Lay My Hat

Hi everyone!
Great forum, just what we've been looking for!

We are about to complete the purchase of our first holiday home and I wonder if any of you could help with 1 or 2 queries?

The cottage is a small 2 bed semi detatched in a picturesque Scottish village in Ayrshire. We live quite some distance away therefore will need someone to look after the cleaning/change overs. How much should we be paying this person and how? ie, straight into their bank account on each booking??

The other immediate querie I have is about insurance. I'm just about to ring Schofield's (recommended in the forum) and I'm not sure whether I will need to take out extra theft cover. Has anyone ever had any experience of guests leaving windows open or the like and had things go missing? Included in their normal cover Schofields will only insure for theft if there has been a physical break-in to the property.

Many thanks!

Welcome Tuzi,

Hope you enjoy the forum & become an addict like most of us.

Cant tell you how much a cleaner in England would charge we pay about £40 a house in Spain.

I am interested in your other question though.
I think that there has to be some sort of breakin to be covered but Im going to watch the answers.

Thanks Ros, a good start!

I shall wait with baited breath too!

I don't know how much you would pay a caretaker/cleaner I pay my young lad that does my cottages £6 per hour , but I do work with him he has no responsibility for the end result ...sorry forgot to say I am in Aberdeenshire.
I can't help on insurance either...sorry as mine , whilst I only have the 2 cottages runs on the same insurance as the hotel, but there are specialist self-catering policies they put them out from the agents from time to time , but I just chuck them in the bucket, so can't name them.

Hello and welcome Tuzi,

We pay ours £10 p/hr for a 5 bed home, which works out v. similiar to our French one. As yours would also be caretaking for a 2 bed, it would be a fair rate of pay.
Sorry cant help with insurance, have you tried the PO, a friend of ours does B@B in the village got good cover from them.

Good luck, what part of Ayrshire is your place? We live quite close.

Thanks for the replies guys!

We sort of reckoned on paying between £6 and £8 p/hr. Not sure at this stage if we can quite run to a tenner?
Still unsure as what to do about the extra theft cover on insurance so still eagerly awaiting any advice?

Johnel,
It's always been a dream of ours to own a holiday home but ironically this cottage was purchased as a permanent home for us to live in. Unfortunately my husbands relocation to Scotland with work is looking to be somewhat delayed so we've thought that being in such a beautiful area, in the meantime we could try it out as a holiday let which will hopefully help pay for itself. It's in Barr, about 7 miles inland from Girvan. Are you far away?

Regards,
Tuzi

ps.....

I'll try the PO for insurace, thanks. Also thanks for the welcome!
Tuzi

Hi Tuzi

I wouldnt pay too much to begin with as its easier to increase if your happy with someone than to try to pay less.

Would you also expect them to be keyholders[In Spain you have to have someone near by with a key for access]

I pay my cleaner Paula an extra 300 euros a year to hold the keys [She checks the place over at least once a week]

You really should have someone nearby keeping an eye as well,

To Turn the water off if it gets really cold and the house isnt being used that sort of thing[especially in Scotland]

Also make sure that your insurance is aware that the house might be empty for long periods.

Tuzi,

Nobody wants to pay over the odds for anything but always remember the old maxims:-

“If you pay peanuts you’ll get monkies.� And

“If you buy cheap, you’ll buy twice.�

Regarding property and contents insurance – you should (must) declare the property as a rental property. Long periods of non-occupancy are integral features of such policies. They tend to be a little more expensive than normal policies but why risk a rejection of a claim because you hadn’t been totally honest with your insurers in the first place?

Fluffy

Very useful advice, thank you Ros and Alan, or should I call you Fluff for short?!

Insurance-wise we're pretty sure that we're going to go with Schofields. They say that there is no penalty for any amount of time that the property may lay vacant - aslong as it is furnished for habitation. The thing that concerned us with Schofields was that their policy for holiday home cover seems too good to be true. I've since spoken with my regular insurance broker and he is quite happy for me to go with them. He has read through their policy details and has said that like for like, he would not be able to better it! However, he said that we would only be covered for theft if there has been a break in which is why we're now wondering if it is worth us taking out any extra cover for any other means of loss due to theft?

Tuzi

Tuzi,

I'm known as "Fluffy" here because of a thread about tumble drying -v- line drying. Actually, I love being called Fluffy because that's the name of my favourite Burmese cat. He's absolutely gorgeous and I live in reflected glory.

My wife Joan calls me “Boo� so when anyone calls me “Alan� I know I’m in trouble.

Sad isn’t it?

Fluffy

Hi Tuzi,
Here are two of the best agents dealing in self catering insurance. www.jlmorris.co.uk and www.schofields.ltd.uk These are both recommended by ASSC which is the Association of Scottish Self Caterers, well woth joining if you are intending operating self catering in Scotland, their site is www.assc.co.uk. If I can be of any help to you, have a look at my site www.dalhougal.com Hope you get everything set up to your satisfaction. Buckie Aitken.

Tuzi wrote:It's in Barr, about 7 miles inland from Girvan. Are you far away?Regards,Tuzi

Were 30 mns from Prestwick airport, so probably just over an hour from Barr. Love the coastline there, excellent choice, very close to Turnberry and many other golf courses and stricking distance to Gretna to the east, very touristy and great for golfers.

Hi Alan

I thought you were called Fluuf after Alan Freeman the DJ wasnt he called Fluff?

"My wife Joan calls me “Boo� so when anyone calls me “Alan� I know I’m in trouble"
(I have had to edit this because I messed up the copying of the quote bit -sorry all)



oooh, Alan you are really showing your fluffy side now.

In answer to the question of Schofields, we are insured with them for our house in spain, for me it was also the fact that they don't have a clause about being unoccupied for xx weeks that swung the balance... and the rest of their contract looks pretty reasonable too. But as yest, we havent had to test their mettle by making a claim.

Has anyone here needed to test that one out with Schofields....