We published an article before, called Check VvE when buying an apartment in the Netherlands. In that article, we mentioned that the three most important information when checking VvE are:
Notulen: Meeting minutes (1~3 years)
MJOP: Maintenance Plan
Annual Financial Statement
In this article, we will talk more about the MJOP (multi-year maintenance plan).
MJOP
Meerjarenonderhoudsplan
MJOP is the abbreviation of Meer (many) jaren (year) onderhouds (maintenance) plan (plan). And it is the second last item in the VvE Checklist on funda.
As the name suggests, a maintenance plan is used to describe when and what kind of maintenance the building needs and how much it costs.
There are normally three parts in a maintenance plan, which are listed below.
Which parts of the building need maintenance (facade, roof, rain pipes, stairwells, elevator, balcony railings and so on)?
What is the current status of each part of the building? When is a repair or replacement required?
Budgeting for each repair or replacement
Before making a maintenance plan, the most important thing is to have a clear understanding of the current state of the property, and that is the "inspection report".
Like the inspection report of a property, an inspection report of the apartment and the MJOPs are customized based on the condition of each apartment. As a buyer, what we can do is to get the reports and understand them.
The Timespan
The timespan of MJOP varies from a minimum of 10 years to a maximum of 30 years.
The MJOP done by a small VvE with 2-10 households usually has a life of 10 year only. without MJOP, the required annual contribution of the VvE is 0.5% of the house valuation, otherwise your loan applications will be affected.
VvEs are generally more stringent for large apartment buildings, with a life of 25-30 years. For apartment buildings with elevators, the maintenance costs of elevators are very high, and preparation for major maintenance will be made 10 years in advance (such as replacing new elevators). (Preparation means increasing the monthly payment and charging more money)
MJOPs are normally renewed every 5 years due to reasons like hikes in maintenance costs and unexpected changes in building conditions.
The Timing
The inspection report of the apartment and the starting time of MJOP are more important than its life.
For example in the following scenario, many property owners will choose to sell their properties in this situation.
An apartment building got the problems like roof leaks and elevator defects for lack of regular maintenance. And then VvE responded that a building inspection was required to formulate a MJOP. This kind of situation is usually accompanied by the problem that the monthly VvE contribution is too low. And after the MJOP is made, the monthly VvE contribution will be increased, sometimes even doubled.
With the VvE meeting minutes, it is not difficult to find that VvE is preparing to do building inspections, and the increase of VvE contribution every month in the future is unknown.
There are a large number of apartments without MJOP. If it is a small VvE with 2-10 households, it is not a big problem, but if it is a large VvE with more than 10 households, the situation may be serious.
Please note that VvEs that are preparing for building inspections and MJOPs are also counted as "active" VvEs.
Don't look at the wording, but listen to the their introduction and explanation as well as the paperworks!
"New" properties also have issues with maintenance.
Buildings with a construction age of nearly 10 years, so buildings built around 2010, have begun to prepare for building inspections and MJOPs.
During the background check on VvEs, it is generally considered that a very new building, such as a house built in the 2000s, is currently facing a situation where there is no money for large-scale maintenance and the VvE is not standardized.
Here’s an example, where there was a residential compound built in 2002, and the VvE users include townhouses, supermarkets, office buildings and apartments developed at the same time in the area, but there is no clear division of responsibility.
The elevator of the apartment building with a supermarket on the ground floor has reached the replacement period, and the residents are currently disputing about things like who should pay for the replacement. How much should they pay? Why should the residents of the adjacent townhouses pay as well? Why is the supermarket not responsible for this though as a merchant?
If you buy in at the time of the dispute and become a VvE member, you may need to worry about future VvE lawsuits.
How to read MJOP?
Google Translate would help in understanding of Notulen (the VvE meeting minutes) while MJOP may be something that can’t be understood even after translation for that it is full of technical terms and large tables The simplest method would be to look at the page numbers. The more pages a MJOP has, the more reliable the MJOP is.
A MJOP report is normally between 5 to 30 pages, depending on whether the MJOP report includes a building inspection report.
The most unreliable MJOP I have ever seen is a one-page word document that was made by the seller himself.
For customers who purchase the "Choose the best one" consultation package, there is no limit on the amount of VvE background checks as such information is a very important part of the process of screening the property. Once we found a problem with the, there is no need to do the inspection anymore, and so it will be canceled immediately.
In the on-time consulting service (€60/h excl.21% vat), Piecemeal Design provides VvE background check service. And it usually takes 30-45 minutes.
If you are buying an apartment, preparing to bid or to sign a contract, and you need our assistance in reviewing the VvE, feel free to send the related information to piecemealdesign2010@gmail.com with "VvE Urgent Review" in the subject of the email, and we will be working on it as soon as possible.
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