In the current economic climate, it can be very tempting as a landlord to save money by not being as fastidious with property upkeep as you might once have been. After all, when money is tight, the last thing you want to have to do is spend some of your rental income maintaining your properties on a regular basis. However, no matter how tight your property maintenance budget might be, ignoring such matters is likely to be a false economy with winter approaching.
I consider property maintenance very important, but according to figures released from one of the UK’s largest insurance brokers, claims made by landlords for incidents such as burst pipes and frost damage have increased by 5% in the last three years, and water damage is the biggest area of claims. This trend would strongly suggest that many landlords are ignoring the need for reinvestment in their rental properties in order to save money.
But such an approach will not help you form happy relationships with your existing tenants and it might even put off future tenants. So instead of trying to save some money in the short term, look at the bigger picture and make sure your properties are suitably watertight and ready for another winter, because if the sub-zero temperatures of last winter are anything to go by, neglecting essential property maintenance could see you landed with a hefty (and entirely avoidable) repair bill. And with heavy snow forecast for mid October, burst pipes and water damage insurance claims will not make for a very merry Christmas!
