Home care advice or cut my losses & move?

[Stephen]

I moved into my flat 4 years ago after buying it cheap because it needed renovating. I got a lot of the work done on the cheap (or by people who told me they could do the job cheaper than the next guy, so I trusted them). Total cost to date about =A325k A lot of jobs were never really done right and some things are starting to show their age and need redoing ie. upvc windows are draughty, combi boiler not really powerful enough, not enough radiators in flat so a few cold areas, wood floor starting to lift especially in bathroom and basic decorating, etc, etc... The question is should I keep spending money I can't really afford on a seemingly never-ending list of repairs and maintenance or should I cut my losses & move. Is this just the price of home ownership, always paying out on maintenance? I've never really felt happy in this flat and if I sold I would make a small profit but not enough to allow me to buy a flat of equivalent size in another area of the city so I would have to start further down the ladder.

Anyone else been in a similar situation? What did you do? Thanks for any advice!

[Grunff]

You don't say much about the flat - is it part of a house, or in a purpose-built block? How big is it?

What work have you actually had done for your £25k budget?

My initial thoughts are that a £25k budget should get you quite a bit of work done, to a good standard, on a 2-3 bed flat. This would include new CH, new windows, new kitchen + bathroom, and new paint + carpets. Having spent this, I would not expect to do anything other than very minor repairs and maintenance for a good few years.

Without more info, it's impossible to tell what's gone wrong. One possibility is that your quest for cheapness has resulted in lots of badly done/half done jobs, while costing the same (or more) as it would have if it had been done properly.

I think if you supply us with more details, on the flat, what work has been done, and what problems you're experiencing, you are likely to receive more detailed and relevant advice.

[Stephen]

The flat is in a purpose built block. It's 2-bed with external garage. The work I got done was replacement windows, central heating, new bathroom, new kitchen, hardwood floors thoughout, a couple of joinery jobs - building cupboards & boxing in some things. I know I over-payed for some of it and I agree, it was my cheapness that resulted in some work not being done to a good enough standard. You live & learn!

[Andy Hall]

There's your first mistake, right there.

Did you pay them, or did you bring them back to fix the issues?

That depends on whether the cost of getting the work done properly exceeds the loss relative to the expected selling price and how quickly you want to move.

Generally, yes. The question is to decide on what needs to be done, when and how. Some of the work listed above you could have probably done yourself and saved a fair bit of money.

The heating and windows issues are the most expensive to fix. Perhaps the sensible thing would be to wait to sell until next spring when nobody will notice.

Of renovating old property, yes. I had major work done by a builder and installed heating, new wiring and decorated myself.

[Grunff]

So apart from the windows and the boiler, what else is wrong?

Thing is, it could be that you only need to spend say £5k to get everything nicely sorted out, or it could be that everything needs to be redone. If the former, then it's well worth spending the money and staying put. If the latter, then maybe selling is the best option.

But from where I'm sitting, it's impossible to tell which one it is. A new boiler isn't that expensive. You could easily get a new boiler and replace some of your windows for under £5k. But if the whole CH needs to be redone, then the cost will be significantly more.

[Dave Liquorice]

I agree, pay peanuts, get monkeys. Finding tradesmen who can be trusted to do a job as they say they will to a high enough standard is very difficult. That's the main reason I try to do most things myself, a good tradesman is on a par with rocking horse shit and hens teeth.

I think I have yet to employ *anyone* who has done a completely satisfactory job.

[Grunff]

Yup, this is very much my motivation.

[Rick]

It sounds like you know the answer - you should have done it right the first time.

Best bet, it to cover it up, make it look good, and sell it to some mug.

Rick

[Rick]

Agreed

Rick

[meow2222]

I dont know why theyre draughty, but generally this can be fixed for peanuts. If youre seriously brassic, sellotape is probably the cheapest draughtproofer.

is it running continuously all day long? If not, the (biggest) problem is elsewhere. Replacing rads with bigger ones isnt hard where theres the room available. Where there isnt, adding small fans is a workaround. (One that will no doubt reignite the ire of someone on this group, but it works.) Adding extra rads is not that hard either. Small rads on microbore even make the pipework easy.

Another approach to insufficient heating is increasing insulation, but again I know almost nothing about the details of your flat. Could it be that fixing the draughts will sort out the heat?

Not expensive if you DIY.

you said its hardwood, so I assume it only needs refixing. Should not be hard to DIY.

Simple enough.

I dont know your full situation, but from what I've read I suspect neither of those options is the likely best answer. I would look at the options of either DIYing, or just living with it as is. A roll of tape might make you warmer and instantly feel somewhat better about it.

of course. Generally the more you know about your house, and the more you learn to diy, the less it'll cost. You need to know what to spend when, and when not to.

which would seem to suggest staying put as the better option. Maybe it would help to maximise gratitude for what you do have, and make plans for sorting things out slowly over time, bit by bit, doing it yourself so it costs sod all.

Yes, did much of it myself. Came up with 1 or 2 custom solutions for difficult problems. Had much more to do than you mentioned, and it cost a fraction of that. Took ages, and still not completely finished, but I'm sure I made the right choice, and I've got just what I wanted.

Reckon youre gonna have to get into some diy!

NT

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Like to guess at the costs of just changing to a new place of the same value?

[Rick]

The trick is to cover up the mess, and price the house like its all OK, and thefore at a higher value than its worth.

Just like selling a used car

Rick

[Stephen]

I know you're right! Thanks for the advice. =20

[Dave Plowman (News)]

And then move to somewhere else where the same has been done?

Bodges are easily spotted on those too...