Empty for months, then full for a week
That is the pattern that breaks plumbing on this coast. A villa or apartment stands unused through the winter, then takes a family in July. Six showers a day, a washing machine on twice, dishwasher after every meal.
Everything that was slowly failing while it sat empty chooses that week to fail.
This is the checklist Greg would run on a rental before the season starts — the things that actually go wrong, in the order they go wrong.
Before the first booking
Run every tap and shower, hot and cold. Not for ten seconds. For long enough that the hot water actually arrives. A heater that has sat idle can have a failed element nobody knew about.
Flush every toilet twice. The fill valve is the part that fails when a cistern sits. If it runs on after the flush, it will run on for your guests too — and they won’t report it, they’ll just leave.
Check under every sink. A dry trap is fine; a wet cabinet bottom is a leak that has been running unattended. Look at the waste connection first, it’s the usual suspect.
Open the pressure relief valve on the water heater. If water comes out, it’s working. If nothing comes out, it’s seized and it isn’t protecting anything.
The three that catch people out
Water pressure. In August, half the urbanisation is irrigating gardens and filling pools at the same time. Pressure drops. A shower that was fine in April becomes a dribble. If you know the property is on a shared supply, test it in the busy month, not the quiet one.
Toilet flush cartridges. The most common single failure in a rental. They scale up and stop sealing, so the toilet runs constantly and quietly. Greg keeps reusable cartridges and fill valves in the van for exactly this.
The washing machine hose. A braided hose that has sat under pressure for years splits, usually while nobody is there. It’s a few euros to replace and thousands in water damage if it goes.
What to leave for your guests
A note with the stop tap location, in the language they’ll read. The difference between a guest who turns the water off and a guest who panics is that one sentence.
And a number that answers. If a guest messages at nine in the evening and nobody replies, they’ll call the emergency number they found online instead — and you’ll hear about it later.
The one job worth doing before the season
Have someone run the property properly — taps, toilets, heater, under every sink — a week before the first booking. It takes under an hour and catches nearly everything on this list.
Greg does these checks across Marbella, Calahonda and the surrounding areas, and works with owners who manage from abroad. Send photos of anything that looks wrong and you’ll get a straight answer on whether it needs attention now or can wait.
