When you start talking about budgeting for home repairs you know you’re a grown-up. Although it seems like a boring subject, maintenance problems and saving for unexpected repairs is important to consider for any home owner.
Anyone who owns a house will tell you that home maintenance is completely unpredictable. Unexpected disasters like the bathroom flooding or lightning hitting your roof are the worst. They catch us by surprise, and require frantic searches for a solution. If an unexpected disaster happens in our home, fixing it will involve money – and probably lots of it.
In an ideal world, we’d have a little pot of cash stored away for exactly these kinds of problems. Housing experts agree that sensible homeowners should budget 1% of the value of their property every year to maintenance and property repair. And with the average house price in the UK being £215,847, that means we should have a home improvement and repair account to the tune of £2,158.47 per annum. That’s a lot.
In all honestly, how many of us do that? Not enough, apparently. Rubber roofing specialists Rubber4Roofs surveyed 3,000 UK homeowners to find out what their home-fixing slush fund was worth. Taken on average, they found that Brits only budget £1,438.98; that’s a national shortfall of £616. Not ideal if your boiler suddenly breaks down over the winter, or your washing machine suddenly springs a leak.
With this in mind we’ve come up with 5 ideal ways to budget for home repairs.
Do the Math
According to GNB, the most common property maintenance problems include broken appliances, boiler and hot water tank faults, toilet and plumbing issues, damp and mould problems, electrical complications and redecorating. Now you have an idea of the most common problems, do the math. You’ll soon realise that you need to take budgeting seriously.
Make a list
A shocking number of people drastically underestimate the costs when it comes to home repair. Jot down what you might need to have replaced in the next few years. Revisit this list every now and again to remind yourself of potential future repairs. This will remind you that you need to save.
Get some quotes
Whether it’s the cost of a broken boiler or repairing your roof, call around and get some quotes from local contractors on how much it might cost to fix. This way you’ll have a ballpark figure on how much you need to save. Obviously you’re not going to reach your target straight away and it will take time to save this amount. However, you’ve got to start somewhere.
Save for the worst case scenario
Chances are that very few big-budget disasters will happen, but aim to save for the worst case scenario. For most people this will be roof repair, though sometimes this may even involve the foundations of your property. Once you’ve got your quote for how much it will cost, from roofing experts or house foundation repair companies, aim to save up this amount.
Get Insurance
Paying for insurance may seem like a drain, but you’re probably better off getting it than not. It may provide a financial safety net should the unexpected disaster occur.
We know that the above list is asking a lot. Planning for future expenses of something like home maintenance isn’t exactly fun. But if you at least try to save, it will be less of a headache when disaster strikes.