Owning property for the long term

The most expensive repairs we see are almost never sudden. They are ten years of a blocked gutter, or a decade of a slipped tile nobody looked at.

An annual cycle

A simple yearly rhythm covers most of it:

• Autumn — clear gutters and gullies, check roof coverings from ground level with binoculars.
• Winter — check for damp after the first sustained rain, and again after the first freeze.
• Spring — external joinery and decoration; repair before repainting.
• Summer — services: boiler, ventilation, drainage, and any external timber.

Budget for it

A reasonable working figure for an older building is around one per cent of value per year, averaged over a decade. Some years will be nearly nothing; the year the roof needs attention will not be.

Owners who hold that figure as a reserve rather than a surprise tend to keep their buildings — and their sale prices — in considerably better shape.