As has been written several times, this is completely normal. I myself had exactly the same situation when I divided my house into three parts. We never ever had a meeting and of course no property management at all. The advantage of this is that the additional costs are low and only actual consumption costs occur. Therefore, it would rather be nonsense to have such a small housing community managed by a property management company; in our case, they didn't even want to take it on because there were only 3 parties. When the upstairs apartment was sold, however, the peace was over. We "downstairs" were talked into getting a management company, an expensive heating meter reading system (previously calculation by sqm was mutually agreed upon), drawing up a written house rule (including cleaning week), etc. But that was never enough and at some point, a letter came from a lawyer because the 20-year-old cherry tree was dropping leaves onto their lawn and the owner downstairs had a palm tree in front of the house, among other things. In the end, I sold my remaining share, which was overdue anyway, because if someone likes to argue, that doesn't change. But all this or other annoying things can happen to you just the same in a single-family house, terraced house, or a detached villa. What would be important to me is that the apartment is well-maintained, and that is more likely in such a small house when the owner lives there and knows their way around. My apartment was in top condition, something I would have liked to buy later as well. Therefore: If the price is okay and the apartment is too, and the seller is not obviously unfriendly, that would definitely be an option for me; rather more so than in an obscure multi-family house with a constantly sluggish property management company, where you have to deal with dozens of others. Having no reserves in such a small property is completely normal. I would value the condition of the house significantly higher.