Budgetting for cost of repairs

Ciderarmy1987

Hi

We are FTB, we have had an offer accepted and are quite away done the line to completion on a 3 bed mid-terrace house.

We have done a lot of budgeting and we know that we can afford the house. Our mortgage repayments are 21% of joint income and we are boring just over 2 times our joint salary.

What I wanted to ask about was how do people budget for the cost of repairs. At the moment we are allowing around £150 a month, does this seem like too much or too little.

We also want to have a rainy day fund that we ideally don't want to be below. Does anybody have any ideas what a good amount for this would be. We were thinking of 2K

Any thoughts or suggestions on this would be great

Cheers

Fire_Fox

How long is a piece of string .... can either of you afford the mortgage alone if the other is unable to work (illness, injury, redundancy, unplanned nightmare pregnancy, unfairly sacked)? Ideally your rainy day fund on day one would be at least three months mortgage payments plus insurance premiums, this is because Support for Mortgage Interest doesn't kick in for that long. When it does it covers the interest but not the capital repayments. This site suggests what you might get if only one of you was bringing in any money http://www.entitledto.co.uk/

Repairs completely depends on what the survey threw up, what you think needs doing in terms of decor and what state the house is in. £150 is loads for a fairly new house in good condition, but won't touch the sides if you are buying something listed or you haven't had a full structural survey on and you get a few nasty surprises. Did you get the gas boiler/ heating tested or is it very new?

arbrighton

Depends on the age of the house, its current state, what you deem to be necessary vs nice to do etc.
Depends on where in the country you are.
If it's listed.
What would your rainy day fund have to cover?

Ciderarmy1987

ok, the house is quite old but in good order and nothing major got flagged up on the survey. We are in Bristol.

What sort of major things could come up that wouldnt get covered by standard building insurance.

gayleanne

I have always worked on the point of having at least the equivalent of 3 months salary in reserve, this is in case of losing a job, having a lot of bills in at the same time, or the washing machine breaking down.

And you usually find that things happen in 3s like the car, washing machine, and cooker breaking down, all seem to happen in the same month.

Fire_Fox

Annual boiler service, get your roof inspected annually (can do this yourself with binoculars) and any slipped tiles replaced, gutters cleaned out annually (can do this yourself), sand and repaint wooden windows every few years (can do yourself if have time), put drain cleaner down regularly, stick up smoke alarms with new batteries as required.

If you do this sort of thing you shouldn't have too many nasty surprises, eventually you would need a new boiler or a rewire or a new roof but they last many years and you have had a survey done. Buildings insurance covers accidental damage, it may not cover leaks caused by you failing to get some tiles replaced and then a section of roof blew off in a high wind. £150 a month should cover all the basics on an older place, it won't save up for the big stuff.

Ciderarmy1987

gayleanne wrote: »

I have always worked on the point of having at least the equivalent of 3 months salary in reserve, this is in case of losing a job, having a lot of bills in at the same time, or the washing machine breaking down.

And you usually find that things happen in 3s like the car, washing machine, and cooker breaking down, all seem to happen in the same month.

3 months joint salary is LOADS with that we could afford a new car, cooker and washing machine and still have plenty of change left over!

Ciderarmy1987

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Annual boiler service, get your roof inspected annually (can do this yourself with binoculars) and any slipped tiles replaced, gutters cleaned out annually (can do this yourself), sand and repaint wooden windows every few years (can do yourself if have time), put drain cleaner down regularly, stick up smoke alarms with new batteries as required.

If you do this sort of thing you shouldn't have too many nasty surprises, eventually you would need a new boiler or a rewire or a new roof but they last many years and you have had a survey done. Buildings insurance covers accidental damage, it may not cover leaks caused by you failing to get some tiles replaced and then a section of roof blew off in a high wind. £150 a month should cover all the basics on an older place, it won't save up for the big stuff.

Thanks that is good advice, Roof was re-done in 2006 and so should have a fair few years left in it.

There is a flat roofed extension, which will obviously require regular maintenance and eventually replacement in the not too distant future

LandyAndy

Reckon on between 1 and 2% of the house value per annum for repairs and renewals. Although you may go several years and spend little, it will catch up with you eventually.

LandyAndy

Ciderarmy1987 wrote: »

Thanks that is good advice, Roof was re-done in 2006 and so should have a fair few years left in it.

There is a flat roofed extension, which will obviously require regular maintenance and eventually replacement in the not too distant future

Flat roof. Think £30 per square metre and budget on having it done every ten years or so (should last longer)

LandyAndy

Rainy day fund? Three months salary is a good amount.