Articles by Michael Muzio

Subsidence is common enough that plenty of buyers and sellers run into it, and costly enough that lenders take it seriously. The British Geological Survey estimates that shrink-swell ground movement costs the UK economy over £400 million a year, a figure it expects to pass £600 million by 2050 as summers get drier. So if […]

Buy-to-let insurance isn’t a single product. It’s a category made up of several distinct covers that together protect a rental property, its owner, and the income it generates. The starting point for any landlord is understanding which components are essential, which are optional depending on your circumstances, and why a standard home insurance policy isn’t […]

Is a Static Caravan a Good Investment? Whether a static caravan is a good investment is one of those questions with an honest answer that depends entirely on what you’re measuring. If you mean capital growth, the kind you’d expect from bricks and mortar, the answer is usually no. A static caravan is a depreciating […]

Buying a static caravan is a significant financial commitment, and there’s a good deal more to it than just the purchase price. The choice of site, the terms of the site licence agreement, the ongoing site fees and maintenance, the insurance obligations, and the realities of the resale market all make a static caravan very […]

Most people think of subsidence as something that happens to other houses. A crack in someone else’s wall, a survey flag on a property you didn’t end up buying. But after the run of record-hot, rain-starved seasons the UK has just lived through, the ground beneath millions of British homes is moving more than it […]

Subsidence has a fearsome reputation, and the numbers behind it explain why. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors puts the cost of underpinning a home at £10,000 to £75,000, the kind of figure that makes any cracking wall feel like a crisis. The reassuring part, often lost in the worry, is that RICS estimates fewer […]

Subsidence is one of the most damaging ground problems a UK home can face, and the risk is growing. The British Geological Survey projects that the share of British properties highly likely or extremely likely to be susceptible to clay shrink-swell could reach around 11% by 2070 under a higher-emissions scenario, as hotter, drier summers […]

Listed building consent is one of the most misunderstood parts of owning a period property in the UK. The rules reach further than most owners assume, and getting them wrong runs from enforcement notices that make you undo the work at your own cost, to criminal prosecution, which, in England and Wales, is not subject […]

Grade II is the most common form of heritage protection in England. Around 91.7% of all listed buildings carry this grade, and it’s the listing a homeowner is far more likely to encounter than the rarer Grade II* or Grade I. Plenty of people buy a Grade II property for its character without fully appreciating […]

Owning or buying a listed building in the UK is different from owning a standard home. You’re not just buying a property; you’re taking responsibility for a building that has recognised architectural or historic importance. That can affect what you can change, how repairs are carried out, what permissions you need, and how the property […]

Insurance is one of the most important and most commonly misunderstood parts of running an Airbnb in the UK. Many hosts assume their standard home insurance will still respond if a paying guest damages the property, causes a fire, or is injured during a stay. In many cases, that assumption is risky. A standard home […]