Debtors ‘putting off home repairs’

Homeowners are declining to undertake restoration work on their houses during the recession, it has emerged, as a way of potentially preventing themselves from sliding further into debt.

However, this decision can possibly lead to them having to spend more in the future as neglecting the problems could cause “permanent damage and therefore a replacement cost”, said industry expert William Davies, managing director at Aspect Maintenance.

According to Mr Davies, the credit crunch has had an impact on property renovations, with fewer people opting to improve and mend their homes and he stated that such decisions need to be weighed in the context of what is affordable, suggesting that replacement costs could be preferable to repair costs.

His comments follow statistics from HomeServe, which showed that 1.67 million people have discovered leaks that have caused damage to flats in the last five years and as many as 100,000 have been living with faulty toilets or cisterns for over 12 months.

By Sarah Adie