There is a word I am growing to hate the more I hear it. It’s a favourite of call centre help desks and online instruction manuals. The word is “should” and I’ve been hearing it a lot recently.

Three years ago, when we were coming out of the first COVID-19 lockdowns, my partner and I decided to ignore our own advice to never buy off the plan, an opinion based on the horrific experience we had buying our current home 20-odd years ago.