Ireland's €10 noticeboard

A sample Home check

A property advert tells you why you should buy the house. Home Check tells you what could change your mind, what could change the cost, and what to check before you bid.

This is a full Home check on a real one-bedroom apartment at Parkgate Place, Dublin 8, built from its sale advert and the BER certificate and advisory report on the public SEAI register. Here is what its first page found.

Could change your mind

  • Conflict: The advert says 42 m²; the BER assessor measured 47.9 m², 14% more. Ask the agent which is right, as it changes the price per m².
  • Risk: Built in 2001: within the 1991 to 2013 group of apartments covered by the interim fire-safety remediation scheme and the proposed broader scheme for fire safety, structural and water ingress defects. Both fund only the owners' management company.
  • Context: The Property Price Register records a sale of this apartment on 17 June 2026 for €315,000.
  • Opportunity: Rated C1: it uses less energy per m² than 90% of the 50 BER-rated apartments in its small area.

Could change what it costs you

  • Context: The assessor's energy package: €3,000 to €15,000 before grants, with SEAI grants of up to €8,000. Work on walls and windows usually needs the management company's consent.
  • Context: Energy at the BER's standard pattern: about €1,370 a year at SEAI's current prices.

Check before you bid

  • Risk: Ask the management company whether the block has been assessed for fire safety, structural or water ingress defects, and whether any levy is planned.
  • Risk: Ask for three years' accounts, the service charge, the sinking fund, the block insurance and planned works, including the roof on a top floor.
  • Risk: For the surveyor: the advert's photos appear to show a flat roof.

The full report runs to 9 pages: the price against nearby sales, the upgrade costs and grants, what the rating means, planning, the apartment block, the area, flood and commute, renting it out and the costs of buying, with the source and date beside every fact.

Read the full sample report (PDF) Check a home of your own, free