Without wanting to put a dampener on your holiday mood (the weather is probably doing that for you already!), but we’re told that a quarter of us come back from our summer holiday last year to find a domestic disaster waiting for us. The most common problem is a water leak followed by a boiler breakdown, burglary and an infestation of wasps and their nests. As well as being an unfitting end to a relaxing break, these problems are often expensive, with half of the water leaks reported costing over £100 to fix. Even worse the most unfortunate twenty percent faced a bill of over £1000 to have their leak fixed.
It’s really unlucky to have something go wrong when you’re not around to put it right, or at least stop it from getting worse. A lot of these disasters are probably completely unexpected but there are a couple of things you can do to help prevent things going wrong. It’s a good idea to turn off your water at the stopcock just in case a weak pipe joint or a washing machine valve decides to fail and soak your house while you’re soaking up the sun.
We tend to think of burst pipes as something that can only affect us in the winter months but research seems to prove otherwise so it does make sense to do everything you can to avoid a disaster, even at this time of year. As well as turning off your water you should check that windows and doors are locked before you go away, and as making sure that all electrical appliances and boilers are switched off where possible.
We live in a highly technical and digital age where everything is online and at the same time very remote so one of the best things you can do is that old-fashioned thing of talking to your neighbours before you go. If you have a friend or neighbour close by who you trust it’s worth giving them a spare key so they can pop in from time to time to check on the house – and bring in the post and perhaps water your plants while they’re at it
Avoiding a post-holiday disaster
