Key takeaways
- Keep the driveway and walk plowed: a buried drive tells everyone the house is empty.
- Read your policy’s vacancy and freeze provisions, and get your agent’s answer in writing.
- Set the heat no lower than 55°F, or shut off and drain the water.
- USPS Hold Mail stops at 30 days; longer trips need forwarding.
On this page
Why keep plowing a house nobody is living in?
- An unplowed driveway says nobody is home. A week of snow with no tire tracks is easy to read from the street, which is why police vacation checklists commonly include having the walk and driveway shoveled.
- Someone may need to get in fast. A burst pipe, a furnace failure or an alarm brings a plumber, a firefighter or an officer to the door.
- Whoever checks the house needs a safe path, not packed snow over ice.
- The sidewalk rules still apply. Sterling Heights, for one, requires sidewalks to be cleared within 24 hours after a snowfall ends, whether or not anyone is home. See sidewalk snow ordinances.
Service that dispatches automatically past a written trigger means nobody has to watch the weather from out of state. At Macomb Lawn & Snow Solutions, every property past the 2-inch trigger is dispatched without a call, and the storm-start text reaches your phone wherever you are.
What does your homeowners insurance expect while you are gone?
Read your own policy before you leave, and call your agent with your dates. Two provisions matter most:
| Provision | What the sample standard policy says | What to ask your agent |
|---|---|---|
| Vacancy | Vandalism and glass breakage are not covered once the dwelling has been vacant more than 60 consecutive days | How my policy defines vacant or unoccupied, and after how many days coverage changes |
| Freezing | Freeze damage to plumbing and heating is covered only if you used reasonable care to keep the heat on, or shut off the water and drained the systems | Which of those my policy requires, and whether it names a temperature |
The sample standard policy is the ISO HO-3 homeowners form, published as a sample by the Insurance Information Institute. Your policy may differ.
Get the answers in writing. An email from the agent is enough.
What should you set the thermostat to?
No lower than 55°F. That is the American Red Cross minimum for a house left in cold weather, and it should stay the same day and night. In its severe-cold guide, the Insurance Information Institute suggests 65°F, because the spaces inside the walls, where pipes run, are much colder than the wall surfaces.
Heat is only half a plan, because furnaces fail. For a long absence, the Institute suggests having the water system drained by a professional, and the sample policy treats shutting off and draining the water as the alternative to keeping heat. At the least, show your house-checker where the main water shutoff is, and close the inside valves to the outdoor faucets and drain them, as the Red Cross advises.
What about the mail?
USPS Hold Mail keeps mail at your post office for 3 to 30 days. For longer trips, USPS points you to a forwarding service: Premium Forwarding Service Residential packs up your mail at your local post office and ships it to you weekly by Priority Mail, for a fee. A full mailbox sends the same signal as a buried driveway.
Who should check on the house?
- A local contact with a house key who walks through regularly, checks the thermostat, and looks for leaks and ice. The Insurance Information Institute suggests asking a neighbor to check the house regularly any time you are away.
- A police vacation check. Some Macomb County departments will watch an empty house. Sterling Heights takes requests online and asks for your dates, where a key is kept, whether lights will be left on and which cars stay in the driveway. Ask your own department.
- Your snow company, which should have the local contact's name and number.
What should your snow company know before you leave?
- Your dates, and a local contact who can deal with a problem a crew finds: a branch across the drive, a door standing open, a car across the apron.
- Whether a car stays in the driveway, and where. Park it at the top, not across the apron; see do I need to move my car.
- Stakes, in before you go. Mark the edges and anything fragile before the ground freezes, because nobody will be home to point them out. See driveway markers.
- The walk and steps. Ask for them to be cleared, and treated when icy, so the person checking the house and anyone delivering does not fall. Salting is often priced separately.
- The contract type. A seasonal agreement fixes the winter's cost; automatic per-visit service needs no decisions either. See seasonal vs per-push.
Sources
- American Red Cross: frozen pipes — heat no lower than 55°F when away in cold weather
- Insurance Information Institute: the homeowner’s severe cold weather survival guide
- Insurance Information Institute: sample homeowners policy, ISO HO 00 03 — freezing and 60-day vacancy provisions
- USPS: Hold Mail — 3 to 30 days
- City of Sterling Heights: police vacation checks
Written by the Macomb Lawn & Snow Solutions team in Macomb Township, Michigan. We plow and salt homes and businesses across all 26 Macomb County communities, November 15 to April 15. Published October 5, 2026. About us · How we research these guides · How our dispatch works