Leaving a Flat Empty for a Week

A flat left empty behaves differently from one being lived in. Several ordinary risks that occupancy suppresses become real once nobody is there to notice them.

Water is the largest risk

A leak in an occupied flat is noticed within minutes. The same leak over a week causes damage to the property and to whatever is below it.

Turning the water off at the stopcock removes the risk almost entirely, and it takes seconds once you know where the stopcock is.

In freezing conditions the calculation changes, since pipes can freeze and burst when a flat is unheated. Leaving the heating on low is the usual protection.

Humidity rises without ventilation

Moisture from the building fabric and from any damp surfaces continues to enter the air, and with no windows opened it has nowhere to go.

A week of that produces condensation and the beginnings of mould, particularly in a bathroom where surfaces were wet when you left.

Leaving internal doors open lets air circulate through the whole flat rather than concentrating moisture in one room.

Food and waste continue on their own schedule

Anything in the fridge with a short life will be past it on return, and the fridge itself will smell if something has spoiled inside it.

The food waste caddy is the more common problem, since a week is long enough for it to become genuinely unpleasant regardless of the weather.

Emptying all bins and clearing the fridge before leaving is a five-minute task that determines what the flat smells like when you open the door.

Appearance of occupancy matters for security

Post accumulating visibly, curtains that never move and a permanently dark flat all indicate absence to anyone paying attention.

A timer on a lamp addresses the most visible of these, and asking a neighbour to take in deliveries addresses another.

Insurance policies frequently contain conditions about unoccupied periods, and those conditions can affect cover if a claim arises during a long absence.

The short list before the door closes

Water off, heating set appropriately, bins emptied, fridge cleared, appliances unplugged where sensible, and internal doors left open.

Windows should be shut and locked, including the small ones that get left on a vent latch and are easy to forget.

Doing the list in the same order each time is what stops one item being missed, and the item missed is usually the water.