Maintaining the flat

Yours, or the building’s

Most arguments start with this one question, and the answer is mostly simple: inside your door is yours, and what everybody uses outside it comes out of the service charge.

• Yours — paint, tiling, doors and windows, the wiring and switches inside the flat, bathroom and kitchen fittings, your own air conditioner.
• The building’s — stairs, lifts, lobby, corridors, roof, external walls, water pumps and reservoir, generator, basement parking.
• In between — a pipe running inside a party wall, or a leak arriving from the flat above. This is where a building without a written rule ends up arguing.

That last category is worth settling in advance. Decided after the fact, every incident becomes its own dispute.

Before the monsoon

Dhaka’s monsoon finds every weak point at once. An hour spent walking the flat before the rain saves a great deal later.

• Veranda drains clear — blocked with leaves or grit, the water comes inside.
• Gaps in the silicone or putty around the windows.
• Damp patches or blistering paint on any room against an external wall.
• Stains appearing on the ceiling of the flat below your bathroom or kitchen — seepage shows from underneath first.
• The air conditioner’s outdoor drain running clear.

Painting over a damp patch is the worst available answer. Unless the water is stopped it returns in six months, and the next time it takes the plaster with it.

Water and pipes

• Run a hand under the basin and the sink. A slow leak reaches your hand long before it reaches your eye.
• A flush that keeps running needs its valve replaced; it wastes a remarkable amount of water in a month.
• Weak flow from a tap is usually a clogged aerator — unscrew it and clean it.
• Close the flat’s main valve when you go away for any length of time.
• If the water changes colour or smell, tell the committee: the problem is usually in the building’s tank, not your line.

Electrical and air conditioning

• Service the air conditioner once a year. A dirty filter costs you electricity and cooling at the same time.
• A scorch mark on a plug or switch means stop using it and replace it.
• Do not run heavy appliances off an extension lead.
• Have an electrician check the circuit can carry it before adding an air conditioner or a geyser.

Once a year

A few jobs need doing annually. Skipped, they arrive together as one large bill a few years later.

• Re-seal the silicone around windows and veranda doors.
• Check the grout between bathroom tiles — this is where water gets through to the floor below.
• Air conditioner service and gas check.
• Distribution board and earthing inspection.
• Ask the committee whether the building’s water tank has been cleaned.

Catch it while it is small

A door that sticks, a dripping tap, a switch that crackles, a hairline crack — each is an hour’s work today. Six months on the same faults are a replaced door, a dug-up floor, and rewiring. That is essentially the whole of maintenance.