Cost of living - can't afford to maintain home?

[DanteThunderstone]

Just thinking aloud really. Just wondering if anyone else is in the same boat of money being so tight now, and/or the fear of money being so tight in the immediate future, that you're unable or unwilling to pay for necessary maintenance jobs on your home?

As an example, we really need new windows - the ones we have are old and leaky and half don't even open properly and they do nothing to keep the heat in and their seals are all mouldy. But whereas in different circumstances we might be looking at taking out a loan to get them replaced, now money is so tight and we're so scared about the cost of living and rising fuel costs that we're going to just live with them.

Equally two of our radiators don't work but the couple of hundred quid it would cost to get a plumber to come and diagnose and maybe fix them is being hoarded. It feels too reckless to spend anything now.

A friend can't afford to replace her jammed front door so doesn't use it anymore even though it's a fire exit. Another has a bay window that's leaking through its flat roof and weakening the whole wall but again just can't spend hundreds of pounds. My auntie has a toilet leaking into her floorboards but can't afford to get it sorted. My mum's bannister needs patching up.

And if there are significant numbers of people mike me and my friends who aren't putting even relatively small amounts of money in the pocket of local trades and companies, presumably that's going to have an effect on the tradespeople's budgets and families?

Is anyone else holding back on, or just unable to, keep their homes maintained in a way that a year or so ago wouldn't have been such a critical problem, or am I unusual in knowing so many people putting up with deteriorating conditions cos we're terrified of rising prices?

I know what you mean. I have a leak in the wall and not sure whether to try and sort or just leave it.

We have 4 things that really need replacing - they are not being relaxed for the foreseeable future! The window panes are annoying but in the winter will not be so much of an issue.

Yes us too, leaking guttering, render falling off the front. Broken oven. Broken sink

I keep meaning to see if I could learn the skills to fix these things but am quite nervous about making things worse.

You could buy off the shelf windows and replace one at a time although I dont know how it works with certification of the window fitting.

As an example, we really need new windows - the ones we have are old and leaky and half don't even open properly and they do nothing to keep the heat in and their seals are all mouldy. But whereas in different circumstances we might be looking at taking out a loan to get them replaced, now money is so tight and we're so scared about the cost of living and rising fuel costs that we're going to just live with them.

This is a false economy, though. If you stopped losing heat your house would be much better placed for the fuel rises ahead. Ditto with the radiators.

Have you costed it up properly?

Thing is a lot of what has already been said in the few posts are small jobs now but leaks cause untold majorly expensive damage later.

It's such an awful situation to be in. I have a leaking shower. The floorboards are rotting so will the joists soon but I do not have the several thousand it will cost to fix as it all needs to come out and start again. We've done all the cheap bodges which haven't helped so now there's only start again as an option. I can't afford that but if I leave it, it's seriously major work of replacing joists, ceiling's, floors

Our windows a few years ago (which Im still paying off) were around 10k

OP might be happy to shiver and wear jumpers/heated blankets rather than it actually costing more in heating bills per se

I think so many things have turned into professional jobs over the years that people dont know how to DIY anymore (I dont)

Lots of people would DIY many of those things instead of paying others.

There was a thread on here recently about terrible landlords making their tenants live in substandard housing. I thought what about my house!!

Well in the case of us neither of us can get up a ladder so the guttering and render (even if I knew how to do render with bits broken off) couldnt be done. The oven, perhaps, the sink, wouldnt have a clue because its the overflow and outlet, so have to move all the cupboards around it, dont know how to do that, dont have the physical ability to do it.

What about windows, I thought you needed certificates for them

The opposite for me tbh. With the rate of inflation, saving seems pointless. May as well put that money into things I need and can use for many years.

Do the radiators just need bleeding?

Do you own your home OP or is it rented?

What would make you think that from the OP, the home is rented?

