Many owners who left the UK in the last two years kept a home in London. Spear’s reported in October 2025 that about 70% of people selling London homes above £15 million were non-doms relocating to places such as Dubai, Milan and Monaco, and that many of them keep, or buy, a London apartment for the weeks they still spend here.

That London home now stands empty for most of the year. Three things go wrong with an empty house. All three are preventable.

1. Water

UK insurers pay out around £1.8 million every day for damage caused by escapes of water, according to the Association of British Insurers. In an occupied home someone notices a leak within hours. In an empty one it runs until the next visit. The gap between visits decides the size of the damage.

2. The insurance conditions

Standard home policies typically restrict or exclude cover once a home has been continuously unoccupied for 30 to 60 days, depending on the insurer. Allianz UK notes three further points in its 2025 guide:

Between October and April some insurers restrict cover for escape of water unless the heating is kept on.
Theft without forced entry is often not covered in an unoccupied property.
Failing to meet the policy conditions on checks and maintenance can raise the excess or invalidate a claim.

Read your own policy. The day limit and the inspection interval are written in it. Then make sure someone can prove the inspections happened: a date, a name and photographs.

3. The day count

If you left for tax reasons, the days you spend in the UK matter. Under HMRC’s Statutory Residence Test, a person who was UK resident in any of the previous three tax years is treated as resident with fewer UK ties the more days they spend here:

16 to 45 days: at least four ties
46 to 90 days: at least three ties
91 to 120 days: at least two ties
Over 120 days: at least one tie

Accommodation in the UK is one of the ties HMRC counts. Your tax adviser sets your number, not a concierge. The practical point for the house is this: your visits are short and fixed, so the house has to be ready on the day you land, and a burst pipe has to be dealt with without you flying in.

What an empty London home needs

Every week

A walk through every room, not a look through the letterbox
Heating, boiler and water checked
Post and deliveries collected
A dated record with photographs

On a calendar

Boiler, plumbing and electrics serviced before they fail
The insurer’s conditions written into the checklist, so they are met by default

At any hour

A key holder who picks up the phone at night
Contractors who are already vetted, so nobody searches for a plumber at 3am

Five questions for whoever holds your keys

How often are you inside the house, and on which day?
Do I get a dated report with photographs after each visit?
Who answers at 3am, and what do they do first?
Have you read my insurance policy, and do your visits meet its conditions?
Who lets contractors in, and who checks the work before the invoice is paid?

A porter in a managed building looks after the common parts, not the inside of your apartment. A relative or a neighbour can hold a key, but they rarely keep records an insurer will accept.

How ELVIT looks after an empty home

Vacant home care is part of our property management: weekly checks, post, deliveries and insurance compliance while you are away. Boilers, plumbing and electrics are serviced on a calendar you can see. One named person is responsible for the house.

When something fails, it goes like this. A boiler stops on a Sunday. At 09:05 the housekeeper reports no hot water. She calls us, not you. At 09:40 a Gas Safe engineer is booked and on his way. At 12:30 the heating is back, and the photographs and the invoice are in your tracker. You read about it after lunch.

ELVIT has looked after London homes since 2008, from 199 Knightsbridge. Call +44 20 3355 7833 or write to info@elvit.co.uk.

Sources

This article is general information, not tax or insurance advice.

Your London Home While You Live Abroad: What It Needs, Week by Week