Nearly two million Victorian properties are facing a ‘maintenance timebomb’ over the next decade because owners have delayed essential maintenance work.
A new study from Lloyds TSB Insurance shows that the downturn may cause financially stretched homeowners to put off essential upkeep, resulting in a backlog of over 18 million maintenance problems1.
And this issue is particularly pronounced in Victorian and Edwardian houses, with residents facing twice the number of maintenance jobs than those found in newer properties2.
The report findings also reveal the increased severity of the problems experienced by owners of Victorian builds. Compared with modern properties they are three times more likely to suffer from dry rot, four times more likely to experience subsidence and five times more likely to have issues with rising damp.
As a consequence, occupants face an annual upkeep bill of £3,800 – nearly double the £2,040 maintenance costs of newer properties3.
The leading insurer warns that this financial pressure has caused nearly half of the nation’s ‘Victoriana’ homeowners to put off essential repairs, putting nearly two million Victorian properties at risk of falling into severe disrepair in the coming years4.
This is also causing Brits severe stress, with one in ten homeowners (nine per cent) losing sleep because of maintenance problems – a figure which doubles for owners of Victorian homes.
Yet despite trouble ahead, the far future could hold a kinder fate for surviving Victorian homes. Long term forecasts (next 20-50 years) made as part of the Living Changes report suggest that maintenance issues should decrease as the cost of raw materials decreases in real terms.
Commenting on the report, Lloyds TSB Insurance, David Stoddard, Customer Service Director at Lloyds TSB Insurance said:
“The economic conditions over the last two years mean we’ve all had to tighten our belts and cut spending in general, but we should remember that proper upkeep of a home is vitally important in order to prevent greater problems occurring in the future.”
“The risks involved can be lessened by understanding which problems are the most important to deal with first. Coming into the winter months, it is very important to check your roof, gutters drains for damage and try to repair them to prevent any short term and long term damage to your home. What we can’t do is simply hope that these problems will go away by themselves.”
The Living Changes report is a long running study looking at future issues that homeowners face and is carried out by social researchers FDS International.
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Methodology
Research was commissioned by Lloyds TSB Insurance plc and conducted by FDS Research between in August and September 2009.
The research programme used a nationally representative survey of 1800 homeowners which was conducted by PureProfile using an online sample between August 16th and 24th 2009. The report was also compiled using data from the 3000ft trends base, including analysis of the Census, the British Household Panel Study, and the General Household Survey.
Footnotes
1. Based on survey data and BHPS, GHS data, 31 per cent of home owners are putting off essential maintenance work, with the average number of jobs left undone being 2.2 per household. There are 26.62 million households in the UK (300ft Trends base). 0.31 x 26.62 x 2.2 = Back log of 18.16 million problems (approx 18 million).
2. Victorian properties suffer 9.8 maintenance problems a year. Newer homes (built 1965 or later) suffer from five problems a year.
3. Modern properties = built since 1965
4. 40 per cent of Victorian property owners have delayed essential maintenance jobs (compared to average of 31 per cent). On average these problems are ‘serious’ issues (subsidence, dry rot, weak foundations) that if not fixed can lead to destruction of the property. There are around five million (4.9 million) inhabited Victorian properties (built 1841 to 1901) in the UK. Therefore 0.40 x 4.9 = 1.96 million (two million) properties at serious risk.
5. In Victorian property, average problem needs a minimum of £400.45 to fix. Each property is suffering from an average of 1.83 neglected maintenance issues. Therefore 1.96 x 400.45 x 1.83 = £1,436,000,000 (£1.4bn).