Blog
Notes for people who own the place
Practical write-ups on running a property: what to maintain and when, what to document, and what it costs to skip it.
Renovation: the invoices you throw away now and look for in three years
Warranty, insurance, sale, tax. Four different situations, the same missing piece of paper.
The maintenance calendar of a rented flat
What has to be done yearly, every few years, and at every tenant change — with the intervals, and what happens if you skip them.
Meter readings: the dullest data that settles the most arguments
Two numbers and two dates. That is all it takes to settle a bill, a tenant change, or a suspicious estimate.
Air conditioning: what to do yourself, and when to call someone
Rinsing the filter is not a service, and not everyone needs a yearly one. Here is how to tell which applies to you.
When you sell, the buyer does not ask for the floor plan
Photos bring them to the viewing. What you can show about the property’s history decides the negotiation.
Underinsurance: when the policy looks fine on paper
The sum insured stays the same for years. Rebuilding costs do not. That gap shows up as a halved payout.
Water damage: the first hour, and what the insurer will ask
The claim starts while the water is still running. What you photograph then cannot be recreated later.
The twenty minutes at a tenant change that save the whole year
Meter readings, photos, keys. What you do not record at handover cannot be established afterwards.
Deposit deductions are not decided by the contract
Fair wear or damage? No clause can settle that. Photographs with dates can.
What you actually buy with a boiler service
Not the cleaning. A service record that keeps the warranty alive, and a document that stands on your side after a gas or water incident.
The chimney sweep came. Now what happens to the paperwork?
The inspection is half the job. The certificate is what counts after a fire or a carbon monoxide incident — if you can still find it.