Guides
Maintenance intervals, warranty lengths and the deadlines that come with owning property, a vehicle or a boat. Free to read, no account needed.
- How do you read the EU energy label on an appliance?
What the A–G energy label means, what the law requires sellers to show you, and where to look up the full details of any model.
- What does it cost to transfer a car in Greece, and what do you need?
The official fees, the documents and the eligibility conditions for transferring a private passenger car or motorcycle in Greece, as listed in the national register of administrative procedures.
- Do home heating and A/C systems need a legal periodic inspection?
What EU law actually requires, why a typical household boiler or split unit falls outside it, and what is still worth tracking yourself.
- How often should you clean a fridge's coils and replace its water filter?
What manufacturers who publish a figure say about condenser coil cleaning and water filter replacement, and what they say about door seals.
- How often to clean a washing machine and dishwasher filter
What Beko, Bosch and Siemens say about the pump filter, the water inlet filter, descaling and softening salt, and where their own advice disagrees.
- How often does an electric water heater need servicing?
What Ariston, Bosch, Ferroli, Nobel, De Dietrich, Tesy and Gorenje say about the magnesium anode, descaling and the safety valve, and why the anode check can decide your tank warranty.
- How often does a natural gas installation need checking in Greece?
The two separate checks a home on piped natural gas is expected to have — the yearly appliance service and the four-yearly pipework re-check — who may do them, and what to keep.
- What the EU Right to Repair Directive changes for your appliance warranty
Directive (EU) 2024/1799 does not lengthen the two-year guarantee across the board. It adds a repair extension inside it, a manufacturer repair duty after it, and a standard repair quote form. Here is what applies in Greece and from when.
- How often should a chimney or wood-stove flue be cleaned?
What the Hellenic Fire Service, HETAS, Scotland's fire service and one stove manufacturer say about sweeping a fireplace or wood-stove chimney — and why the sources give different intervals for wood.
- How often should a septic tank or cesspit be emptied?
What EPA guidance says about pumping a septic tank, why there is no single interval that fits every tank, and what one Greek sewerage regulation says about emptying a βόθρος.
- How often does a water softener need servicing?
What BWT, Grünbeck, Judo, SYR and Culligan say in their manuals about topping up salt versus the professional service, and how Watts OneFlow differs.
- How often does a building lift need an inspection in Greece?
The periodic inspection interval for a residential lift, the 60-day step that renews its registration, and who the rules put the duty on.
- Solar water heater warranty lengths by brand — a comparison
How long each major Greek and international solar water heater brand warranties its tank, from a 5-year floor up to a 15-year outlier, sourced brand by brand.
- How often should you replace a smoke detector's battery and the unit itself?
What Kidde, First Alert and Bosch officially say about smoke alarm battery and unit replacement intervals, and what the European EN 14604 standard actually requires.
- How often does a fire extinguisher need servicing in Greece?
What Greek law (ΚΥΑ 618/43/2005 and the vehicle equipment decision) actually requires for inspecting, maintaining and replacing a fire extinguisher — at home, in a car, or anywhere else — and what's only required for specific building spaces, not every home.
- Is home insurance against natural disasters mandatory in Greece?
Greek law doesn't fine you for leaving a home uninsured against earthquake, fire or flood — but it ties your ΕΝΦΙΑ discount to it, and excludes homes over €500,000 from one category of state aid either way.
- What is ΤΑΠ, and how is it different from ΕΝΦΙΑ?
ΤΑΠ is the municipal fee billed through your electricity bill, set by your own δήμος — not a national tax like ΕΝΦΙΑ. How it's calculated, how it's collected, and why an unpaid balance can block a property sale.
- What is Greece's Electronic Building ID (Ηλεκτρονική Ταυτότητα Κτιρίου) and when do you need one?
What the ΗΤΚ file has to contain, the current 2028 deadline for public buildings, and why an ordinary property transfer already triggers it.
- When is Greek road tax (τέλη κυκλοφορίας) due, and what's the penalty for paying late?
When ΑΑΔΕ's annual road-tax window opens and closes, how the automatic late-payment penalties work since Law 5113/2024, and where to check the current fee for your vehicle.
- When to shut down and restart a pool pump — and what actually shortens its life
What Pentair's, Hayward's and other manufacturers' own guidance says about seasonal pool pump shutdown and restart, and which parts actually wear out and need replacing.
- How often does a heat pump need servicing?
What manufacturers like Vaillant, Panasonic and Mitsubishi Electric say about heat pump service intervals, what a service check includes, and why it's tied to your warranty.
- How often does an A/C split unit need cleaning vs. a professional service?
What you clean yourself (the filter), what needs a technician (the professional service), and how often each is actually due, from manufacturers who publish both.
- How often does a solar water heater need servicing?
What a solar water heater service checks, why the anode is the part that actually matters, and how often manufacturers say to do it.
- How long is an electrician's certificate (ΥΔΕ) valid in Greece?
How often each type of Greek property needs a re-inspected ΥΔΕ, and the one case where a change of owner or tenant actually forces a new one.
- How often does a car need ΚΤΕΟ, and when is the first one due?
How often a private passenger car must pass Greece's periodic technical inspection (ΚΤΕΟ), and when a new car's first inspection falls due.
- The ΑΑΔΕ short-term rental registry — ΑΜΑ number and stay declaration deadlines
How to register a short-term let with ΑΑΔΕ, what the ΑΜΑ number is for, and the monthly and annual deadlines that keep you compliant.
- How long is a ΠΕΑ energy certificate valid in Greece?
When a property legally needs a ΠΕΑ, how many years the certificate lasts, and the one thing that actually cuts that short.
- When is ENFIA due, and what happens if you miss an installment?
How ΕΝΦΙΑ is assessed each year, when the settlement notice appears, how the installment schedule works, and what happens if a payment is missed.
- How long is an appliance warranty in the EU?
The two-year legal guarantee, how it differs from the manufacturer's warranty, and which date you should actually be tracking.
- How often should a gas boiler be serviced?
What a yearly boiler service covers, why the certificate matters in Greece, and how to keep the date from slipping.