Landlord Maintenance & Budgeting

When renting out a property you need to give careful consideration to budgeting for maintenance and any other unexpected costs along the landlord journey.

At Belvoir Lettings Agents Northwich we recommend our landlord clients set aside 10-15% of the monthly rental income as a contingency fund for maintenance that can occur.

Over the course of time you can expect aspects of the property to naturally deteriorate, so what we’ve done below is categorise the various types of maintenance and indicative cost (you need to make allowances for inflation) and lifespans:

Some of these estimations are derived from the Deposit Protection Service, the custodial scheme we use for our tenants’ deposits.

Book Valuation

Boiler & Plumbing

Boilers typically cost in the region of £2,000 plus and last anything from 10-15 years. It really depends on what boiler and heating system you have, it’s always prudent to have your boiler serviced on a regular basis to maximise its economic life.

A view of insulated hot water pipes connected to a boiler with a digital control system.

Flooring

The lifespan of carpets and linoleum are deemed to be up to 5 years with harder flooring being slightly longer. Those rooms that have higher traffic may warrant flooring replacement earlier.

Redecoration

Again, it depends on what rooms need redecorating but on average it’s 2-3 years for a full redecoration of a property including woodwork.

Handy man decorating walls with paint. Construction plaster worker painting and renovating with professional tools

Roofing

A re-roof can be an expensive job if it’s needed and any water penetration into the property from a slipped tile for instance can be problematic as well as costly.

Windows & Doors

Depending on what material the doors and windows are made from, replacement when necessary needs to be budgeted for as this can hit the bottom line.

Electrical Faults

Do you know when the fuse box consumer unit was last updated? Not only is it important to ensure the property has an EICR (Electrical Inspection Condition Report) but you need to consider any potential electrical problems.

General Maintenance

You will undoubtedly need to carry out minor repairs on the property from time-to-time so you need to factor this in too. Perhaps it will be a small plumbing job or lock repair; these things are essential to maintain the upkeep of the property so tenants can enjoy living at the property.

With the above in mind, you can hopefully see the importance of keeping a float of monies on account to meet the unexpected costs of any repairs required. The last thing you want is something happening out-of-the-blue and you not being financially prepared for it.

My advice would be to perhaps open another bank account and transfer monies on a regular basis, say monthly, so this can be kept separate to meet all your commitments.