Yes, turn the water off when away for more than a few days. For a holiday home left empty over winter, close the stopcock and open the taps to release the pressure, then either drain down or leave the heating on a frost setting. Arrange a regular check by a key holder, and read your policy’s unoccupancy conditions before you lock up.
The last guests leave in late October, the cleaner does the changeover, and the cottage sits quiet until the Easter bookings. Or it is your own second home near Padstow or St Ives, and you will be back for a weekend in February if the weather holds. Either way, nobody is standing in the kitchen listening for a drip. A joint that starts weeping in November has months to run, and a leak that would be a wet cupboard in a lived-in house becomes a collapsed ceiling, a rotten floor and a water bill that makes no sense. This guide covers how to shut a Cornish holiday home down properly, the frost question, what a key holder should actually check, and where insurance stands.
How a leak runs for months unnoticed
A leak needs two things: a fault in the pipework and water under pressure pushing through it. In an occupied house the second thing is what gives it away. Someone hears the hiss, sees the damp, or notices the boiler pressure falling. In an empty house all of that carries on with no witness. The washing machine hose that would have split on a Tuesday morning splits anyway and runs until the next changeover. A pinhole in a heating pipe under the floor keeps the screed wet week after week. Meanwhile the meter turns, and with many Cornish second homes on a meter, the first anyone hears of it is a bill in the spring.
Older holiday cottages are the most exposed. Granite and cob walls hold damp, suspended floors give water somewhere to hide, and pipework added in stages over decades has more joints than anyone remembers. Coastal properties also see wide swings in temperature and humidity through the winter, which works old fittings loose. If the water bill has already surprised you, our guide on why a water bill is so high explains how to read it and what the meter test shows.
Turn the water off at the stopcock
Take the pressure away and most leaks cannot happen. This is the single most useful thing you can do before locking up.
- Find the stopcock. Usually under the kitchen sink, but in older Cornish houses it may be under the stairs, in a floor void, a porch or an outbuilding. If you do not know where it is, where the stopcock hides in older Cornish houses lists the usual places. Find it on a calm day, not at the end of the season with the car packed.
- Close it gently. Clockwise until it stops. If it is stiff, do not force it. An old valve that snaps in your hand is a worse problem than the one you were preventing. Have a plumber replace it with a lever valve before next winter.
- Release the pressure. Open the cold taps, starting at the top of the house, until they run dry. Flush the toilets. This empties the pipes on the house side so a small weep has nothing to feed on.
- Check it worked. A tap that keeps running after the stopcock is closed means the valve is not shutting fully. Use the outside stop valve at the boundary as the backup and note it for the plumber.
- Label it. Put a note by the valve and in the welcome folder saying where it is and which way to turn it, so a cleaner, a guest or a neighbour can act without ringing you.
One caveat. If anything in the house needs a live supply while you are away, a fish tank, an irrigation timer, an automatic top-up on a heating system, sort that out before you decide. In most empty holiday homes nothing does.
Frost: drain down or leave the heating on
Turning the water off protects you from mains pressure but not from frost. Water left standing in pipes can freeze, expand and split them, and the flood comes when it thaws or when the supply goes back on. Cornwall is mild, but inland cottages on the moors and anywhere with a north-facing kitchen still see hard frosts, and pipes in an unheated house get colder than the air outside suggests. You have two choices.
Leave the heating on a frost setting
The simpler option for a house that will be visited during the winter. Set the thermostat low, typically somewhere around 10 to 12 degrees or the boiler’s frost protection mode, so the fabric of the house never gets cold enough to freeze the pipes. Check whether your boiler needs mains water available to top itself up, because a sealed heating system with the mains off has no way to recover if it loses pressure. A slow heating leak in an empty house is exactly the sort that runs unseen, so ask the key holder to photograph the boiler gauge each visit. If the pressure keeps dropping, our guide on why a boiler keeps losing pressure explains what it means.
