Renting an apartment or house, while it has headaches of its own, can frequently be at least a little less stressful than owning your own home, mainly due to maintenance issues. If something breaks, the owner is responsible for fixing it; there is no landlord to step in. This means that homeowners are responsible for keeping their homes clean and well-maintained.

You've been told how crucial it is to maintain your home, as well as thousands of ways to do it, by your estate agents, mortgage lender and everyone on the Internet. But really, why is it so important?

It mainly boils down to two things – cost and warranties. It is far easier to repair something when it has been regularly maintained than if it has been let go. Additionally, most home warranty companies will help homeowners with systems or appliances that fail due to old age or 'normal' wear and tear, but that only applies to a well-maintained home. If your warranty company deems that the damage or failure is due to a lack of maintenance, then they can choose not to cover the cost of repair.

This situation comes down to two modes of maintenance and, as a homeowner, is it better to be reactive or proactive when it comes to house maintenance?

Responding to issues only as they come up is known as reactive maintenance. As the equipment or structure ages and eventually stops functioning, you repair it. Reactive maintenance frequently calls for a quick, low-cost fix but must be repeated time and time again. It also rarely fixes the problem for good. As you can imagine, avoiding reactive maintenance as much as possible is a wise financial choice.

Preventive maintenance involves performing routine inspections or repairs on your property. At the same time, everything is still in good working order to head off problems before they arise. Doing so will assist you in avoiding urgent repairs that require expensive labour as you never allow issues to grow too large.

Performing preventive maintenance is not glamorous and is typically just something that should be done. Even so, preventative maintenance will still spare you a lot of frustration, inconvenience, and, most importantly, money. After all, how much would it take to buy basic maintenance supplies such as cleaning tools, monitors, and small pieces of equipment versus having a trained professional come out, likely on an emergency basis and on emergency pay, to repair something major at the last minute?

So what areas should you pay attention to the most when it comes to our house?

At On The House, we want to simplify property maintenance and relieve you of the burden of it. That means doing all of these smaller, routine tasks for you (and even the big ones if it comes down to it). A little bit of prevention goes a long way to ensure you don't have to shell out a lot from your pocket for emergency or immediate repair.

Regardless of our maintenance, we constantly communicate and rigorously quality-check everything before signing off. That is why we offer nationwide coverage, a singular contact for all your maintenance-related needs, and same or next-day availability.

Want more information on everything that On The House can help you with? Why not head over to our website and check our complete list of services, or reach out and contact us today!