The charter.

Owners hand us their keys and live a thousand kilometres away. This charter states what that gesture commits us to do, and what we refuse to do. It is public so that anyone can check that we live up to it.

1. Every visit leaves a record

   Every visit follows a checklist drawn up for that property and ends with a dated photo report sent to the owner, including and above all when everything is fine. What is not documented was not done.

2. Observe, inform, let the owner decide

   When we discover a problem, we record it, document it and inform the owner, who decides. We only act without their approval when damage is actively getting worse; we then alert them at once.

3. No question we should already know the answer to

   What an owner has already told us is kept in their house logbook. We do not ask again for their preferences, their codes or their habits: disturbing them for something we ought to know is a professional failing.

4. The quote before the expense

   No cost is incurred on an owner's behalf without being announced and accepted first. No extra charge appears on an invoice unless it was announced before the work.

5. Known, vetted professionals

   Every tradesperson and contractor we bring into a house is identified, chosen by us, and their insurance is verified. Nobody enters a house without us knowing who, when and why.

6. Discretion as the default

   We never mention a name, an address or any detail that could identify a property or its owner: not in public, not in private, not in our publications. What we see inside a house does not leave it.

7. Bad news first

   Damage, a delay, a mistake, including our own, is reported to the owner as soon as we know of it, with the facts and what we propose. An owner can forgive a problem; they do not forgive learning about it late.

8. Interests declared

   When we recommend a contractor, a service or a company we have a connection with, that connection is disclosed. The owner always knows where we stand, and remains free to choose someone else.

9. The owner's data belongs to the owner

   Their house logbook brings together its history, its photographs, its documents and the work carried out. They can consult it, and if they leave us, they take it with them. We keep their data for the duration of the relationship and handle it in accordance with European law.

10. We only take on what we know how to do well

    A property too far away, a request outside our expertise, a workload that would degrade the service to the properties already in our care: we decline. Every house we accept is a house we can answer for.

What we never do

• Let an owner discover a problem on their own.
• Invoice an extra charge that was not announced.
• Let someone we do not know into a house.
• Publish, or let anyone guess, where the owners we look after live.
• Invent a review, a figure or a reference.
• Say “it was already like that”.