Monday, June 14, 2010
Category:
Home Improvements
According to new research conducted by LV=, many UK homeowners are taking on complicated home improvement projects themselves in an attempt to add value to their property.
In fact, it was found that 4.05 million homeowners have tackled electrical jobs without professional assistance in the last few years, whilst 3.3 million have undertaken plumbing work themselves. Furthermore, 1.35 million homeowners have reportedly taken on structural work; 900,000 have carried out major building works; and 450,000 have attempted to make gas repairs.
The LV= survey revealed that many homeowners set about these projects in a bid to improve the resale value of their property, despite the fact that a poor job could reportedly decrease the value of a property by more than 5 percent in some cases.
Managing director of LV= home insurance, John O'Roarke, commented: "With house prices falling or stagnating in some parts of the UK, it's understandable that many homeowners should try to bump up the value of their properties through DIY home improvements.
"But although nine out of ten people in our survey (88%) recognised that jobs like gas work should only be left to the professionals, nearly 0.5m Brits are still prepared to give it a go. Not only could bungling these jobs be dangerous, and costly to put right, but if they caused a serious problem with the property it could invalidate the home insurance cover.
"Our research shows that the days of being able to buy a property, do it up yourself on the cheap and then sell it on at a profit, are over. DIY home improvements may cut the initial costs, compared with getting the professionals in, but they might not add any value to the property at all. And sloppy work is likely to reduce the resale price and could even invalidate the home insurance cover."
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Homeowners who are faced with the prospect of having to tackle significant home improvement projects themselves, due to lacking the funds to call in the professionals, could consider taking out a secured loan. One of many finance options available, a secured loan for
home improvements could eliminate the need to cut corners – thereby allowing borrowers to enjoy peace of mind. What’s more, borrowers may even decide to take their home improvements to another level that they could only have dreamt about before, in order to create their ideal living space.
