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Frequently Asked Questions

If you have any questions regarding our company or the business that we do, please take a while to look at these frequently asked questions. If some of your questions remain unanswered, don’t hesitate to contact us.

1. What is property management and what does it include?
2. What is facility management?
3. I would like to become your client. What do I do?
4. What’s included in the monthly property management fee?
5. Why do I need to have a Slovak bank account?

1. What is property management and what does it include?
   Managing a property means taking complete care of our customers – property owners. Property management can be quite time-consuming, preventing the customers from taking care of their own apartments. Therefore they hire a specialised company to do it for them. This company takes over the role of the owner in dealing with all the necessary issues, like apartment handover, possession of keys, reclamation reporting and solving, repairing and maintaining the apartment, fitting it out, opening a bank account in Slovakia and − upon request − disposing of the account in the name of the owner, setting up necessary payment orders and monitoring outgoing payments, renting out the apartment, cooperating with different real estate agencies, signing rental agreement, handing over of the apartment to the tenant, and communicating with the tenant.  

   No fundamental decisions will be taken without the previous approval of the owner; we are in permanent contact with the owner, informing him/her about the newest developments.

2. What is facility management?
   Residential building management in Slovakia is governed by the act 182/1993, and its amendment of May 2007. Buildings required to have their representatives (i) have more than half the floor surface used for residential purposes, (ii) consist of more than three apartments, (iii) have their residential and non-residential areas owned, or co-owned, by the individual owners, and (iv) have their communal areas and equipments co-owned by the owners of the apartments and non-residential areas. These buildings are usually represented by a union of owners, housing association, or a management company.A management company, like REAL ESTATE MANAGEMENT a.s., represents the inhabitants of a building on the basis of a contract signed with each apartment owner. Services included in the contract are related to building maintenance (i.e. water, gas, and electricity supplies, waste disposal, building insurance, cleaning, etc.). Based on cost calculation the management company prepares advance deposit payments for the owners of the apartments and non-residential areas. These are payable on a monthly basis to an account created specifically for the purpose of receiving these payments and covering the building operation costs. Every larger payment has to be approved by the owners or their designated representatives. The management company receives for its services a monthly fee. The fee is set in the contract with owners, and is included in their advance deposit payments. All rights and obligations of the management company and of the owners are specified in the Residential building management contract.
3. I would like to become your client. What do I do?
   At the first meeting we try to find out as much as possible about your property. After the meeting a contract is signed, and we ask you to send us all the documentation of the apartment and the keys to the property. Depending on its actual state (new building, older apartment after reconstruction, furnished or unfitted apartment, apartment under construction or older apartment) we will determine the steps that need to be taken to make the apartment inhabitable. In order to carry out all the agreed actions we need you to provide us with a power of attorney attested by a notary. We will send you a template together with a contract draft. Powers of attorney attested abroad must also have an apostile. Based on our experience with Slovak authorities, the proxy is in both English and Slovak. Clients who would like our company to help them open a bank account in Slovakia need to provide us with a special proxy, which also needs to be bilingual.
4. What’s included in the monthly property management fee?
   The monthly fee includes all the common property-related operations. Not included in the fee are operations outside the scope of usual services, e.g. the first handover of the apartment (in case of new apartments) done by an expert, cleaning of the apartment, furniture, notary, tax advisors’ and lawyers’ fees, and various non-warranty repairs. When furnishing the apartment, you will only pay for the selected furniture, its transportation, and installation, without any additional fees. All the services paid extra are listed in the attachment of the contract.
5. Why do I need to have a Slovak bank account?
   Buying and apartment gives rise to several expenses, for example electricity and gas supplies or management company fee. From our experience we know that foreign payments are often not accepted, or impossible to be correctly identified by the different companies. This means unnecessary extension of the apartment completion phase, resulting in clients’ frustration. Therefore we recommend opening a Slovak bank account with internet banking functionality. If you’re taking out a mortgage, the banks usually open an account for you automatically.