Our savings were wiped last year when we had to have a new roof (various ongoing leaks). Our toilet is also leaking slightly (sometimes ok) - plumber has been out twice and can't find an obvious source - in all fairness he hasn't charged - I suspect a hairline crack underneath. Our bath is badly chipped, shower fittings rusty, grouting discoloured and cracked. In the ideal world, we'd have a new bathroom. DD at uni and has just signed £700pm contract for lovely flat with high ceilings and old sash windows, in a cold windy city - I suspect she's going to need more than we've already agreed upon, and with our own home, we just can't commit to a bathroom. I hate our kitchen, that's seen better days and layout is awful, again it'll be staying.

OP, old fashioned draught excluders for your windows might well help for now.

Yep. I do most of the repairs and am fairly handy. But we have rotten bargeboards and slipped slates and the cost of scaffolding alone is thousands as our house is high, the roof was replaced 12yrs ago. The boiler is on its last legs. I want to sell the house, it is beyond our means (different circumstances when we bought it), but we are crippled by a non portable mortgage with a huge redemption penalty.

Honestly if you don’t have an emergency fund, this is what credit cards are for. You can’t allow water to leak into your property, it will cause much more expensive damage in the long term.

We do our best to pay for what I call maintenance, to maintain fabric of building, such as roof repairs. Never ever manage to save the money for decorative things, such as flooring, bathroom, kitchen, extension.

Something like this, OP - found on Amazon, under £10.

Oh and the saniflo is knackered, fortunately we have another bathroom.

I think I agree with just about everyones' posts!

To spend or not to spend. That is the question.

In our case, we have a builder friend. But even he cannot fit us in until Jan.
Which may be a belssing in disguise as have time to work out what to do

Around here, builders are still piled high with work. But for how much longer? He himslefn knows things may not be so rosy for builders next year.

Home is owned. It's a very modest house we could afford the mortgage (500pm) on but recent price rises have taken away even the tiny sense of security I had and are rapidly eroding our small savings. Radiators have been bled so it's not that. Thing is, personally none of the issues are desperate - we can live without a kitchen radiator, we can live with draughty windows etc. It's just the sense that if we can't maintain the house as we go along, it might get away from us. I dunno. Times just feel very very scary financially. I know we're lucky to have a home but I'll admit I'm living in fear of anything else going wrong.

I am in the same boat. My friend was very handy with stuff like this but has a new girlfriend so is no longer allowed to be my friend (that sounds so childish, you wouldn't think we were all in our 40s!)

I currently have a front door which has gaps in the panel; a window with a cracked glass pane - luckily it is only the inside glazing; a back door I can't lock; a toilet with a broken flush so I have to use the screw valve on the pipe leading to it in order to fill the cistern; crumbling pointing on the front of the house....The list goes on, and that's without the aesthetic things such as a half painted kitchen but I can't finish it as I need to resolve other things first which I can't afford to do.

I need a skip to get rid of years of his accumulated crap to free up space so I can try to move things round and patch up what I can, but that's about £450 round here.

It's all so wearing and my credit rating is so shit that loans or credit cards aren't an option. I'm paying off debts so a large chuck of my income goes to those each month. I would love to just fast forward 18months so everything is paid off and hopefully the country will be in a better place so I can actually have disposable income to start to improve my house.

Just the thought of the roof needing replaced is making me want a drink!

We are in a similar position. We can’t afford to replace our boiler which is safe as in it won’t explode (had it checked by a gas safe engineer) but it’s losing pressure constantly. We just don’t have the £1800 to sort it. We can’t afford any sort of redecorating or fixing anything. I live in fear of anything breaking or leaking. We are already in substantial debt due to having to fix our leaking roof a few years back. Dh works full time on a low ish wage which is an average wage in our area and I’m disabled and we have a disabled child. I’m genuinely really worried about how we are going to manage this winter.

All the support groups etc trot out the usual advice about making sure you’re getting everything you’re entitled to (we are- pip, dla, tax credits, government payments etc) but I don’t think people realise that all of these won’t be more than a drop in the ocean against the coming increases. And then there’s the “reduce your usage” brigade- well yes if you can, but we’ve already done as much as we can. If we reduce any more we will be sitting in the dark using candles.