There is a lot of space for improvement in the management of apartment buildings

Although a large part of the existing apartment buildings in Estonia would need to be thoroughly renovated and modernized immediately, the first block of so-called "new generation apartment buildings" have already been built with the future requirements (from 2021). They are all innovative and well-equipped indoor climate buildings, which, in place of large-scale energy costs, can produce almost all of it in the required volume.

Aside from all the well-controlled apartment buildings that are compliant with today's requirements and fully renovated, the awareness of better management of the older and even newly-built real estate amongst cooperatives and apartment owners has passed over „stones and stumps“. There are probably several reasons for this, one of which is that there are not enough good professionals with a long-term view of the technical condition  buildings. The lack  of experienced and unbiased experts and their long term know how is compensated with at first glance cheaper solutions, offered by slick salesman and some of „construction experts“. So, you can see separately all the high quality building materials and technical solutions in the newly renovated apartment buildings, where they do not fulfill their goals, and finally - even more expensive for owners, when they are installed.

Therefore, permanent clarification and explanation of the terms of modern and future real estate in our latitudes is needed. As a rule, the members of the board, apartment owners or buyers have no idea of the materials and engineering systems to be used in their apartment house, neither the „best before“ of real estate repair or modernization.

Starting from 2018, the only form of apartment house management in Estonia is the housing cooperative. In order to make economically well-considered decisions, owners should immediately obtain a written review of the technical condition of their property from the builder or developer of the building, or, at the latest, from the moment the housing cooperative is established.

The technical condition assessor must be impartial in preparing the written report. This means that he does not develop, build, sell, repair or manage, but only deals with technical evaluation. In its work, the technical condition assessor is guided by the relevant instructions. When reviewing the property, it fixes the significance, impact and severity of the defects and damage detected, as well as the risks and risks to the health of the building users.

The report on the evaluation of the technical condition prepared in one form, and even in a form comprehensible to the owner, creates the preconditions that the various parties, whether they are the management of the cooperative, the owners of the apartment, the possible buyer and seller of the apartment, will understand things in the same way.

Documenting the technical condition  will help to avoid misunderstandings and disputes, for example, in detecting latent defects of real estate, in designing the repairs needed for maintenance, or in evaluating the quality of work already performed.

When comparing a technical evaluation and, for example, the work of real estate appraiser or broker, they are based on different criteria and experience. The assessment of the technical condition of the real estate requires  technical education and continuous improvement, together with long-term practical construction and repair experience.