Winterising your holiday home

After the amazing summer of 2025 and our suntans start to fade, it is very clear that the Autumn nights are drawing in, and our minds start to think about the winter ahead with the hope of a similarly fantastic summer in 2026.

As we want you to return to your holiday home in 2026, relaxed and ready to enjoy another season. It is time to consider the correct closing down and protection of your home so that it is ready to go for another year. Remember, it is better to prevent an incident than perform what could be an expensive clean up or fix afterwards.

We have put together some top tips and a checklist to help keep your holiday home safe this winter:

1) Book a drain down with your Estates Team to be carried out on your holiday home. Remember if water is present it can freeze, remove it and nothing can freeze.

2) Turn your stopcock off every time you leave your holiday home between 31 October and 1 March or whatever your insurance requires. By leaving your stopcock on, you are unlikely to be insured against any damage arising from the bursting or overflowing of water pipes.

3) Close all windows and skylights securely to minimise moisture getting into your holiday home.

4) Empty and clean out fridges and freezers, disconnect from the power supply, and leave the doors ajar to enable fresh air circulation.

5) Leave internal doors open to allow airflow through your holiday home, this will help prevent condensation building up.

6) Stack any removable upholstery and mattresses away from the outer walls and place in the middle of the room.

7) Place moisture traps around the rooms of your holiday home as this will help extract condensation in the air and reduce the likelihood of condensation or mould build-up. Bowls of salt can be used for this purpose. However, many supermarkets have cheap moisture traps available, which will perform the same task.

8) For security, remove all valuables and leave cupboards and curtains open. Place a sign in the window to state, no valuables have been left in your holiday home.

9) Have your combination boiler or water heaters serviced this will help prevent any unexpected breakdowns when you return in the spring.

10) Ensure lights are turned off including external lights to save on electricity costs and do the right thing for the environment.

11) Ensure you have removed or secured outdoor furniture/BBQs on your decking to prevent them being blown away or over during the winter months. Do not forget any external portable LED lighting, which may also get damaged or blown away in the wind.

12) Remember if you are planning to or currently let your holiday home privately or you wish to purchase entertainments passes, you must ensure you have a current Gas Safety Certificate, a valid Electrical Installation Condition Report and Portable Appliance Testing records. These can also be booked with your Estates Team.

13) It may also be a good idea to check your insurance details for the winter period to ensure you are compliant with their requirements and ensure you have your policy renewal date noted in your diary.

Please remember that during the closed period we may have to disrupt the services to your holiday home for essential maintenance, which means it may be without gas and/or electricity at times.

Regards,

Dave Black, Group Head of Health, Safety and Estates