What to Check Before Buying a Resale Apartment

The building matters as much as the flat. Most expensive surprises come from outside the front door.

Read the society and maintenance records

Table of Contents

Ask for the last two years of accounts and the minutes of recent meetings. Pending major repairs, a depleted sinking fund or an unresolved dispute will become your problem the day you complete.

Check the title chain and approvals

Verify the chain of ownership, the occupancy certificate and the approved building plan against what is actually built. Any deviation is a negotiating point at best and a refusal-to-lend at worst.

Inspect for water, not for decoration

Look at ceilings below bathrooms, the base of external walls, and around every window. Water damage is the defect most reliably hidden by fresh paint and most expensive to correct properly.

Visit twice, at different times

Once on a weekday morning and once on a weekend evening. Noise, parking pressure and how the building is actually used will look completely different.

Written by

Thalla Lokesh

Founder & Editor-in-Chief

Thalla Lokesh founded MyHomeImpro after spending most of a decade in and around residential construction — first helping his family finish a half-built house in Hyderabad on a budget that kept shrinking, then managing renovations for other people who were making the same expensive mistakes he had. He writes the site’s home improvement, flooring and real estate coverage, and he is unusually stubborn about two things: publishing real numbers instead of vague ranges, and telling readers when the cheaper option is genuinely the better one. If a guide on this site says a job takes four days and costs a certain amount, it is because Lokesh has either done it or stood over someone who did. He also handles editorial partnerships and every guest post enquiry that comes through the site.