Buying a house: what to check before you sign

Most people buy a house once in their life – usually after two viewings of an hour each. Yet those two hours decide whether you spend an extra €5,000 or €80,000 over the next few years. This checklist helps you find the expensive surprises before you sign at the notary.

With a house you are on your own: there is no owners' association sharing the cost of the roof and no reserve fund. Whatever is broken, you pay for.

The year of construction tells you a lot

Before you go, look at when the house was built. Every era has its typical weak spots:

• Before 1950: often solid walls, but damp cellars, timber-beam ceilings, old pipes and hardly any insulation.
• 1950s to 1970s: built quickly and cheaply, thin walls, often poor insulation. Until 1973, lead pipes for drinking water were still laid in some places.
• 1960s to 1993: the asbestos years – in corrugated sheets on roofs and garages, in floor coverings and adhesives, window sills and night storage heaters. Asbestos has been banned in Germany since 1993.
• From the 1990s: usually better insulation and building services; here it's more about wear than fundamentals.

At the viewing: from top to bottom

Roof

The roof is one of the most expensive items. Ask when it was last re-covered – after about 40 to 60 years it's due. Look into the attic: dark stains on the beams, water marks, wood dust (woodworm), missing insulation? Corrugated sheets on the roof or garage from before 1993 may contain asbestos.

Windows and façade

Single-glazed or very old windows waste heating energy and often need replacing. Cracks in the façade, flaking render or dark patches under window sills point to damp.

Heating

Ask for its age, its type and the chimney sweep's last report. Since the end of July 2026 the new Building Modernisation Act (Gebäudemodernisierungsgesetz) applies: a working gas or oil boiler may stay, even an old one. But from 2029 fossil heating must gradually blend in climate-friendly fuels, and the CO₂ price makes oil and gas dearer. So a 25-year-old oil boiler isn't a deal-breaker – but it's a cost to plan for in the next few years.

Electrics and pipes

If the wiring dates from the 1970s or earlier – old screw-in fuses, two-pin sockets without earthing, few sockets per room – a full rewire is often due. Under the drinking water regulations, lead water pipes should have been replaced by 12 January 2026; if you find any, add their replacement to the list.

Cellar

This is where most damp problems show: a musty smell, salt deposits (white crusts) on walls, flaking plaster, freshly painted patches. A damp cellar can be fixed, but sealing it from outside easily costs five figures.

The papers: what you can't see

Energy certificate

Sellers must show it at the viewing at the latest. It gives a rough idea of how much energy the house needs. A demand-based certificate (Bedarfsausweis, calculated from the building) says more than a consumption-based one, which depends on how the previous owners heated.

Land register

Ask for a current extract (Grundbuchauszug). Section II is what matters: it lists other people's rights over your plot – a neighbour's right of way, a right to run cables, a lifelong right of residence (Wohnrecht) or usufruct (Nießbrauch). A registered right of residence can mean someone may stay in the house even after you've bought it.

Register of building encumbrances

The underrated document: building encumbrances (Baulasten) are not in the land register but kept by the local building authority – for example a duty to keep a driveway open for the neighbouring plot. The notary checks the land register, but usually not the Baulastenverzeichnis. Ask the building authority yourself.

Development plan, contamination, flooding

The building authority can also tell you what may be built on the plot and next door. The environmental office keeps a register of contaminated sites. And your state's flood and heavy-rain maps show whether the house is in an exposed area – which affects whether, and at what price, you can insure it against natural hazards (Elementarschäden).

Duties you buy with the house

When you buy a one- or two-family house, the Building Modernisation Act gives you two years for two retrofits if they're missing:

• insulate the top floor ceiling towards the unheated attic (or the roof instead),
• insulate heating and hot-water pipes in unheated rooms.

The clock starts with your entry in the land register. The former duty to replace boilers older than 30 years was dropped with the new law.

When a surveyor pays off

Almost always. A walk-through with a building surveyor (Bausachverständiger) usually costs €300 to €800, a short written report €400 to €1,500. That's little compared with overlooked dry rot in the roof timbers or a wet cellar. A report also helps you negotiate: every documented defect is an argument for a lower price.

Important: German purchase contracts almost always exclude the seller's liability for defects ("bought as seen"). What you don't find before signing, you generally pay for yourself.

Count the renovation in from the start

A €400,000 house that needs a roof and heating in the next few years is not the same as a €400,000 house that was just renovated. Put the renovation into your budget from day one – the Can I buy this home? calculator includes renovation costs and shows what they mean for your savings, loan and monthly payment.

In short

• Check the year of construction: it tells you what to look for – asbestos, lead, insulation.
• Roof, heating, electrics and cellar are the big-ticket items. Ask how old everything is.
• Check section II of the land register and the register of building encumbrances – the notary doesn't do the second.
• Two years to insulate the top floor ceiling and pipes.
• A surveyor for a few hundred euros protects you from damage worth tens of thousands.