Can You Fix It? Yes, But Only If You Know About It

Being a property manager and married to a manager of Laminex, the word maintenance is something I hear almost every day.   Admittedly I often zone out when Grant is talking about the B line, or D line – even as I type that I’m not sure I picked the right letter of the alphabet.

Maintenance is something few people want to know about.   Why?   Because maintenance costs money and time.   It’s easy to put one’s head in the proverbial sand and hope that everything will have a lifespan larger than ours.

It never does though.   Everything has an expiry date – from the bottle of milk in your fridge, to the car you drive, to the house you live in (or rent out).

I finally took my Astra in for a service this morning – 6000km overdue.   My brakes were screaming, the start was sluggish… I’d just climbed over the 100,000km mark so I was certain the bill was going to hurt.

Fortunately for me I got away with a new set of tyres and an o-ring for an oil leak.   But what if I’d left it for another month, or two, or… ten??   Yes, I’m guilty of being 10 months over on a previous occasion.   Unlike missing a teeth cleaning, not keeping up with car servicing can jeopardise the safety of other drivers on the road.   Likewise, not attending to property maintenance can jeopardise the safety of residents and guests.

The best kind of maintenance is proactive.

Whether you spend the money now, or spend the money later, makes a big difference to how much cash you need to hand over.  Little problems become big problems quickly.

That’s why our routine inspection reports are so thorough – kind of like a mini entry inspection really.  You can only fix it if you know about it.