A holiday home you visit twice a year is easiest to look after in the autumn, before the first serious rain. Spend a day in October or November getting it right and you avoid the two classic winter disasters: a terrace that floods into the room below, and a flat you open in spring to find furred with black mould. Here is the room-by-room checklist we run through, and what to hand to whoever holds your keys.
Outside first: drains, gutters and the terrace
Most winter damage on this coast comes from water that could not get away. Before the rains, clear every terrace drain, gully and gutter of leaves and grit, and check the falls actually run to the outlet rather than pooling against a wall. Look at the terrace surface itself: cracked grout, lifting tiles or a failed joint at the upstand is where water gets under the waterproofing and into the ceiling below. If your terrace has leaked before, autumn is the time to fix it properly rather than watch it happen again — it is the single most common leak we are called to, and one of the causes in our guide to damp.
Air and damp: the empty-flat problem
A sealed apartment with no heating, on a coast where winter humidity sits above 80%, will grow mould in cold corners and behind wardrobes. The cheapest defence is air movement: leave internal doors and wardrobe doors open, and fit trickle vents or leave a humidity-controlled extractor running. For a property empty for months, a dehumidifier on a timer or humidistat pays for itself the first winter. Pull furniture a few centimetres off external walls so air can pass behind it.
Water and the heater
Turn the water off at the stopcock before you leave — a slow leak or a failed flexible hose does far less damage when the supply is dead. Drain a little from the taps, and switch the water heater off at the breaker rather than leaving it cycling for months in an empty flat. If you are on a well or deposit system in the campo, isolate the pump too.
Salt air: render and metalwork
Give the outside a walk-round. Salt air works constantly on this coast: look for hairline cracks and blown patches in the render, rust weeping from railings, gates and window bars, and tired sealant around window frames. None of it is urgent in October, but a photo now means you can plan a repair for spring rather than discover a real problem in July. Failed render lets water behind the wall, so it is worth catching early.
Pool and garden
If you have a pool, get the cover on and the pump and timer set for winter, or arrange a maintenance visit — a green pool in March costs more to recover than to keep ticking over. Cut back planting from the walls, because vegetation against render holds damp, and lift or secure anything on the terrace that a levante wind will throw around.
Shutters, locks and security
Close the persianas most of the way but not fully — a little airflow beats a sealed box — and check that every lock and window actually fastens. Damp swells timber and warps cheap frames, so a door that shut in September may not in December. A visible, cared-for property is also a less tempting one.
Give your key-holder a monthly list
Whoever holds your keys — an agent, a neighbour, a friend — can catch a small problem before it becomes a claim. A sensible monthly walk-round: open up and air the property, look at ceilings under the terrace and around windows for new stains, run the taps briefly, check nothing is leaking under the sinks or the heater, and glance at the pool. Ten minutes a month is cheap insurance against a winter of quiet water damage.
A pre-winter visit, done for you
If you would rather not do this from abroad, it is exactly the kind of job we are asked for every October: a fixed pre-winter check where we clear the drains, test the terrace, sort the ventilation, shut down the water and heater and send you photos of anything that needs attention before the rain. We can quote for a one-off visit or a check that repeats each year — tell us the property and how it is left. The same team looks after homes from Torre del Mar through Torrox and the villages, and any repairs we spot are priced in writing before we touch anything.
Want the terrace, render or ventilation sorted before winter? See our plastering and damp-repair work and our terrace tiling and waterproofing, or ask us for a pre-winter check.
