Cost of running a house? Please help!!

Rain_Shadow

I have a 4 bed detached with 1-4 adult occupants depending on the time of the week and the time of year.


Gas / Elec £130 pm
Water / Sewer £45 pm
Council tax £189 pm for ten months a year.


Repairs/renewals/maintenance is the difficult one. I have heard the figure of 1-2% of the property value per year suggested as a sensible estimate. My experience suggests this is a reasonable figure in the long run although you may go several years with minimal expenditure.

Spelunthus

To give you a "lowest possible" cost - I have an unoccupied 3 bed property. No content insurance, no phone. Council Tax, Electricity, Water (on meter), some garden maintenance, building insurance: About £3K a year. If I could go lower, I would.

LMG1305

We're in a 4 bed detached, 2 adults 2 kids. Our general costs per month are:

Gas & electric - £65, however we do have solar panels
Water - £40, this is on a meter, used to be £36.50 but has gone up for some reason in the last few months, probably usage during the summer filling the pools up a lot with the nice weather
Council tax - £191
Buildings & contents insurance - £18 per month, however this is with a discount because I have many years no claims plus a discount for having my car insurance with them as well
TV/phone/internet - total package is just under £100 as it's all with Sky and we have the full package, but this does vary slightly every month based on phone calls made
Life insurance - £20, pays out a fixed amount rather than being linked to mortgage amount
I won't bother saying how much we spend on food because it's excessive plus we have takeaways once a week so it depends on your own diets. I know that generally on the Debt free wannabe boards people say around £150 per month is adequate for 2 people.

ellie27

4 bed detached, 2 adults and 2 kids ages 5 and 6.

-gas/elec £90 per month
-council tax £261 per month (10 monthly payments only - in Scotland so no separate water charge)
-afterschool childcare - £410 per month
-mortgage £600 per month
-TV/broadband - £50
-mobile phones £30
-cartax/car/home insurances -£90 per month
-TV lic- £12 per month
+Food
+birthday parties everymonth
+christmas and holidays
+ cost of things that break - TV £400 and washing machine £240 both broke down this last week!! Just waiting for the boiler to break as I hear they come in 3's!
+ many other things I have forgotten about.

jojo9239

Gilly91 wrote: »

realise you said 4 bed property however i'll chuck mine in there for my 2p worth! (3 bed semi, 1960s build with myself & OH, no kids). not all my packages are the basic packages, there are cheaper available;

Gas/Electric: £60p/m
Water: £10p/m (water meter fitted)
Council Tax: £130 p/m
Tv/internet/phone: £85 p/m
life insurance: £20 p/m (for both)
food: £200 p/m

total per month running costs (excluding travel costs / mortgage): £505

hope that helps

Same as us 2 adults 1930 semi food slightly higher due to OH eating so much protien so £240 a month for food x

skimper

3 bed detached with 2 adults who both work full time

Gas/Electric - £35 p/m
Water - £20 (set price)
Council tax - £113 p/m
TV/internet/phone - £50 (top internet with virgin as fella loves his gaming)
Building insurance - £15 p/m
Food - £200 ish

glasgowdan

4 bed bungalow here.

Gas/elec - £140/m
Council Tax - £260/m
Virgin media broadband - £30/m
Insurance - £20/m
Fund for upgrades/maintenance - £150/m
Mortgage - £450/m
Food - £400/m
+ car, mobiles, and all the rest

Tammykitty

3 bed semi - 2 adults working full time (NI - so oil and rates, no council tax and no water)


Electric- £30 a month
Oil - ~£50 a month
House Insurance - £30 a month
Rates - £100 a month
Phone/TV/Internet - £36 a month
Life Insurance (Including critical illness and income protection) - £50 a month


Total - £296


Edit - looking at some of the examples above I can't believe the amount some people pay for tv/internet and phone!

zagfles

p00hsticks wrote: »

I'd add to this that you need to be putting something aside each month for maintenance, to cover those occasional costs like decorating, boiler servicing and replacement, roof repairs etc.....

Yup - this comes to quite a lot when you add it all up and is something people often overlook when working out cost of owning a property. I allow about £3k a year - though some years it's practically nothing and other years it's much more, but averages about £3k. Here's a list I did a few years ago:

New carpets - say once every 10 years entire house - £1500, £150pa
New sofas/armchairs etc - once every 15 years - £1500, £100pa
New beds/kitchen tables, chairs, other furniture £2000 - once every 15 years - £133pa
New kitchen - once every 15 years, £5000, £333pa
New bathroom, once every 15 years, £2000, £133pa
New windows and doors, once every 30 years, £10000, £333pa
Fixing broken stuff, eg white goods, showers, switches etc, £200pa
Plumbing/drainage problems £100pa
Boiler servicing/central heating cover £150pa
Buildings insurance, £200pa
Overhauling roof, once every 30 years, £3000, £100 pa
Replacement fencing, once every 10 years, £500, £50pa
Replacement boiler/heating system, once every 15 years, £3000, £200pa
Pointing - £1500 - once every 15 years - £100pa
Decorating £1500 - once every 10 years - £150pa
Maintianing gutters/painting soffits etc - £1000 - once every 10 years - £100pa
Complete electrical rewire - £4000 - once every 20 years - £200pa

And I'm sure I've forgotten a load of stuff... pretty close to £3k pa so far...

enthusiasticsaver

If you check the estate agents details it gives you the council tax band and the cost of running the property normally. It is variable according to the area you live in, how many people live in the property and how economical you are so no one else will have the same as you.