Hurricane season home watch: before, during and after

What a home watch operator should do ahead of a storm, what can realistically be done during one, and how to handle the days afterwards.

For operators in a coastal state this is the part of the year the whole service is judged on. Owners who are a thousand miles away when a storm is named remember exactly how well they were communicated with.

Before the season

Agree in writing, well ahead of time, what you will and will not do when a storm is coming. Shutters and panels are heavy, slow and occasionally dangerous work — if you are going to do them, price it separately and say how much notice you need. If you are not, say so now rather than in the week of.

Get the essentials on file for each property: whether there is a generator and where the fuel is, where the water shut-off is, whether there are shutters and where the hardware lives, and who the owner wants called if you cannot reach them.

When a storm is named

Contact every client early, before they contact you. A short message saying you are tracking it, here is what you are doing and when, is worth more than a detailed one sent late. Bring loose items in — furniture, planters, bins, anything that becomes a projectile. Confirm shutters. Photograph the property before the storm; that set of pictures is the baseline for every insurance conversation afterwards.

During

Nothing. Be honest with clients about this in advance: nobody is inspecting a property in a hurricane, and an operator promising otherwise is promising something they will not do. Setting that expectation early is what stops a frightened owner calling at two in the morning.

After

Get out as soon as it is genuinely safe and work through your list in a sensible order. Roof, windows, water intrusion, power, pool, trees. Photograph everything, including what is undamaged. Report to owners in the order they need it rather than alphabetically — the ones with visible damage first.

Expect the phone to be the job for a few days. Owners want to know before they want a report. A one-line message saying the house is intact and a full report will follow tonight is the right call.

What this is worth

Storm season is when home watch stops being a convenience and becomes the reason the customer signed up. Operators who handle one well keep those clients for years, and get referrals from neighbours who watched it happen.