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Comment by fvdessen | Hacker News Reader

AFAIK the biggest ongoing expense which such castles is the heating bills which are insane since castles are very big and badly insulated. The gardening expenses are also quite intense; depending on the size of the property you may have to hire personnel.

The price of repairs are also mind-boggling, but for those you can get state subsidies

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They say that only a couple of bedrooms and a kitchen has heating. The rest is not very pleasant in winter months.

Which sounds like a huge renovation bill if you actually want to use the thing (plus most buildings of this type tend to be light in things like indoor plumbing)

Who said you would get permission to renovate? It's historic and made from stone. You can't add windows or insulation, it needs constant ventilation to prevent mould (no water barrier in the construction).

Basically it's only pleasant in the summer or if you're being raided by a neighbouring state.

It will do when the Spanish attack.

It gets down to the 50s (or sometimes high 40s). There are fireplaces. Not saying it would be my choice but it's not unreasonable given apparently existing fireplaces plus electric heaters. (My house is never above mid-60s in the winter with heat.)

But, yes, I'm sure maintenance is in the $100K+ a year area easily.

Will the HOA/government prosecute you if you neglect maintaining the flora?

Government, maybe. There are no home owners associations in Europe, at least not in the sense the US has them.

You sort of have them for co-properties (apartment blocks and residences) but the neighborhood racket that American HOAs are luckily isn't here.

Yeah, I know about those, but they can't kick you out of your home or demand payment for BS. If anything, it's the other way around, as long as you respect the law, they're at your mercy, usually. If you don't want to cooperate with them, they can't do anything.

The HOA better show up with some siege equipment to serve papers, though.

"HOAs" in the American sense are a 20th century construction that originally had ethnicity clauses in and have tried to replicate those with proxies since they were banned. They only exist when they're put in by contract law by the builder; I don't believe they can be "retrofitted"?

This castle is from the 11th century. It might have had the 11th century equivalent, which was feudal burdens, but those have almost certainly been abolished since the revolution.

Scotland has formally abolished the feudal system; England, however, has not, so you may still find yourself liable for the repair of a church built ten centuries ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chancel_repair_liability

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