Inspection on a coop?
We’re hoping to go into contract on a coop soon, and I’m wondering whether it’s standard practice to get an inspection done on a coop before closing. It certainly seems advisable to me, but so much of real estate custom in NYC is ill-advised, that I wonder if the seller might balk. Any experience with…
We’re hoping to go into contract on a coop soon, and I’m wondering whether it’s standard practice to get an inspection done on a coop before closing. It certainly seems advisable to me, but so much of real estate custom in NYC is ill-advised, that I wonder if the seller might balk. Any experience with this? Thanks!
You should review the minutes from the board meetings for the past several years. they will likely disclose any engineer reports the coop has done. they will let you know if the coop has some issues or some violations which they have been discussing but perhaps not addressing. or maybe they don’t keep minutes – which tells you something in itself.
It’s free and you can pressure your lawyer to do it for you at no additional cost – they call it due dilligence and once you ask for it they may be afraid of malpractice if they don’t.
At the end of the day, an inspection is probably the wisest things. but the baord minutes might help explain anything your inspector raises.
And check out the last few years’ worth of financial statements for the coop – they disclose lots of things that might be important to you. pay attention to the notes in the financials.
I think the previous poster is confusing an inspection with a final pre-closing walk through. You should definitely do the walk-thru, say, the morning before your closing, to see that they have their stuff out, and left stuff like the appliances they were supposed to leave according to the contract, and that nothing seems damaged, etc. That’s easy, that’s free.
The inspection of the apartment AND the building as a whole by a licensed inspector or building engineer happens before you sign the contract (or should happen then, if you elect to have one done.) Me, I had one done, and would if I bought an apartment again, but not everybody prefers to have that level of detailed knowledge.
please do the inspection! I had kind of a nightmare with the folks I bought my coop from.
the apt should be vacant prior to close and all of their crap should be out of there.
these are things I wish I’d checked more thoroughly: open and close all windows, make sure fire escape gates open easily, make sure oven/stove works, check all appliances, place should be broom clean, taps working, etc.
You may not be able to do anything if something is not working, but should you need any bargaining power at closing.
but I had a hell of a time getting my sellers out after the closing. so beware! the inspection makes it harder for them to stay/leave stuff behind
And the board may or may not let you have access to the boiler, roof, etc.
Thanks all for the helpful comments!
It’s standard practice, and the seller should expect that it will happen. Your lawyer should insist that you do this. You never know what they might uncover, and if they find nothing of note, it will be money well spent. We’ve used Heimer on 3 properties, and they’ve been very thorough.
2:53 brings up a good point about asking about recent capital improvements. It’s far better to know in advance what you may be dealing with at a later date.
Some do, some don’t. It all depends on how much you want to know about the condition of the building, or be ignorant and OK to being surprised at the stuff that needs to be fixed.
While it is possible that an inspection may show something in your apartment that might need fixing, that is more unlikely (as most of that stuff is obvious, and you can test it for yourself – i.e., turn on the stove, the shower, etc.). The real value of an inspection in a coop is to tell you about the condition of the rest of the building.
So, yeah, it depends on if you really want to know, or not. I also walked away (rescinded offer) from one coop where the work the building needed to do would have wiped out (and possibly worse) the reserve fund. And I’m glad I did. I bought in one with stuff that didn’t need to be done ASAP, and with more in reserve.
But it is not always so clear cut – most building are in the position of needing all kinds of stuff done – what it comes down to is how much can be put off, and how much needs to be done NOW (really NOW.) And how much you want to know…
We were thinking of going into contract on one place and found out on an inspection that one of the sidewalls of the building had huge problems and would need major work — and there wasn’t enough in co-op reserve fund to cover this.
In any event, I think it’s a good idea to do before going into contract so you get a feel for potential future problems with the building. More of an issue with a small co-op, I suppose, but good to know either way.
We didn’t when we bought, but others in our building did. You could also ask the board to give you a list of all capital improvements and dates. Just don’t expect the seller to be able to make building repairs the inspector advises – it’s the boards decision.