Regular maintenance of your property saves money in the long term

It is difficult to understand how sometimes we can spend hundreds of thousands of pounds on a property and not undergo regular maintenance when we can spend a fraction of that on a vehicle and have it serviced every year. Maybe we should look at regular maintenance of your property as an “annual service” which is perhaps a more descriptive and a more appropriate phrase.

Whether you are actually living in the property yourself or renting it out to a third party it matters not, regular maintenance of your property can and will have a major impact upon its long-term value and indeed the cost of maintenance in the future.

Check your outside walls

Cracked and decaying walls can lead to an array of problems within your home such as damp which if left untreated can be destructive and very expensive to rectify. We have seen instances whereby small cracks in the outside wall, whether as a result of weather damage or fences joined to the property, have led to significant problems with damp inside the home. Even though it may be relatively simple to fix the external crack in the wall, once damp is within the four walls of your home it can be tricky to rectify.

At best you may need to redecorate a particular room or a particular wall and at worst you may need to bring in the experts to resolve the problem. You would not believe how many damp issues begin with relatively small cracks, visible cracks, on the outside of the premises.

Check your slates

The vast majority of us will never venture into the loft of our home and will therefore likely miss an array of potential problems with loose slates or cracked slates. Sometimes it may take a freak weather event, general wear and tear or perhaps damage has been done when other external work has been carried out. It is also worth checking the beams which support your slates because if wind and rain are able to enter your roofing area it may not only damage slates but can cause damp within your home itself.

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If you catch it early enough sometimes replacing worn slates, or a small number of slates, can rectify any problems but if you leave it too late you may need a full roof replacement. If you need a full roof replacement, we are talking about large amounts of money!

Control your garden

The subject of gardening is something which tends to place people in one camp or another, either they have green fingers or they have to bring in outside gardening help. If your garden is located towards the rear of your property you may well ignore any excess growth in the early days because it is not really having an impact upon the external look of your property. However, unless you remain on top of your gardening, very quickly it can become overrun, it can prove very troublesome and if you are looking to rent out or even sell your property, it does not give the right impression.

How many of us have got to the stage where our gardens are out of control and we very discreetly ignore this until we are forced to do something about it?

General maintenance

As we suggested above, maybe general maintenance of your property should be described as a “servicing of your property” pretty much in line with what you would do with your car. Exactly the same as an annual service for your vehicle, an annual servicing of your property could bring to light relatively small issues which can be rectified there and then and will not give you any further problems. However, if for example you ignore a warning light in your vehicle until it is too late and the engine management system needs replaced, this is the same kind of scenario for relatively small problems with your property which can very quickly escalate out of control.

It is therefore imperative that whether you are actually living in your property of renting your property to a third-party you undertake regular maintenance and regular checking of the property. It may seem cumbersome, in many cases there may be no issues but the reality is that these checks can and will save you a significant amount of money in the long term.