If you want to buy a property in Bulgaria, you will definitely come across such a concept as "Maintenance fee, Annual maintenance for the building or Complex maintenance fee". You should familiarize yourself with the concepts in more detail.
Housing in Bulgaria is mainly represented by modern and beautiful complexes with well-groomed territory, swimming pools, fenced area, playground, security, parking and other amenities. This splendor requires strength and attention, as well as certain expenses. These expenses constitute the annual maintenance of the building, in other words, the maintenance fee.
How is the support fee calculated?
The amount of maintenance is calculated based on the total area of housing and is 5-15 euros per 1 m2 annually. As a result, if the apartment area is 60 m2, and the maintenance price is 10 euros per 1 m2 per year, it turns out that 60 × 10 = 600 euros must be paid annually. There are also practices when the same fee for the annual maintenance of an apartment is taken, regardless of its area. Or, for example, a fee depending on the type of apartment.
What is building maintenance?
It is best to familiarize yourself with the list of provided “annual support” services. To do this, just read the contract of the service company. Generally speaking, a number of services stand out that relate to maintenance:
pool maintenance and care; cleaning of entrances, summer grounds, other common parts; maintenance and repair of common areas of the building; lawn improvement, seasonal maintenance of green areas, landscaping; cleaning the elevator, its repair if necessary; care of the reception, gym, other common parts; security, video surveillance.
Among the additional services related to the support fee, there may also be:
the ability to rent out housing through a management campaign; the use of additional infrastructure free of charge, for a symbolic amount, as well as at a discount. We are talking about a fitness room, SPA center, indoor pool, restaurant, laundry and so on. Special nuances of the service fee
The service has both positive and negative points. The pluses include the fact that real estate never loses its “presentation”.
It is unlikely that anyone will argue that it is nice to look at the cleaned area, the neatly trimmed lawn, the cleanliness of the building. The facades and common parts as a whole are being renovated. A support fee has a great advantage when a person visits his property only from time to time, but in this case you do not have to worry about its safety.
As for the cons, the service is a recurring expense. Sometimes it happens that the company does not fully fulfill personal obligations, or completely ignores them. For this reason, it is optimal to look at finished, as well as serviced objects, plus get acquainted with the state of buildings, the adjacent territory for the current period of time.
We want to pay attention!
In apartment buildings without a local area and swimming pools, there is also a support fee, because the common parts of the building, the elevator must be monitored and paid for. For example, in a residential building in Burgas, the maintenance price is about 5-7 Euros per month per apartment, i.e. 60-84 Euro per year.
conclusions
When considering options for houses and apartments in Bulgaria, it is optimal to take into account the presence or absence of an annual building maintenance fee, the pricing policy of the service, plus the availability of supported infrastructure.