Canadian Home Watch Month

First Annual Canadian Home Watch Month

It is September already and it has been a very busy summer. There are so many things to tend to, like irrigation, gardens, HVAC systems, window cleaning, pressure washing, storm system cleanings, and a full home watch calendar with vacationers coming and going.

September marks the First Annual Canadian Home Watch Month, and I would like to take this opportunity to talk about why that is significant. September in the North and especially in Canada, means its time to prepare for winter. We are gathering wood, checking window and door seals, changing furnace filters, cleaning gutters, harvesting the gardens and getting them ready for winter, changing tires, putting summer toys away, and hunkering down.

September is also a great opportunity to educate people in Canada about the importance of having a professional home watch company watch over their home while they are away. The best way to educate is through experience. Here are some of the stories of why I started my Canadian home watch company, Moore Than Maintenance.

My closest friend was having issues with her insurance company as they were requiring new siding installed on her outbuildings, the deck resealed, new railings on the stairs to the home, and loose brush cleaned up around the property for forest fire prevention. They were given a time frame to get all of this done, and I helped where I could.

Another acquaintance was in the process of retiring and moving from Calgary, Alberta to Cranbrook, BC. Their insurance company knew they were in the moving process as the new home was recently insured. They left the BC home on a Sunday and returned on a Thursday with another load of their belongings. They never thought of turning off their water for the four days they would be gone, and had a pipe burst near the hot water tank. They discovered a couple of feet of water in their basement. They went to their insurance company to start a claim and was asked when the last time they were in their home. The homeowner told them Sunday, and their claim was denied as their insurance policy states that someone needed to be in the home or checking on the home within every seventy-two hours.

Another fellow I know left his home to visit friends in the Okanagan for two weeks and returned to find squatters had moved into his vacant rental on his property. It took him over eight months to get them removed.

My sister was visiting me a few years back and returned to a tree in her garage. It had fallen in a windstorm. She had no idea how long it had been there as she has rural property. She lost a lot of family heirlooms, small equipment and memories, not just from the fallen tree, but the weather that followed and the rodents who moved in quickly and easily.

It was clear to me that there should be a way that people can have someone looking in on their property while they are away. I mentioned this in my virtual book club and one of my American friends said that it was very common in the USA and they call it Home Watch. After some investigation and a whole lot of research, I discovered the National Home Watch Association.

The National Home Watch Association is an organization that keeps home watch professionals vetted for the highest standards, practices and training to bring the homeowners peace of mind that their home is being cared for by the best home watch companies globally. It is my honor to hold the accreditation with the National Home Watch Association. It states that I am police checked, my insurances are thorough, and my training is ongoing in every area of a customer’s home. I also have a support system of retired plumbers, electricians, pool techs, security personnel, and maintenance managers who have started their own home watch businesses.

Moore Than Maintenance Home Watch Services is an important service in our beautiful tourist town nestled in the West Kootenays. We have a large community of travelers, snowbirds, vacation rentals, Air BnB and VRBO properties. We also have a large population of retirees that move into retirement homes and need to sell their larger homes. These properties also need to be checked regularly through the sale process. September is our awareness month.

At Moore Than Maintenance, we really do take care of your home as if it is our own.