What to do to close up the house?

[Singaporeslings]

My MIL in the UK is going into hospice - we’re just waiting for a space. We live overseas and don’t have any remaining family in UK. My husband is coming back to be with her but can’t stay indefinitely.
So we’re trying to figure out what to do with her house (a semi in outer London) in the short-term and how to secure it. Not to do a full clear out right now but just locking it all up until we can come back and sort her things properly (which may be next summer). We don’t really know her neighbours and there isn’t anyone who can pop by and check the place for us.
Besides the obvious - clear the fridge and lock all windows, what else can we do to secure it, especially through the winter. Do we turn the electrics off? Keep paying council tax? She has an alarm but what if it goes off and annoys the neighbours?
we just don’t know where to start or what to think about!

You can contact the Council who should be able to advise on the council tax. Ours were incredibly helpful.

Empty properties look empty after a while, so think about how you want them to remain secure.

Insurance, you will need to get specialist empty property insurance and there are clauses (like leaving loft access open in case of fire/smoke damage).

Utilities will need sorting. I suggest you keep the heating on, on thermostat, to save issues further down the line. Also consider electricity and some times switches/smart plugs you can control remotely.

And speak to a couple of letting agents to see if they will do a pop in/management service (or can recommend someone) for you.

If there is a garden, that is the biggest giveaway the property is empty so you will need to factor that in. We paid for a gardener once a quarter to stay on top of the worst of it. And a window cleaner twice in 12 months.

Also worth considering changing locks, unless you are very certain who has spare keys.

So very sad for you. Even harder when you are overseas - it is an added layer of administrative complications.

Could you not rent it out for a year?

So sorry you're in this position, sending love and solidarity.

On the practical front, notifying the council with regards to council tax is important.

If it's going to be shut up over the winter, then I would suggest keeping the utilities on. Lack of heating can lead to damp, and potential frozen pipe issues etc. It might also be worth setting up some lights on timers to give the impression of it not being empty.

Also check if there are things like Internet or TV subscriptions.

And possibly get post diverted to yourselves if MIL is happy with that.

If I think of anything else I'll come back.

Turn the water off

give your phone number to the next door neighbours in the event they need to contact you

counil tax is not paid for probate usually, but every council is different. So inform council tax that your mil is in a hospice and whether they would not be returning home.

keep the heating set at 15 degrees

tbh id have thought getting in a storage company to remove the contents and sourcing an estate agent might be a better option. This could be sorted for after your sh left. That way the house could be sold but the contents sorted next year. This then doesn’t leave an empty house for a year

It was a condition of my mum’s insurers that we:

kept the heating on 15 degrees
kept the lawn mowed
collected the post once a week

We don’t have POA - despite pleading with her for past few years, she just refused and also wouldn’t ever discuss anything to do with her financials.
So we’ll have to pay for everything ourselves until probate is sorted.
The house has been the family home for 70 years and she kept it well but it would need work to make it rentable. We definitely wouldn’t sell it right away as this whole thing has moved quite fast at the end and DH isn’t ready to make that decision yet.

Don’t turn the water off to the whole house if you want the heating to come on. If you can isolate the water so it’s off for things like toilets then do that but yo do want the heating at a minimal level to prevent damp.

see if you can install cameras and/or an alarm that you can remote access so if it goes off you’ll be notified and can check it.

Any and all food stuffs will need to be cleared out, can you engage someone to come out periodically and neaten up any plants on the front so it doesn’t get overgrown, they only need to do a basic tidy up every couple of months, but if you let it go completely it will be obvious it’s empty. Unplug any unnecessary electricals like TV, washing machine, dishwasher etc so only the bare minimum is on. Pack up any really important things you would definitely not want to lose - photos, important documents, sentimental things. If you were to have water damage, a fire, a break in then what would you want to have saved. Get that stuff out of the house and either have him bring it back, post it back or put it into storage.

if you don’t have POA

you can tell the council tax she has moved to hospice care, but the council can’t tell you anything much

sorry but if your mil dies, which seems to be expected - then council tax can talk to you.

sorry your in this position and it’s more difficult due to her refusals

the bank should be able to release money to cover expenses. Also I found that banks would release money without probate if it was under £20k or £50k depending on their individual rules

Our situation is different as DM is 4 months post brain injury but we are dealing with her empty house from a distance so hope this helps:

we bought smart lights to put on randomly remotely.
smart cameras x5 which are accessed by phone.
insurance stipulated certain conditions - have had to move some key valuables out and onto our insurance and wanted someone staying at least every other week. At renewal they aren’t happy to continue and we have to reduce the contents valuation right down (so move out more things).
alarm system serviced and on.
fire system installed and on.
liaised with a kindly neighbour to do bins and call us. He also walks past twice daily on a dog walk.
have kept the gardener once a week.
postal redirect to us.
fridges and freezers emptied and off.

