When your holiday lodge is left without an occupant for 60 consecutive days or more you must ensure that a responsible person is appointed to supervise and check the property both internally and externally at least once every 30 days. And when your holiday lodge is left without an occupant for 60 consecutive days, valuables are excluded from your insurance.

Between 1st November and 31st March both days inclusive, if your holiday lodge is left without an occupant for more than 48 hours you must drain down the entire water system as a precaution to prevent freezing and any potential damage this may cause.

If your holiday lodge has a sealed heating system containing antifreeze then this does not need to be drained down but antifreeze levels checked annually and particularly prior to the period of unoccupancy.

In addition all water tanks must be emptied by leaving both hot and cold taps fully open with plugs removed throughout your holiday lodge. Or If you wish to leave the water supply turned on between 1st November and 31st March both days inclusive, you must ensure:
• The entire lodge benefits from a heating system being gas or oil fired central heating or a geothermal or full electric system (not night storage heaters), fitted with automatic controls and a separate thermostat. The system must be set to operate continuously for 24 hours of each day (not controlled by a timing device) and the thermostat set to not less than 13 degrees Celsius and all internal doors must remain open throughout the holiday lodge and where fitted the loft hatch left open.

Or • If the heating system as described above is installed and additionally fitted with a ‘frost stat’ that is designed and installed to override all the heating controls, irrespective of their functional status, then this may be set to operate at no less than 4 degrees Celsius.