Pitfalls when buying a house in Germany

We have been renting here but we are now buying a house for our own use (in Frankfurt-Riedberg) which is being financed mostly through a German mortgage. The house is new (Erstbezug), but it is built. We have haggled a price, have the house reserved, we have loan approval and we are waiting for a 'Gutachter' to have a look at it and the contracts before we go to the 'Notar'

Can anyone who has gone through the process advise us off the legal/financial pitfalls, particularly as 'Auslanders' the process here seems a little strange.

Have you had any surprises, welcome or not? There are some things that you don't find out about until they happen! Here are a couple to be aware of if you're taking the plunge;

The road and paths outside our house have been renewed. As house owners, we have to pay a proportion of the cost depending on the area of the plot. We have a big frontage, and have to pay 2,500 for the privilege of having work done that we didn't want and hasn't especially improved things. I believe this goes for stuff like street lighting too. All the decisions had apparently been made at the local council level before we moved in. Well, at least you can pay in instalments.

When you buy a previously owned house, you automatically inherit the property insurance even though you have not signed a contract with the company. You have the right to change insurers within a certain period of time. We had already arranged cover with another company not realising this, and ignored letters from the existing one because at that stage the language competence was minimal and we thought they were just touting for business! It took some tricky letters to be released from the liabilty to pay ...

Learn more (in German) about the legal ramifications here ...

The neighbours - on both sides... Boy, are we glad we decided NOT to buy the house we still rent. Apart from their charming personalities, when the guys under the same roof (it is a semi-detached) took off their roof and stuck another storey on top for granny (I feel sorry for her son-in-law even though he is not my favourite dude), we got a nice big crack running the length of our bedroom ceiling...

OMG! Thanks. Afraid there are probably no grounds for appeal, though I thought this bit might apply;

Eine Verbesserung kann durch eine Verschlechterung kompensiert werden (!!!)
... the original, nice wide grass verge, easy to mow and rake has been replaced by 1) a narrow sandy strip by the fence that traps all the everlastingly falling seeds/blossoms/leaves from the 6 roadside trees + 2) a new paved path that hardly anyone uses because we're in the middle of nowhere and whose joints will now have to be weeded + 3) a new, narrower grass edge which kind of sinks down in the middle and is much harder to get the mower over ... GRRRR!!

And the original, pre-war concrete road, probably indestructible, has been replaced by your common or garden tarmac which'll probably develop potholes in a couple of years.

If it ain't broken ...