About holiday home & second-home maintenance
Holiday home maintenance is the regular round of checks and upkeep for a property you are not living in: a weekender on the peninsula, a house let as short-term accommodation, a second home kept for family, or a city apartment used a few nights a month. A typical arrangement is a scheduled visit that walks the property inside and out, runs taps, checks for leaks and mould, clears gutters and decks, keeps the garden and pool in order, looks for storm damage and reports with photos. Each part of the work is matched to vetted tradies near the house; many owners use one maintenance tradie for the rounds and specialists for the rest.
The peninsula and the coast are hard on empty houses. Salt air from Palm Beach to Manly corrodes door furniture, hinges and outdoor fittings and leaves glass hazy within weeks. Closed-up houses in humid summers grow mould behind curtains and in wardrobes. Spotted gums and cabbage tree palms fill gutters in Avalon and Whale Beach, which matters because much of the northern peninsula, along with Terrey Hills, Duffys Forest and the bush edges of St Ives and Wahroonga, is mapped as bushfire prone. East coast lows arrive while nobody is home. Possums and rats find roof spaces. Pools at Pittwater weekenders go green in a January fortnight.
Two sets of rules shape the job. If the home is let short term, NSW requires registration on the STRA register, compliance with the fire safety standard, including interconnected smoke alarms and an evacuation diagram, and in Greater Sydney councils such as Northern Beaches, Woollahra and Waverley a non-hosted property is capped at 180 days a year; strata schemes can also ban non-hosted letting by by-law. Separately, many home insurance policies treat a house empty for more than 60 consecutive days as unoccupied, with extra excesses or conditions, so check your policy. Routine maintenance needs no licence; electrical and plumbing repairs always do.
What the job usually includes
How it works
- Tell us about the propertyDescribe the house, how often it is used, whether it is let short term, what services it has (pool, garden, solar, water tank, septic) and what worries you most. Say how often you want a visit and whether you would like one tradie to coordinate or separate quotes for each service.
- We match vetted local tradiesYour job goes to independent property maintenance tradies, gardeners and pool technicians who work where the house is and have passed identity, ABN, licence where relevant, insurance, work-history and conduct checks.
- They quote you in writingInterested tradies contact you directly and quote under their own business name. For a maintenance round the quote should list what each visit covers, how reports are delivered, the limit for small repairs done without asking, and how keys and alarm codes are held. You choose, with no obligation.
- The roundsA careful tradie follows a checklist, photographs the same points each visit, runs water and flushes toilets, checks for leaks under sinks and in the roof space after storms, clears gutters and decks, tests smoke alarms, notes corrosion and pest signs, and secures the house on the way out. Anything beyond the agreed limit is reported with options rather than done unasked.
- Between visitsRead the report, approve any quoted repairs and tell the tradie about upcoming stays or bookings. Review the schedule each season. Let us know how the match is working; feedback after each match is how tradies stay in the network.
A checklist, a photo and a phone call before a surprise
Good holiday home maintenance is systematic. The tradie keeps a checklist for the property, photographs the same gutters, ceilings, decks and pool each visit so changes are obvious, and times the heavy work to the season: gutters and bushfire clearance before summer, storm checks after an east coast low, mould inspections in late summer, pool chemistry before the school holidays. They know what the insurer expects of an unoccupied home and what a short-stay guest will notice. Small things are fixed while they are there, within a limit you set, and anything larger comes to you as a quote with photos.
Just as important is what they do not do. They do not let themselves in unannounced, lend keys to subcontractors without telling you, or run up work you did not approve. Keys and alarm codes are held securely and logged. Tradies they bring in for specialist work are introduced, and on this site every one of them has been through the same vetting. They coordinate with cleaners and booking changeovers rather than turning up mid-stay. And they are honest about limits: a maintenance tradie clears a gutter and tests a smoke alarm, but a licensed electrician replaces it and a licensed plumber fixes the leaking cistern.
Questions worth asking the tradie
Frequently asked questions
Fortnightly is common for a coastal house in summer, when storms, pool chemistry and gardens move fastest, and monthly through winter. A home let short term often gets a check at each changeover. Insurers that treat a home as unoccupied after a set number of days may expect regular inspections, so check your policy and set the rhythm to suit it.
In NSW the dwelling must be registered on the state STRA register and meet the fire safety standard, which includes interconnected smoke alarms on each level with bedrooms, an evacuation diagram and emergency information. Non-hosted properties in Greater Sydney councils, including Northern Beaches, Woollahra, Waverley, Randwick, Mosman and Ku-ring-gai, are limited to 180 days a year, with stays of 21 nights or more not counted. Strata schemes can ban non-hosted letting by by-law. Hosts must also follow the state Code of Conduct.
Many Australian policies define a home as unoccupied once it has been empty for more than 60 consecutive days, after which an extra excess or conditions may apply, and some require the insurer to be told. The number varies between insurers, so read your product disclosure statement. Regular maintenance visits, a logged key holder and photos of each visit are useful if you ever need to claim.
Rarely, and you should be wary of anyone who says so. A general property maintenance tradie can do the rounds, gutters, decks and small repairs. Pools need a pool technician, gardens a gardener, and electrical and plumbing faults a licensed electrician or plumber. We match each of those with vetted local tradies, and many owners ask the maintenance tradie to coordinate access.
Clear gutters and valleys of leaf litter, remove bark and debris from against the house and under decks, cut back shrubs touching walls and windows, keep grass short and check that hoses reach around the house. The NSW RFS publishes guidance for properties on bushfire prone land, and the 10/50 scheme may allow clearing near the home in mapped entitlement areas, which the owner can check online. Tree work beyond that needs a council permit.
A storm check looks for roof and gutter damage, water in ceilings and under sinks, fallen branches, fence damage, a pool full of debris and power that has tripped. Owners usually ask for a visit after any significant east coast low, with photos and a quote for anything that needs a roofer, electrician or arborist.
