Home renovations help you put your own stamp on a new place, or they can help you refresh and brighten up your existing apartment. Good home improvements add value to your home and make you feel good on the inside.

With this in mind let’s look at how you should budget for your home renovation.

Assign a Cost to Each Aspect

When you put your budget together you should itemise each aspect. It is a good idea to do this by room.  This will also allow you to get started in one room once you have made all the purchases you need. While you’re working in one room, or while somebody else is, your budget has a chance to replenish.

Aspects to cost out will include:

• Professional tradesman fees
• Materials costs such as kitchen worktops for example
• Fixtures and fittings such as staircases and kitchen cupboards
• Paint, wallpaper, tiles, plaster, and related tools
• Furnishings and appliances

Once you have worked out your budget for a room you can then move on to the next aspect of budgeting; shopping around.

Shop Around

Shopping around not only lets you identify the best price for what you need, but it gives you a better idea of prices which is useful down the line as your home renovation moves from room to room.

When shopping around Google is your friend. Searches for winder staircase online or freestanding shelves online for example often reveal some great hidden away companies that provide quality products. Where possible try and find at least three companies that provide good quality products that fall within your budget.

If you have something particularly expensive you may want to consider second hand. Good deals can be found on sites that specialise in this kind of thing, and house clearances often reveal hidden gems.

Specialist online stores such as Fontanot Shop often provide good products at a reasonable price together with ideas for your home improvement project.

Tradesman should be sourced on recommendations. If you do not know anyone who has used a tradesman, you can look at online reviews and often on UK local council websites, you can find a list of tradesmen who are trusted. Get quotes from a few tradesmen to get the best price.

Once you have shopped around you should revise your budget accordingly. Hopefully, you’ll have more money to play with.

Assign a Schedule

Once you have your budget you should assign a schedule for the work needed. This will give you clarity on how long your project is going to take, as well as providing an opportunity to prioritise the work by the task.  It is a good idea to assign a few extra days for the more expensive aspects of your project especially if tradesmen are involved. Often, hidden unforeseen circumstances occur which delay projects of this kind.

From here all that is left to do is to start your home improvement project. The sooner you start it the sooner you can enjoy your newly refurbished home. Make sure you have a bottle of champagne on ice to celebrate once complete.

A Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidation is a procedure in which the company’s director/s choose to voluntarily bring the business to an end by appointing a liquidator who must be a licensed insolvency practitioner (IP).

Usually, a company goes into Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidation (CVL) after its directors realise that its liabilities exceed its assets or it cannot pay its debts as they fall due and so the company cannot carry on its business.

This liquidation begins by a resolution of the shareholders, usually at the directors’ request, and under the effective control of creditors, who can appoint a liquidator of their choice (need of 25% of the debt or more). The key factor that determines this course of action is the realisation by the directors and shareholders that the company is unable to pay its debts as they fall due or that it has more liabilities than assets.

The Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidation is the most common way for directors and shareholders to deal voluntarily with their company’s insolvency because it is in the interests of the directors to take action at an early stage in order to minimise the risk of personal liability for wrongful trading.

The purpose of this type of liquidation is to appoint as soon as possible an liquidator who has a duty to collect the company’s assets and distribute them to its creditors in accordance with the Insolvency Act. At Quabbala Limited we are insolvency practitioners in London.

The process starts with the calling of a shareholders’ meeting by the directors of the company. At this meeting, the members will pass an extraordinary resolution to wind up the company (75% majority required) and an ordinary resolution to nominate an insolvency practitioner (50% majority required). If 95% of shareholders agree, a short notice meeting can be held.

The nominee liquidator will conduct a relatively quick investigation into the statement of affairs of the company and will convene a meeting of creditors, which must be advertised in the London Gazette and 2 appropriate newspapers. The meeting must be held within 14 days of the shareholders’ meeting (normally held on the same day).

The creditors’ meeting will not be a physical meeting unless requested by 10% of creditors by value. Otherwise it will be a “virtual meeting” or a meeting by correspondence, unless a “decision making process” is used. A “decision making process” can include a “deemed consent procedure” in which the insolvency practitioner nominated by the members is automatically appointed unless creditors object.

At the meeting, copies or a summary of the Statement of Affairs will be made available to creditors and a report on the company’s history along with an explanation of the reasons for the failure of the company will be presented. Creditors will then vote to appoint a liquidator. The votes are based on the values of creditors’ claims. Should the creditors’ choice of insolvency practitioner be different from that of the shareholders, the creditors’ choice prevails.

The creditor voluntary liquidation (CVL) is complete when all the assets have been realised, all creditors’ claims have been adjudicated (where there are sufficient funds) and net realisations after expenses of the liquidation have been distributed to the creditors. The liquidator/insolvency practitioner will then call final meetings of creditors and shareholders and present his final receipts and payments account, together with a report showing how the liquidation has been conducted.

As we are insolvency practitioners in the City of London, please contact us if you require further information.