Unoccupied property over winter. Drain system and heating off, or heating on at 15C?

[jamiegw]

Hello,

I am selling my late mother's house and it will be unoccupied for a few months.

The insurer has given me the option to either:
- drain the system and turn off the water
- keep the heating on at 15C

Regardless, someone should visit the property weekly (a neighbour has agreed to this)

The energy cost doesn't concern me. However the possibility of damp in the cold house does. It's a 30s semi in Bristol with loft insulation.

Does anyone have advice or experience with this?

The house has actually been unoccupied and heating off & drained since last January. From what I could see there were no damp issues after last winter.

 

[oldbutnotdead]

We had to do the same with our mother's house (stonebuilt farmhouse)- weren't given the choice of leaving heating running (equity release bunch involved). Downstairs did suffer a bit.
Since it's already off and drained down, probably leave it be- whoever eventually buys the place may get problems with seized pumps, valves etc but (cynical head on) that's a them problem- with pipework drained you don't have to worry about pipes freezing/thawing and destroying the place (big worry with gravity systems/loft pipework).