Winter Weather Readiness Checklist

Who this is for

The jobs worth doing before the cold sets in, in three short lists you tick and keep. Heating and water, the outside of the building, what happens if the power goes, and the practical business of getting about. No temperature, date or interval appears on it — the timing is yours.

Households in places that get a real winter, owners of an older or exposed property, landlords preparing a let before the season, and anyone who spent last January ringing a plumber.

What this helps you track

• What has been checked on the heating, hot water and pipework
• Which outside jobs are done and which are still waiting
• What you hold for a power cut, and where it is kept
• Which vehicle and access jobs have been dealt with
• The numbers worth having written down before you need them

How to use it

1. Write the address, whose list it is, the winter it covers and the date you started working through it.
2. Go down the four lists and tick what is done; cross out anything your property does not have.
3. Add your own items on the blank lines — the outside tap, the pipe in the loft, the gate that freezes, the relative you check on.
4. Write dates and names in the margin where a job was arranged, so next year you know who did it.
5. Keep the sheet where you will see it, and print a fresh one next winter; on screen, ticks save in your own browser.
6. Follow the advice of your own suppliers and local authority on the day — this is a list of jobs, not a weather plan.

Formats

• Printable PDF (A4 and US Letter)
• Fillable PDF with form fields
• Fill in online, saved in your browser

The printable is laid out inside a box that fits both A4 and US Letter, so the two files are identical and neither one is scaled. The fillable PDF has real form fields. The online version keeps what you enter in your own browser and builds the completed PDF on your device.

How to print

Download the A4 or US Letter file to match the paper in your printer, open it in a PDF reader and print at 100% — not "fit to page", which shrinks the writing space. Both files leave a 14 mm margin, which clears the unprintable edge on home printers. To print the online version with your entries in it, use the Print this sheet button, which prints only the sheet and none of the page around it. More on printing.

Questions

When should I start working through it?

Whenever suits your property and your part of the world. The sheet carries no date, no temperature and no deadline, because the winter in one place is not the winter in another.

Does it tell me what to set the heating to?

No. Nothing on this sheet states a temperature, a setting or a running time. Those come from your own installer, your supplier and anyone who has advised you about the people living in the house.

Is it for a house or a flat?

Both, with items that will not apply to either crossed out. A flat has fewer outside jobs; a house has more. The blank lines are there because no printed list fits a particular building.

What about the car?

There is a short list here for access and getting about, and the winter driving kit checklist covers what goes in the vehicle itself in more detail.

Can a landlord use it?

Yes, as a record of what was looked at before the season. What a landlord is obliged to do is set by the rules where the property is, and this sheet states none of them.