Keeping your home well-maintained is valuable for more important reasons than just improving the property’s appearance. In this article we’re going to discuss some of these reasons so you can understand how to improve your physical and financial safety through property maintenance, and why it’s vital.
Your financial safety
Being on top of property maintenance protects your finances in a couple different ways.
Firstly, when it comes to selling or renting your home, potential buyers and tenants are likely to look into how well maintained the property is. Particularly for potential buyers, spotting problems that they will have to pay to fix themselves could make them inclined to offer a lower price than expected, or put them off the property entirely.
Secondly, not maintaining your property often has a knock-on effect that can cause further issues which could be more expensive than keeping the property in good condition in the first place.
For example, a build-up of debris in your gutters can eventually lead to water flowing to the wrong places, potentially resulting in damage to foundations, walls, roofs, windows and more. The average cost of gutter cleaning in the UK is £20-£30 per hour (Source: Checkatrade) whilst the average cost of roof repair in the UK is £650, and up to £1100 depending on damage and size of your property (Source: Roofing Association).
There’s many examples we could give of these knock-on effects caused by not maintaining property. The one thing almost all of them have in common is that the repairs are more expensive and time consuming than keeping your property well maintained in the first place.
Your physical safety
More important than protecting yourself financially is protecting your physical safety through property maintenance.
In 2020 roughly 2.7 million UK citizens had to make a trip to the hospital due to an accident that happened in their own home (Source: National Accident Helpline). We could be avoiding some of these issues with proper maintenance that will keep your home safe and comfortable.
Some home maintenance and improvements methods include:
- Repairing stairs and banisters to reduce the likelihood of tripping and falling
- Purchasing electrical socket covers, particularly if you have young children at home
- Testing your fire and carbon monoxide alarms to make sure they are working properly
- Installing loft and/or cavity wall insulation and double glazing to help reduce respiratory issues that are linked to cold temperatures (whilst reducing your energy bills in the long-run)
- Checking your roof is well maintained, particularly in the winter, to reduce likelihood of tiles coming loose in the wind and causing injuries
Many of the above points are especially important for older homes, which are more likely to have worn-out systems that need to be updated to meet current safety standards.
In summary
It’s important to keep your property well maintained for a number of reasons, and it is cheaper and less dangerous if you can catch and fix any problems early on rather than waiting for them to become critical issues.
This is particularly important for older homes and during times when bad weather is more likely to damage already weakened areas of your home.
Home and Landlords insurance is designed to financially protect you should something unexpected and unforeseen happen to your property. Please note that failure to maintain your property can often lead to damage that is not unexpected because reasonable precautions were not taken to prevent it from happening, and your insurer may not always cover this.
Sources:
CheckATrade (Gutter Cleaning Cost)
Roofing Association (How Much Does a Roof Repair Cost in the UK)
