Home watch service in Batumi for unlet apartments: visits and photo reports

What we check at every visit

We run our home watch service in Batumi along a fixed route, so that nothing gets missed from one visit to the next. In a 1+1 apartment the round takes about an hour, and longer in a bigger one.

1. At the door we smell the air. A musty smell means damp, a sewer smell means dried-out traps. We check for a smell of burning straight away, before touching any switches.
2. We look at the consumer unit: are all the circuit breakers and the RCD switched on? After a thunderstorm the RCD sometimes trips, and the fridge you left running is standing there warm.
3. We open the main stopcock, run water through every mixer tap and the shower, pour water into the floor drain and flush the toilet. We inspect the flexible hoses under the sink and behind the toilet, and the floor under the washing machine and the water heater.
4. We check the ceiling below the upstairs neighbours' bathroom and kitchen, the corners of the outside walls, the window reveals, and the wall behind the wardrobe and the bed.
5. Windows and balcony: the casements are shut, the sill and the threshold are dry, and the balcony drain isn't blocked with leaves and sand.
6. We photograph the electricity, water and gas meters and collect the post and any notices left under the door.
7. Before leaving we turn the water off again and leave only the circuits named in the contract live, such as the dehumidifier and the router.

Repairs are not part of home watch. If something needs fixing, we tell you what we found and what it will cost to put right, and a tradesman comes on a separate call-out.

The report after a visit: photos from the same spots

At the first inspection we choose the photo points: the bathroom and kitchen ceilings, the corners by the windows, the wall behind the wardrobe, the space under the sink, the consumer unit, the meters. At every visit we photograph them from the same place and at the same angle. With the pictures side by side, a patch the size of a coin is noticeable straight away, not once it has spread across half the wall.

On the day of the visit you receive on WhatsApp:

• photos from each point and a short video of the whole apartment;
• the humidity in each room, measured with a hygrometer;
• the meter readings;
• photos of the post and of any building notices;
• our notes: what we found and what we suggest, with a price if work is needed.

The meter readings work as an alarm. We record the water meter twice: when we arrive, and after we have turned off the stopcock before leaving. Between visits the figure should not move. If it has gone up, the stopcock is letting water through and the water is going somewhere, most often through a leaking cistern valve. A jump in electricity usually means that something which should be off has been left on, the water heater for example.

Damp, mould and sun in a closed-up apartment

We record the humidity in the report at every visit, and we decide what to do based on how it changes. If the figure rises from visit to visit, or a wardrobe against an outside wall has started to smell, airing alone won't do. You need a dehumidifier that drains into the sewer pipe, and while it is still warm outside, an air conditioner in dry mode helps too. Which dehumidifier to choose and where to put it is covered on the page about dealing with damp in an apartment.

Belongings are the first to take on damp: leather shoes and bags, books, the mattress, clothes in a wardrobe against an outside wall. So at each visit we open the wardrobes and check for any smell, and while you are away we keep the internal doors open so that air moves through the whole apartment.

We photograph the first spots of mould close up, wipe them off and note them in the report, and at the next visit that is the first place we look. If the patch has come back, we look for the cause: a cold corner, a leak or ventilation that isn't working.

In summer it is the sun that harms a closed-up apartment. On the south and west sides, behind closed windows, floors, curtains and upholstery fade, so we keep the curtains and blinds drawn.

If we find a problem at a visit

What happens next depends on how urgent it is. A leak, a smell of burning or a window blown open by a storm don't wait for your reply: our staff member turns off the water or the circuit, photographs everything and calls out a tradesman. How we handle such cases at night and with the neighbours is described on the page about the emergency call-out to an apartment.

Everything else we agree with you. You get photos, the cause if it is clear, and the price of the work, and then you decide: fix it now, leave it until you arrive, or keep an eye on it for the time being. The amount we can spend without approval, for example on replacing a leaking hose, is written into the contract. The receipt and the photos before and after the repair go into the report.

If water has come from above, we track down the owner of the apartment above you through reception or the building's management company and ask them to open it for an inspection. The ceiling photos dated by visit will be useful when you talk to them or to the insurer: they show when the patch wasn't there yet.

Home watch, maintenance or management

Home watch is there to spot a fault in time. Servicing appliances and repairs on the spot are not part of it, and that shows in the price. Here are the three formats side by side:

The difference shows in the small things. Under home watch, if we find a hose with rust under its braiding, we photograph it and send it to you with the price of a replacement, while a tradesman on apartment maintenance by subscription replaces it during the same visit. Home watch is often combined with paying the utility bills, since we take the meter readings at every visit anyway.

Keys, access to the building and your own visits

We take the keys against a signed handover form. We add the staff member who visits the apartment to the list kept by reception or security, and leave the manager's contact details with reception, so that if there is a leak or a smell from under the door, they call the manager rather than you. If there is a keypad lock, we get a separate code of our own, and the lock's log shows every one of our visits.

Let us know a few days before you arrive. The day before, we turn on the water, switch on the water heater and the fridge, air the apartment and take the textiles out of their covers. Cleaning before your arrival can be ordered separately. After you leave, we make the first visit a few days later: we check that the water is off, the windows are shut and no food has been left in the fridge.

If you are going away for more than a couple of months, it is worth closing the apartment up for the off-season once: turning off the water and gas, switching off the appliances, putting the textiles away. Then all the visits have to do is check.

How much a home watch service in Batumi costs

A home watch subscription costs 150–215 ₾ a month. It includes two visits with airing, checks of the water, damp, meters and post, and photos and video after each one. A one-off check without a subscription, for example before a viewing by a buyer or after a storm, costs 100–145 ₾.

Anything that goes beyond the check is paid for separately. A tradesman's call-out for minor repairs costs 69–96 ₾, with parts against receipts. Paying the utility bills and the building service charge, with a report, costs 48–72 ₾ a month, and the bills themselves are paid with your money. For owners whose biggest worry is leaks, we recommend turnkey leak protection: motorised valves, three or four sensors and a hub for 1,200–1,560 ₾. It turns off the water by itself, without waiting for our visit.

Within the range, the price depends on the journey to the apartment, its floor area and the number of bathrooms and balconies. We name the final cost after the first inspection, once the visit schedule has been agreed.