Older units and villa-style properties bring shared drainage, and that's the most common complication we run into here. A blockage in a common line affects several dwellings at once, and working out whose responsibility it is can take longer than clearing it. A camera inspection establishes exactly where the blockage sits, which usually settles the question without argument.

Many of these properties also have small, ageing hot water systems and original tapware. Individually these are cheap repairs, but past a certain age the repairs stop being worthwhile - we'll give you the repair price and the replacement price together rather than pushing you toward the bigger job.

The flat, low-lying ground means stormwater has limited margin here too, and older systems that have never quite coped tend to make themselves known in the first serious downpour of the season rather than gradually.