We build software for businesses, mostly about money that leaves in ways nobody wrote down at the start. It turns out owning a house is the same problem in a different costume, so some of these ended up pointed at that instead. They are free and nothing is uploaded.
A builder quotes the building work. VAT, contingency, the structural engineer, Building Control, the party wall surveyor and somewhere to live while it happens are all yours, and together they add thirty to fifty per cent.
Produces a scope document to send to three builders so the quotes come back answering the same questions.
Open itIf you own a leasehold flat and a major works bill has arrived, the landlord had to consult properly before starting. Where they did not, and the tribunal does not excuse it, they can recover £250 from each leaseholder and no more, whatever the work cost.
Checks the consultation stages, the eighteen month demand deadline, and what you are entitled to demand from them.
Open itBuilt in the order people ask for them. If one of these would be useful, say so and it moves up the list.
The honest comparison. Stamp duty, estate agent, legal fees and moving costs on one side, build cost and six months of disruption on the other.
Beyond the deposit. Stamp duty, survey, searches, legal fees, removals and the things that land in the first month of owning it.
What a property costs to keep, by age and construction type, so a survey finding is something you can put a number against.
What needs doing and when, from gutters to the boiler service, so the expensive failures are the ones you saw coming.
Most of what we do is for companies. Tracking money that is owed and has been forgotten about, working out which parts of a business quietly lose money, keeping the records that settle an argument months later.
A renovation is all three of those at once, run by someone who has never done it before against somebody who does it every week. The tools transferred more or less directly.
They are free because they cost us nothing to run and because a fair number of the people using them will turn out to run a business with a similar problem in it.
The business tools are here