DIYbanter - View Single Post - Home care advice or cut my losses & move?

wrote:
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 £25k
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.

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.

--
Grunff