Furniture. Many cottages are sold with furniture included, the current owners having no place to use or store it. This is a great benefit, providing you like their tastes, and the furniture is in good condition. If you feel the furniture is not really your style, or it is old and decrepit, then your offer should take this into account. The same is true of docks, canoes or boats that are included in the purchase price. If you don’t want them, state that in your offer, and adjust your offer price accordingly.
Terrain. Is the cottage on a rocky shore? If so, will elderly visitors be able to negotiate their way to the dock. Is the dock easy to get out of the water for winter? If there is a beach, is it safe for your children to play and swim? If the lot is treed, are the trees safe, and easy to manage, and are they far enough from the house that fallen leaves will not rot the wood of the roof?.
Distance from neighbours. While it may be appealing to have a place out in the wilds, far from your neighbours, isolation has its own dangers. In the event of an emergency it may be difficult to get help if you don’t have telephone coverage or if you have to travel a long distance to the nearest outpost of civilization. Also, the presence of neighbours, particularly permanent residents, is a deterrent to thieves and vandals.
Power supply. Is the cottage supplied with electrical power from the public grid? If not, is there a generator, and are you prepared for the gas bills to run it? Being connected to the public grid is one of the best ways of ensuring that you will enjoy the cottage, as you can be sure of benefits such as emergency heating and the ability to run power tools.
Telephone. Is telephone service available in your area? You will need it if you want the simplest form of internet access (dial-up), or if the cottage is out of reach of the cellular phone network.
Water supply and purification. This is another major factor that can have a significant effect upon your enjoyment of your cottage. The benefit of being able to turn on a tap and get a reliable flow of clean, pure water is immeasurable. Unfortunately, this is one area where lots of problems can occur. I deal with this topic elsewhere, but from the point of view of a purchaser, you need to know whether the water supply comes from the local municipality, a well, or a body of open water, and whether the equipment to get it from its source to your taps is working and in good order. You will also need to know if there is a purification system for drinking water, and how well it is working. For one reason or another, many people are not able to get pure water for drinking, and so carry it in from their city homes or buy it at the local store. We have a very efficient ceramic filter system for our drinking water, but in winter when the water system is shut down, we have to carry in potable water. You will also need to know about the ease with which the system is winterized, and whether it can be opened up again for winter visits. In our case, once it is shut down in the fall, it stays that way until the spring, and on winter visits we have to pump water from the wellhead hand pump and lug it into the house.
Sewage disposal. What goes in must come out, and you need to dispose of it properly. When talking to other recently-met cottage owners, the conversation will inevitably turn to the delightful subject of the septic system and its problems. Purchasers should ask whether the cottage is on the municipal sewage system, in which case your problems will be minimized. If it is not, then you should ask for details about the system and how long it has been operational. If the owners can show you their receipts for pumping out the septic tank on a regular basis, all the better. A tank that has overflowed into the weeping tiles or evaporation bed can mean costly expenditures to remedy the problems that this can cause. A separate section on this web site deals with septic systems.
Insulation and heating. If you plan on spending a large part of your time there during one or more seasons, you should be sure that the cottage is appropriately cool in summer, or has reliable heating and insulation for the winter months. Ask about the extent of the insulation, and what form of heating is in use. Typically, heating is achieved using electrical heaters (baseboard or radiant heaters), wood stoves, gas furnaces (either propane or municipal gas supply), oil furnaces or space heaters, or a combination of one or more of these. If oil or propane needs to be delivered, and you plan extensive use of the cottage in winter, be sure that deliveries can be made year-round. Incidentally, oil space heaters (which burn stove oil) have a poor reputation, and should be avoided. Don’t assume that heat is not needed if you don’t plan to use the cottage in winter. Even in the spring and fall, you are likely to need some heating. In fact, we have even fired up our woodstove in July and August.
Access (year-round or seasonal). Some roads, believe it or not, actually close during the winter. If you want to use your cottage in winter, you must be sure that the roads in are snow-ploughed by the municipality, or by local residents. In the spring, some roads may be completely impassable for some time as the frost leaves the ground and it turns to mud. We have had mud up to the axles of the car on one occasion, and had to abandon it for a couple of days until a helpful resident pulled it out with his four-wheel-drive truck.
Access for disabled persons. If any of your family or friends have a disability that makes it difficult for them negotiate stairs or rough terrain, this should be considered when viewing properties. Evaluate both the surrounding terrain and the layout of the building. If the building has two storeys, you may want to have one or more bedrooms on the ground floor. You may also have to consider the feasibility of building ramps or pathways for wheel chairs.
Easements. Look out for easements on a property. I am no lawyer, but briefly an easement allows another person at law (either an individual or a corporation) who does not own any part of the property to have a right to use part of the property. For example, if A can only get to his property by walking over B’s land, then an easement may exist to permit A the right of way over a portion of B’s land. Easements may also exist for the purposes of electrical, water or gas lines. From another point of view, you may need to benefit from an existing easement on someone else’s property in order to reach the property you are purchasing, and you or your lawyer will have to verify that the easement will continue to be in force, particularly as easements can expire 40 years after their registration. You should have your lawyer check these out on any property you are considering.
Rights of way. These are specific types of easements, but very important ones for cottage owners. You want to be sure that you have access to your property either on a public road or over a right-of-way easement, and that the easement will not expire in the near future. In our case, our vehicle access route into the cottage passes over the property of two other landowners, and the easement consists of designated road allowances. Again, check with your lawyer. Click here for an interesting article on the subject.