Getting your flat ready for winter: simple checks that help

When the temperature drops, a home starts telling you things you never noticed in summer: a radiator that only half heats up, a window that lets the air in, a damp patch in the corner of the bedroom. Most of those problems are easier and cheaper to sort out in autumn than in January.

Here are the basics for getting a flat ready before the cold, and what usually falls to each side.

Radiators: bleed them before you switch on

If a radiator is warm at the bottom and cold at the top, there is almost always air trapped inside. Bleeding it is simple: open the small valve on the side, with a cloth and a container underneath, let the air out until water starts coming through, then close it. Do it with the heating off and, once you are done, check the boiler pressure in case it has dropped.

Look behind and underneath too: a radiator hidden by the sofa or draped with laundry heats far worse and uses more energy.

The boiler, serviced before the season starts

Servicing the boiler and the gas installation is usually arranged by the owner, since it is part of maintaining the property. Ask for it before the cold arrives: in the middle of a cold snap engineers are stretched thin, and a breakdown can leave you several days without hot water.

If you smell gas, see an orange flame instead of a blue one, or the boiler keeps switching itself off, do not let it slide: air the room, close the gas valve and report it.

Airing the flat even when it is cold

With the windows shut all day, the steam from showers, cooking and our own breathing stays inside and condenses on the glass and on cold walls. From there to black patches of mould is a short step.

You do not need the place wide open all day: a few minutes with the windows fully open, ideally with a draught between two of them, refreshes the air without chilling the walls. And after a shower or a cooking session, air that room with the door closed so the moisture does not spread through the rest of the flat.

If condensation appears, wipe it off as soon as you see it and pull furniture slightly away from external walls.

Draughts: strips, curtains and not much else

Before turning up the thermostat, work out where the heat is escaping. Self-adhesive draught strips on windows and doors, a strip under the front door and reasonably thick curtains make a real difference to how a room feels, cost little and come off without marks when you move out.

If a window does not close properly, the frame is out of true or the seal around the glass has perished, that is no longer a job for draught strips: it is a repair that needs reporting.

Heaters and braziers, used sensibly

Anything that burns fuel indoors deserves respect: never leave it on overnight, never near curtains, sofas or drying laundry, and always with some ventilation in the room. Electric heaters should not be plugged into multi-way adaptors or thin extension leads. And if you keep a brazier or a heater in the bedroom, switch it off before you go to sleep.

Who does what

As a general rule, the owner keeps the home liveable: the boiler, the installation, windows that close, damp coming from the structure or from a leak. The tenant looks after day-to-day use: bleeding radiators, airing the rooms, cleaning vents and the small repairs that come with normal wear.

In between there are plenty of cases that depend on what the contract says, so read it before arguing and then talk it through calmly.

Reporting early is cheaper for everyone

A dripping joint is an hour of a plumber's time; that same joint ignored for months is a lifted floor. On top of that, reporting a fault in writing, with an email or a message that stays on record, protects both sides: the tenant, because it shows they raised it, and the owner, because it lets them step in before the problem grows.

One last tip: spend an autumn afternoon walking around the flat with your phone and photograph anything that looks off, a stain, a frame that does not sit right, a cold radiator. With those photos and a well-written message, any conversation with the other side starts off a lot better.