Securing a property you are leaving

There are two versions of this: leaving for a fortnight in July, and leaving because you have been told to or because staying has become untenable. The checklist is largely the same and the time available is not, so this page is ordered so that the first few items are the ones to do if you have five minutes.

The framing worth carrying through it is that the likeliest thing to wreck an empty house is a pipe, not a person.

What actually damages an empty house

The security measures matter and they are not the first three items on the list. Most people do them first and skip the plumbing, which is exactly backwards.

Water

The single most valuable five minutes.

1. Turn the water off at the internal stop tap. Usually under the kitchen sink. Clockwise.
2. Open all the cold taps and let them run dry, working from the top of the house down.
3. Open the hot taps too, having turned off the boiler or immersion first.
4. Flush the loos so the cisterns empty.
5. Close the gate valve on any loft tank, or let the taps drain it.

Draining is the part people miss. Turning the stop tap off leaves every pipe in the house full, and a full pipe still bursts when it freezes and still empties itself into the ceiling.

For a long absence in winter, drain the system down properly, which means opening the drain cock as well and clearing the low points. For a fortnight in summer, the stop tap and the taps are enough.

See the mains shut-offs and burst pipes.

Heating and freezing

Electricity and gas

• Unplug everything you can. Chargers, televisions, kitchen appliances, anything with a standby light.
• Turn off at the consumer unit if you are leaving for a long time and nothing needs power. Turning off individual circuits lets you keep a freezer, an alarm or heating running while killing the rest.
• Think before you kill the power entirely: a freezer full of food, a heating system, an alarm, a sump pump and a doorbell camera all stop.
• Gas off at the emergency control valve for a long absence, and remember that everything with a pilot light will need relighting and possibly a Gas Safe engineer. For a fortnight it is usually not worth it.
• Do not leave anything charging. Lithium cells left on charge unattended for weeks are a genuine fire risk, and there is nobody there to notice.

What to take

Documents, medication, and things that cannot be replaced. Everything else can be.

• Identity documents, or good photographs of them stored somewhere you can reach.
• Prescription medication, in its box, with the label.
• Keys, cards and cash.
• Chargers and a power bank.
• Photographs and small irreplaceable items. Digitise the photographs now rather than carrying albums later.
• A copy of the household card, with the meeting points and the out-of-area contact. See meeting points and a household plan.

Photograph the house before you go, room by room, including the contents of cupboards. It takes five minutes and it is what an insurance claim needs.

Making it look occupied

Everything from the layers before hardware applies, with a few specific to absence.

• Cancel or redirect the post and the deliveries, or have a neighbour take them in. Post visible through a letterbox is the clearest possible signal.
• Lights on variable timers, in more than one room, at different times.
• A radio on a timer.
• Bins put out and brought in.
• Curtains left as they normally are. Closed curtains in daylight for a week says empty.
• Ask somebody to park on the drive.
• Grass cut, or arranged to be.
• Do not post about it until you are home.

Telling somebody

One neighbour, always.

• Give them a key if you trust them, which is safer than any hiding place and means somebody can deal with a problem rather than watching it.
• Give them a phone number that will reach you, and the out-of-area contact's number as a backup.
• Tell them roughly when you expect to be back, and tell them when you are.
• Tell them where the stop tap is. A neighbour with a key who cannot find the stopcock is watching a flood.
• Ask them to take the post in and to have a look round every few days.

This is the measure that turns a disaster into an inconvenience, because somebody notices the water coming out under the door on day two rather than on day twenty.

Leaving in a hurry

If you have five minutes rather than an afternoon, in this order:

1. People and pets out.
2. Documents, medication, phone, charger, keys, cash.
3. Water off at the stop tap.
4. Electricity off at the consumer unit, gas off at the valve.
5. Note left inside the door: who, when, where to, expected return.
6. Lock up, take the keys.
7. Text the out-of-area contact and the neighbour.

Everything after that is optional, and none of it is worth staying for. See moving on foot safely if you are leaving without a vehicle, and flood-proofing if water is the reason, in which case going upstairs is very often better than going out.

Insurance

The administrative bit that catches people.

• Most policies have an unoccupancy condition, commonly around 30 days, after which cover is restricted or requires notification. Check yours before a long absence rather than after a claim.
• Some require the water to be turned off and the system drained, or the heating maintained at a minimum temperature, for cover to apply in winter. Read the actual wording.
• Tell your insurer if you will be away beyond the stated period. It is usually straightforward and it is what keeps the cover valid.
• Keep the photographs and an inventory somewhere that is not in the house.
• If you are leaving because of a flood, fire or an official instruction, ring the insurer as soon as you reasonably can and follow what they tell you about the property.