In first part of the article we drew attention to the features of living in a house in the village. Noted the features of valuation of lands under the garden, namely their elongated form. Also mentioned the difference between the urban and rural rhythm of life. Well, we also touched on the issue about communication evaluation, particularly the supply of electricity to the house.
If in the first part the main focus was on the house in the village, in this material we will focus our attention on the features of living in cotteges. Especially, if a few years ago in most cases cottages were used exclusively as summer houses, now more and more people consider this type of property as permanent housing all year round.
Even a few years ago, the fundamental difference between a cottage and a rural one was that it was impossible to register at the cottege («to register») with all the inconveniences that this entails. Let’s not go into details, let’s just say that now «residence permit» is not something problematic or rare.
By the way, if you are looking for a cottage near to Kyiv, we recommend to pay attention to the sites where there are so-called «proven cottages» – that is, ads about the sale of real estate with guaranteed correct information and photos, terms of sale and so on.
Electricity is the problem number one!
All the inconveniences of living in cottage cooperative as a rule are somehow connected with electricity. First, it is often of poor quality: the voltage is out of bounds; there are power outages. Secondly, the tariff on power supply is objectively higher for summer residents than for rural residents. This is due to the fact that for the operation of the power supply system, summer cottages need to maintain the capacity of engineering communications (transformer and power lines)to pay for electrician services and to compensate the time of the members of the board of the garden association, which they spend on public work.
Transformer
If you plan to buy a suburban area, be sure to check out the situation with the transformer. If the cottage is relatively modern, problems may not be. But if we are talking about the villages of the 1980s and 1990s, you need to be especially attentive!
- We need to find out what maximum power is allocated to one house. This can be indirectly seen by looking at the value of the circuit breakers that are installed near the energy meter. If the connection is single-phase, the automaton value is multiplied by 220V to understand the maximum power. For example, if there is a 20 amp input machine, the maximum power will be 220*20=4.4 kW. This capacity should be enough to use household appliances, but clearly not enough to heat the house more than 100 sq.m. electricity in winter.
- It is also necessary to clarify whether a three-phase connection is allowed in a cooperative. If so, this is a great advantage. Firstly, with the same parameters of the input switches can get three times more power. For example, to install the same heating electric boiler. Secondly, it is possible to use automatic phase switches so that consumers in the home remain always connected to the phase, the parameters of which are currently closest to the nominal.
- For permanent residence is very convenient, if the accounting of electricity costs is carried out with the help of a double tariff meter. Since the night tariff (from 23:00 to 07:00) is half the daily rate, at the current cost of kilowatt with the help of such a meter can be seriously saved. It is enough even to turn on the same boilers only at night with the simplest timer – and the savings will be immediately, as they say, «on the face». Unfortunately, not all gardening partnerships allow the installation of double-rate meters.
Horticultural partnership («cottage cooperative»)
Since the transformer is not on the balance of the regional power plant, but is the property of the cooperative, summer residents have to maintain it on their own and at their own expense. In addition, payment for electricity in summer villages is not directly on the account of the electricity supplier, but on the account of the garden partnership with progressive summer cottages, or cash who is more «retrograded».
Therefore, electricity for each gardener is more expensive than for a rural resident. Here and the cost of electricity, and administration of the cooperative. In addition, there are objective losses of electricity in the lines, as well as cases of theft of energy. Of course, all of the above costs go to the cottager through membership fees and higher than the rural tariffs per kilowatt.
What is the result?
Based on the above, you can come to the following conclusion. Both options of living (village and cottage) have both advantages and disadvantages. And in each given locality, conditions can be radically different. Somewhere is clearly more comfortable to live in the village, and somewhere, on the contrary, more pleasant and more fun – in the cottage. Try to communicate more with locals before making a decision to buy real estate. This will make the most correct and most appropriate choice especially for you!
