they are not used every day so .... I suppose we should store them somewhere and get them out when we need them.
I'm curious what do you all think is the ideal size for a kitchen with a small eating area, i.e. mainly breakfast? We'd definitely make changes to include two sinks and a draining board but in a kitchen measuring 9 sq.m. with two doors I think it would be a squeeze to fit in a fridge/freezer, dishwasher (not totally necessary) and leaving a decent amount of space on the kitchen work top for preparing food for cooking, etc. I think the key is to have a larder with ample room for a fridge/freezer and store other things not used on a daily basis.
Suffice to say when my wife had a flat her kitchen was something like 6 sq.m. I have no idea how she managed to cook such lovely meals when we started seeing each other!

Jack_Russells4ever

We hate the small Hungarian Kitchens most houses in Hungary have. Only speaking for myself, I think a kitchen should be about 20m2. Our house had a kitchen about 9m2 and it was totally unusable due to all 4 walls having doors in them. so we moved ours into another room and use the old kitchen as an entry hall and plan to eventually install a wood heater in it after we get a chimney built.

We store all the extra dishes and cookware and seldom use them but we keep them for company. We keep our toaster and seldom used coffee pot stored as well, makes for a lot more cabinet top surface to work with.

scrubbedexpat142

Our kitchen is only 6m2 but we find it perfectly adequate (& includes the washing machine, dishwasher & fridge / freezer) -. but then we have no desire to eat in the kitchen!

Edited: actually it's about 8m2!

Peter_in_Hungary

A larder is not always the best place for a fridge/freezer. The fridge/freezer will add heat when running and you want the larder to stay cool.

A bit off topic but when you get the chimney built perhaps consider a double wall insulated stainless steel chimney. Easy to install, light weight and can stop about 20cm below the ceiling with the stove connected straight in. No foundations needed as they hang on the ceiling joists and roof timbers. They can be put in DIY (In the UK I did one in a week-end with the fire lit on Sunday evening

Jack_Russells4ever

I had a house before that didn't have a chimney and I installed a double wall insulated stainless steel chimney through the roof and it was a relatively easy project to do back then. I am sure something like that would work unless there is a rule or law preventing it.

wolfi

I've also often wondered why kitchens are so small in Hungarian houses - often they don't even have windows!
So when we rebuilt our house or rather actually added an apartment I told the architect (a woman even ...) to take out of the plans that wall between the kitchen and the dining room and we then got a nice "American kitchen" as people often call it., around 16 square meters. A ventilation system of course and a dishwasher too - I told the architect and the builder I wanted the same kind of "luxury" in my holiday home as I had in Germany.
Re freezers:
There are several points - the larder usually gets built in the coolest place of the house and so the freezer uses less energy too. I bought a relatively small freezer but the fridge also has a freezer compartment where we put the stuff we often need

FenTiger

Peter_in_Hungary - agree with your comments about fridge/freezer adding heat to larder. My parents-in-law have their freezer in an outbuilding so hopefully the house we buy will have an outbuilding with power supply.
Wolfi - my sister-in-law's kitchen has a window but it's above head height so you can't see out of it. They built their own house and had to adhere to privacy regulations for the kitchen window and surprisingly for their dining room which I thought was ridiculous. For their dining room it would have been superb to have had a bigger window or doorway to open onto a terrace but they couldn't do that. Instead they had a covered terrace built to the side of their house. Suffice to say I really like their covered roof terrace and think the privacy regulations worked in their favour.

FenTiger

Four walls and four doors! Huh! Where did each door lead to? That would give me a massive headache. There's only one door in our kitchen (UK). In my previous property (flat) there were two doors. One of them for where the hot water tank.