Winterising your UK holiday or second home: what you need to know
October 8, 2025If you own a holiday or second home in the UK, you’ll be more than aware of the pleasure in sunny summer afternoons relaxing the day away. And as autumn is upon us now, you’ll need to prepare the property for the coming winter – not least by checking that your UK holiday home insurance remains up to date and as appropriate as ever.
It’s during the winter months, of course, that any holiday or second home is exposed to greater perils and risks of loss or damage. By preparing well for this challenging season, you can help mitigate those risks.
Why unoccupied properties face higher risks
Holiday home insurance typically recognises that your second home faces higher risks than your main home. Why is that?
The critical difference, of course, is that you do not live there – the property is for occasional holiday use by you, your family, or short-term tenants. For potentially lengthy periods of the year, it may remain unoccupied.
An empty property is more vulnerable – especially during the quiet winter months – to the unwanted attentions of burglars and other intruders. What’s more, an otherwise simple maintenance problem can quickly develop into a full-blown emergency if there is no one there to spot the issue.
Heating, water, and energy precautions
Winter can be a punishing season for any building, but your unoccupied holiday home may be more than usually vulnerable. When temperatures plummet, there may be the risk of burst pipes, while the unaired property might develop damp and mould.
For reasons such as these, you may find that your second home insurance provider makes it a condition that an ambient level of heating is maintained throughout the winter months and/or that the water is turned off – so it is important you understand what your obligations are.
Security measures for an empty property
A quietly remote location might have been one of the major attractions when choosing to buy your holiday or second home.
But that relative isolation may prove a distinct disadvantage when the property is vacant during the winter months. It doesn’t even have to be in a remote location for a property standing empty on its own is almost certain to be a magnet for thieves, vandals, and other potential intruders.
Locks on all the doors and windows, plus all reasonable security measures – including burglar or intruder alarms – are all priority considerations.
Protecting against damp and weather damage
Wind, rain, ice, and snow may all wreak havoc on the fabric and structure of your holiday home. Keeping them out will be the most effective way of protecting the building during the winter months.
Weather damage and the ingress of rainwater and damp can be kept at bay by ensuring that your property is kept in a good state of repair – likely to be an underlying condition of any holiday home insurance policy.
Regular checks and maintenance
Whatever resources you bring to bear in preparing your holiday or second home for winter and however thoughtful the precautions you take, the property will need regular checks and inspections to ensure that everything remains wind and watertight. It may typically also be a condition of your holiday home insurance that you (or a representative) make these checks and logs them.
A combination of regular visits and a maintenance schedule that keeps your home in an optimum state of repair will help protect your investment throughout the harshest of winters.
Checking your holiday home insurance policy for unoccupancy clauses
The critical background to all these preparations is an up-to-date holiday home insurance policy that you keep under review to ensure that it continues to provide the safeguards as and when the property needs them.
Your holiday home will probably be used only occasionally, and the likelihood is for significant periods when it will stand empty and unoccupied. Therefore, you might want to pay particular attention to your insurer’s terms and conditions relating to the cover provided when the property is unoccupied.
Peace of mind this winter
Careful preparation for the challenges of the coming wintry weather and an informed review of your existing holiday home insurance policy may help to give you extra peace of mind for the safety of your second home.
At Alan Blunden Insurance Brokers, we’re here to make sure you have the most appropriate insurance protection in place. We can review your current cover, explain any unoccupancy conditions in plain English, and help you find the policy that suits your needs. If you’d like us to take a closer look at your UK holiday home insurance before winter sets in, just get in touch – we’ll be happy to help.
Disclaimer: This article is for general information only and does not constitute advice. UK holiday home insurance policies vary, and cover may be subject to specific conditions or exclusions. Always check your own policy documents and speak directly to your insurance provider or broker to confirm the terms that apply to your property.