And to be honest it’s still been a mare. Every time we go something has developed. Houses don’t like being empty. Particularly old ones. You need to be able to nip problems in the bud. We’ve had any infestations and 3 different water leaks develop (and that’s with switching the water off!).

So we have now admitted defeat and have got a property management and security company helping out. They do weekly visits and allow access for tradespeople. And the security side is bringing more peace of mind. We are ‘fortunate’ in that the cost of this is being covered by the personal injury claim and we also have LPA which makes things easier, but I really would recommend getting someone in to help. It’s useful to know that we struggled finding a suitable company - in the end we went for a letting agent that we knew and discussed unique terms and then a separate security company.

But don’t underestimate how difficult it is running an empty property from a distance. It’s weird but it doesn’t take long at all for a property to look not lived in. It’s all the tiny little things that happen just by being there which you don’t even notice.

i think what @Thingamebobwotsit said was perfect. Def tell neighbours. I would also put any obvious valuables in a v safe non obvious place or take them.
What a shame for you all.

I would be worried about squatters moving in, or worse, cannabis growers. You do need someone to do regular check ups.

The house next-door to us is empty and I have the contact number for the daughter of the ppl who used to live there (they are in a care home) just to keep an eye out.

It is regularly mowed by a gardener as pp suggested.

Let the council know - I think it should be exempt due to your mil having left to receive care.

OP, could you consider house-sitters? There must be any number of students/young professionals who’d be only too happy to live in your parents’ house on a temporary basis for a nominal rent, in return for collecting post and mowing the lawn. As others have said, leaving a house empty is not to be undertaken lightly - my late DM’s house was burgled, despite kind neighbours keeping an eye out, and as others have said, problems develop, and the terms of the insurance need looking at carefully - ours stipulated that the house had to be occupied a certain number of nights per month, which we managed with difficulty. The house took far longer to sell than we had expected and in the end went for over £100,000 less than it had been valued at by three different estate agents. By that time, we were just glad to be rid of it. Sadly, an unoccupied house that you have to care for, pay utilities, keep garden in order etc etc is a millstone.

In our situation with a parent / their property , the house was empty for around 5/6 months at the very start of a winter .
They already had a gardener , who just mowed the garden once and kept the beds tidy
We kept the electrics on as had a light coming on at set times to look lived in .
Informed the insurance , and had someone call in to check post and fulfil insurance expectation .
The boiler was already unpredictable , so did a full system drain down and turned off the water .
The visitor for the post opened the windows to air the property , and then closed them a few hours later .
The house survived the winter ok and was out on the market & sold in the spring .
Like yours it had been a family home for many years .

Definitely make sure you have unoccupied insurance cover, luckily we had!

We kept dads cleaner on just paid her for 10 x hrs at a time and she just popped in once a fortnight to keep an eye and give it a quick going over- easy money for her…. Could you maybe find one local who’d do the same?

Insuaranve cost a bomb though as it was empty. We kept the heating coming on in the evenings for an hour or so in the winter and the house was still freezing and damp has appeared.

We had great neighbours though who’d let us know if anything was amis!

Speak to the neighbours. Honestly. They will be your friends. Especially if I look after an empty house at the moment and they are brilliant. I forgot to tell them about a tradesman going in today and got a message to check all was legit. There is a street WhatsApp group that I'm not in but enough people on that know who does have my number it's like having 10 property guardians!

I also pay the cleaner to go in and check on the house.

My brother lives in a similar suburban set up. Two of his neighbours have gone into care. The children didn't make contact with the existing neighbours so they are missing out. All sorts of stuff has happened - gates blowing off/ a fanlight left open letting rain etc in and no one has known how to contact them.

There is now resolution as my brother actually met his neighbour in the care home when he went into visit our elderly person and was able to make contact with the guys son. But it's been almost six months that they have missed out on neighbour protection.

I'm sorry about your MIL, OP. I assume she is not expected to return to the property in future.

Im afraid PPs are right, this situation is an absolute nightmare and can be very expensive. You cannot just switch everything off and lock the door. Once your DH arrives he will have to speak with neighbours, and/or find a trusted person to keep an eye on the place until you are in a position to sell the house. Extra worry on top of an already distressing situation but it's best that he is prepared for this.