Making sure your rental property is ready for Winter means you’ll be able to keep the warmth in, save money, and protect your home in the cold months ahead. With this checklist, you can help us/your landlord detect minor faults and prevent unexpected heating outages in your home.

Winter Property Checklist

Heating

You can do some simple checks to make sure your heating is ready for Winter:

• Check the boiler’s pilot light is on.
• Check all radiators are working correctly. If you need to bleed radiators, you can do this yourself or hire a professional to do it for you.

Insulation

Your insulation needs to be efficient to enable you to keep the heat in.

• Check draught-proof covers around letterboxes and keyholes.
• Check door and window frames for damage and report a repair if necessary.

Garden & Outdoor Areas

Gardens and outdoor areas tend to become neglected during the Winter months. To minimise damage to the property caused by infrequent use, please:

• Trim brushes and prune trees if appropriate.
• Rake up any fallen leaves.
• If you have an outdoor tap with an isolation valve, close it to help prevent pipes freezing and bursting.

Property Exterior

The dry (or drier!) months are a good opportunity to check the property before the wet and cold weather really sets in. If you can’t access certain windows or gutters safely, please hire a professional to do so.

• Check for peeling paint which can be a sign of moisture penetrating the building.
• Check pipes, drains, and guttering to make sure they’re clear and properly affixed. Report issues as necessary.
• Clean windows.
• Make sure any vents are not obstructed.
• Check exterior lights are working correctly.

Did you find any issues?

If your property suffers any damage at any time and your tenancy is managed by us, please make sure you report the issue via the “Report Maintenance” button on our website as soon as possible. The reactive repairs portal will guide you to report a repair with the required details, and will ask you to add photos, too. This means that in most cases, we will have all the details we need to diagnose the problem and help resolve your repair requests promptly.

If a contractor is needed, we will schedule a convenient time for the work to be done inside your home in accordance with appropriate health and safety measures (including considerations for coronavirus safety restrictions).

If your tenancy is managed privately by your landlord, make sure you report any issues to them straight away.

If you need to report an emergency out-of-hours maintenance issue, please call the emergency maintenance mobile number – we’ll be emailing all managed tenants this month to remind you of this number. If your call isn’t answered, please leave a voicemail and send a text message including your name, the property address, and what the problem is. We do occasionally receive cold calls to this number.  A member of McCartan staff will then call you back ASAP. If you are able to, please then also report the issue (including photos) through our website.

If your tenancy is managed privately by your landlord, ask them what the procedure for reporting maintenance out-of-hours/over Christmas is.