Yeah, this happens in Europe. In Spain, it is well known that most apartments built at around 2000-2009 tend to be of very poor quality. It's not uncommon that

Yeah, this happens in Europe. In Spain, it is well known that most apartments built at around 2000-2009 tend to be of very poor quality. It's not uncommon that a building from 1995 is in better shape than another, more expensive, from 2005. It didn't matter, because builders would sell them all "over the plan" (literal translation, not sure if that's an expression in English) i.e. even before having actually started building. People were buying like crazy, they needed the houses. Not sure why it got worse in the decade I mentioned, but there is a clearly perceived drop (albeit, this is just opinion based) in the price/qualities ratio. So once the developer had the money in their hands, why would they make more effort than the absolute minimum? The solution is as you say, or litigation. My parent's condo board has recently won a years-long legal dispute and now the developer is forced to pay for all the repairs and improvements in the whole premise.