Drain down
The thorough option for a property that will be empty for the whole winter with no heating. A plumber isolates the supply, drains the cold and hot water systems and, where needed, the heating, and leaves the taps open. Nothing can freeze because there is nothing in the pipes. The downside is that the house is cold and damp for months, which in a granite cottage encourages condensation and mould, so many owners choose a frost setting plus a fortnightly visit instead.
| Situation | Water | Heating | Check |
|---|---|---|---|
| Away a week or two | Stopcock off, taps opened | Normal or frost setting | Neighbour once |
| Empty for the winter, visited monthly | Stopcock off, taps opened | Frost setting, gauge checked each visit | Key holder every two to four weeks |
| Empty for the winter, no visits | Drained down by a plumber | Off | As required by your policy |
| Let through the winter with gaps | Off between bookings if possible | Frost setting between bookings | Cleaner at each changeover |
What the key holder should actually check
A neighbour who glances at the front of the house from the lane is not a check. Give whoever holds the key a short list and ask them to send you a couple of photographs each time.
- The meter. With the stopcock closed the reading should not change between visits. If it does, the stopcock is passing or there is a leak on the supply pipe under the garden.
- The boiler gauge. If the heating is on a frost setting, the pressure should be steady. A falling gauge is a leak on the heating circuit.
- Ceilings and the floor under the sink. Look up in every room, and open the cupboard where the stopcock is.
- Smell and sound. A musty smell on opening the door, or the sound of water with everything off, both mean something is wrong.
- Outside. A wet patch on the drive or a green strip across the lawn in January is the supply pipe.
- The loft. Once a winter, check the cold water tank and the pipes to it if the house still has one.
If the meter moves with the house isolated, or the gauge drops between visits, the sensible order is to find the leak before repairing anything, because in an empty house you have no other clues. A water leak detection survey can be arranged around the key holder’s visit, and we provide leak detection across Cornwall, including properties where the owner is elsewhere and the report goes by email.
Insurance and unoccupancy
Most buildings policies treat a home that is empty beyond a certain period differently, and second homes and holiday lets are often on specialist cover with their own conditions. Common requirements include turning the water off or draining down, keeping the heating at a minimum temperature, and having the property inspected at set intervals with a record kept. Some policies reduce or exclude escape of water cover if those conditions are not met. Do not take our word, or a neighbour’s, for what yours says. Read the unoccupancy section of your own schedule before you lock up, and if it requires inspections, keep the key holder’s dated photographs as your record.
When a leak does happen, a claim in an empty house also runs into the gradual damage question. An insurer seeing a leak that ran from November to March may argue the damage built up over time. A clear log of the shut-down, the key holder’s checks and a detection report giving the cause and location is your best answer to that. Our guide on how to claim on home insurance for a water leak sets out what the insurer will ask for.
Before you lock up: the checklist
- Stopcock closed, taps opened, toilets flushed.
- Heating set to frost protection, or system drained down by a plumber.
- Washing machine and dishwasher valves closed, hoses checked for bulging.
- Outside tap isolated and drained, hose disconnected.
- Meter and boiler gauge photographed on the day you leave.
- Key holder briefed with the list above and your plumber’s number.
- Policy unoccupancy conditions read and the inspection interval diarised.
- Welcome folder updated with the stopcock location for the first spring guests.
Frequently asked questions
Should I turn the water off when I leave my holiday home for the winter?
Yes. Close the internal stopcock, open the taps to release the pressure and flush the toilets. With no mains pressure behind it, a fault in the pipework cannot flood the house. Check first whether anything in the property needs a live supply, such as a boiler that tops itself up from the mains.
Is it better to drain down or leave the heating on?
If the house will be visited over the winter, a frost setting on the heating with the water off is usually enough and keeps the building drier. If it will stand empty with no visits, a plumber draining the system down removes the freezing risk entirely. Check what your insurance policy requires.
How often should someone check an empty holiday home?
Follow your policy first, as many set an inspection interval for unoccupied property. Every two to four weeks is common. Ask the key holder to photograph the water meter and boiler gauge, look at ceilings and under the sink, and report a musty smell or the sound of water straight away.
Does turning the stopcock off protect against frozen pipes?
No. It removes mains pressure but leaves water standing in the pipes, which can still freeze and split. Either keep the heating on a frost setting so the house never gets cold enough, or have the system drained down so there is nothing left in the pipes to freeze.
What if the meter moves while the house is empty and the stopcock is closed?
Either the stopcock is not shutting fully or there is a leak on the supply pipe between the meter and the house. Close the outside stop valve at the boundary, note both readings, and arrange leak detection before anyone digs, because a wet patch on the lawn is a clue to the area rather than the exact point.
Leak in an empty property?
If the meter has moved or the ceiling is stained and nobody has been in for weeks, we can locate the leak and send the report to you wherever you are. Marked repair point for your plumber, insurance-ready report for your claim.
