Deferred maintenance
Upkeep that's been put off — and the growing backlog of cost and risk it creates.
Deferred maintenance is routine work a homeowner postpones: gutters left unclogged, a water heater never flushed, a roof patched instead of replaced, exterior paint allowed to peel. Each item is minor on its own, but deferring them lets small problems become big ones — and signals that bigger maintenance may have been skipped too. When buying a home, a pattern of deferred maintenance is a reliable warning sign worth pricing out before you commit.