# Ah, the joys of home ownership **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 7, 2021, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-the-joys-of-home-ownership/948206 "2021-08-07T19:07:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2021, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-the-joys-of-home-ownership/948206/61 "2021-11-21T00:51:32Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > What the hell do people do who don’t have anything in the bank? Second mortgage? I have some friends in Portland OR who decided to get a new roof (shingles) a few months ago. It turned out that undetected leaks for years had rotted the rafters and they would need the entire thing torn down and replaced. The best estimate was $80,000. Their house was almost paid for and they had to get a second mortgage to do this. The husband was planning to retire at the end of the year (the wife is retired) and now that’s on hold. I feel so bad for them. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2021, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-the-joys-of-home-ownership/948206/62 "2021-11-21T01:14:49Z")
Insurance policies vary (and as **Chefguy** noted, most if not all companies will try to get out of paying), but the way mine is written it would not pay for the roof but would pay for the leak damage. Might be worth pursuing. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2021, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-the-joys-of-home-ownership/948206/63 "2021-11-21T04:20:50Z")
That’s true for most any policy. They’ll pay for damage to your possessions and to the house innards, but won’t pay to fix the problem. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2021, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-the-joys-of-home-ownership/948206/64 "2021-11-22T14:15:34Z")
I had almost this exact problem (water behind the chimney rotted out a lot of structural studs), and they wouldn’t pay for long-term water damage. They’d pay for damage caused by “sudden events” like a burst pipe, but not anything caused over time. ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-the-joys-of-home-ownership/948206/65 "2021-11-30T01:40:21Z")
Mrs R and I were almost done remodelling the basement bathroom; rebuilt vanity, new sink/faucet, waterproof the outside wall and paint everything, new toilet (not installed yet). And then I took a shower one morning in the upstairs bathroom and all the water ended up on the basement floor. Roto-Rooter came out and ran a camera up the main drain, starting at the septic tank (we had to hire a guy to dig it up, and another guy to pump it), and the (cast-iron) pipe had collapsed, right under the middle of the basement. R-R’s estimate for digging up the basement floor and replacing the collapsed tee was unreasonable, so we went with a different outfit. And started moving stuff out of the hobby room and games closet, into the garage. They jackhammered up the floor and discovered that the pipe near the tee was so corroded that it just kept breaking when they tried to connect to it. Eventually we ended up emptying almost the entire basement into the garage, and had a lot more floor dug up. The main line got relined (a fascinating process–took 'em two tries) and a couple branch lines dug up and replaced. Near the end, I asked the site lead about installing the toilet in the downstairs bathroom (the toilet was in its box out in the garage). The site lead gave me a bit of trouble, so I told him that the manager had said they’d throw in the toilet install as part of our FOURTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS of work. He said nothing more, just had a guy install the toilet. And then, because that wasn’t costly enough, we got the basement floor redone in sheet vinyl flooring. Although I’d tried to be careful about pulling up the vinyl tiles so the floor could be jackhammered, enough of them broke that new flooring was in order. And new shelves for the hobby room. But it all looks pretty nice now, and there haven’t been any floods in the basement since. I actually started a thread to bitch about this: [Our month of home-repair hell](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-month-of-home-repair-hell/915801) ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-the-joys-of-home-ownership/948206/66 "2021-11-30T15:16:06Z")
Fellow sufferer, you have my sympathy. ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2021, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-the-joys-of-home-ownership/948206/67 "2021-12-01T23:10:33Z")
Yeah, sounds like you and I have/had similar problems! ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats2)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2021, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-the-joys-of-home-ownership/948206/68 "2021-12-03T18:46:59Z")
Hoo boy, am I glad to be a renter. ---
**Author:** ![Tride](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tride/32/13907_2.png) [@Tride](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tride)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2021, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-the-joys-of-home-ownership/948206/69 "2021-12-04T01:49:31Z")
I’m lucky that for the last 30 years we’ve lived in houses I’ve built. Shit still goes wrong, but you know who to blame! ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2021, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-the-joys-of-home-ownership/948206/70 "2021-12-12T19:45:03Z")
I am very sorry that people have had so many expensive problems with their houses. > [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](#): > > Hoo boy, am I glad to be a renter. But I would like to say that I don’t think this is typical for homeowners. I’ve owned property for 32 years. My first house cost £30,000. I spent £3,000 on it (upgrading the windows) and sold it for £41,000. My current house cost £60,000 and is now valued at £180,000. My total expenses on it over the years come to £6,000. And I haven’t paid anything in rent all this time! ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-the-joys-of-home-ownership/948206/71 "2021-12-13T14:41:28Z")
> [@glee](#): > > I’ve owned property for 32 years. > My first house cost £30,000. I spent £3,000 on it (upgrading the windows) and sold it for £41,000. > My current house cost £60,000 and is now valued at £180,000. My total expenses on it over the years come to £6,000. > And I haven’t paid anything in rent all this time! Exempt from property taxes? ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-the-joys-of-home-ownership/948206/72 "2021-12-13T15:34:05Z")
Sorry, I should have given the property tax (here in the UK known as ‘Council Tax’), which is currently £1,400 a year. To balance this, renting a nearby similar-size property costs £9,000 per year. (Also I’ve lived here for 30 years and so my property has appreciated in value an average of £4,000 a year.) My parents bought a house in London in 1946 for £2,500. They sold it about 50 years later for £250,000. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-the-joys-of-home-ownership/948206/73 "2021-12-13T19:16:45Z")
> [@jaycat](#): > > > [@Kelevra](#): > > > > $5K of french drain > > I’ve paid for that before, but not _that_ much. so, not the same as downtown? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-the-joys-of-home-ownership/948206.md?page=3)