The problem is not finding the tradesman. It is letting them in.

The building trade around the Bay is good and structurally overstretched. Demand has outstripped supply for years: sustained new construction, second-home renovation, high expectations, and a seasonality that concentrates everything between March and October.

In that context an absent owner is a poor client. Not as a judgement: as arithmetic.

I. Why you are a difficult client, seen from the trade

Put yourself in their position for a minute.

You are reachable by email, with a lag. You cannot open the door. You cannot point at the problem, which multiplies the back-and-forth. You want a precise quotation for a fault they have not yet seen. You will not be there to sign off. And you pay, generally properly, but afterwards.

Facing them are ten live jobs within twenty minutes, with clients who are present and decide on the spot.

The tradesman is not ignoring you out of carelessness. They allocate their time rationally, and your job costs them the most friction for the same revenue.

II. The four problems, and what solves them

Finding, before you need to

The worst moment to look for a roofer on the Bay is the day after a storm. The best is a Tuesday in February when everything is fine.

Build your list outside an emergency, giving each trade a modest job, paid without argument. You test responsiveness, quality and invoicing. And above all, you enter the client file — a status that changes everything on the day of the emergency.

The sources that actually work: recommendations from long-established neighbours, firms already working on houses in the street, and local builders' merchants, who know perfectly well who does good work and who pays their bills.

Giving access

This is the logistical knot, and it has only three solutions.

The coded key safe. Simple, inexpensive, and to be handled carefully: the code circulates, the box stays in place for years, and it signals to anyone who can read it that a key is at that spot. Reserve it for cases where you can change the code after each use.

The smart lock. Temporary codes, an access log, remote revocation. It is the best technical answer, subject to a reliable power supply and a mechanical backup.

A trusted third party. Somebody with a key, a written mandate, present at the appointment. It is the only solution that also allows the problem to be shown, questions to be answered, work to be checked and unsatisfactory work refused.

The first two open the door. The third opens the door and looks.

Comparing quotations at a distance

Three quotations remains the rule, however tiresome to obtain. The gap between the first quote received and the best of three commonly runs between fifteen and thirty per cent on routine work.

For them to be comparable they must cover the same scope. That is rarely the case spontaneously: each firm describes things its own way. The solution is to write a short statement of need yourself — what must be done, what is excluded, access and timing constraints — and send it to all of them. You then get aligned quotations.

Check systematically: the mention and validity of ten-year liability insurance, the breakdown of materials and labour, the timescale, the payment terms, and what is not included.

Signing off

This is the step people sacrifice, and it is the one that costs most later.

A proper sign-off means checking on site that the work matches the quotation, photographing before access is reinstated, testing whatever should be tested, and recording any reservations in writing.

Without sign-off there are no reservations, therefore no start date for the warranties, therefore no easy recourse six months later when the defect appears.

A remote owner has three options: travelling — often disproportionate; asking the firm for a dated photographic record, which is better than nothing but remains self-assessment; or having a third party sign off who has the competence to say no.

III. The calendar, an underrated weapon

Around the Bay, trade seasonality is pronounced. From March to October firms are saturated, lead times stretch and prices firm up. From November to February they are looking for work.

A job planned in January costs less, happens faster and receives more attention than a job started in June.

The paradox of second homes is that their owners ask for work in July, when they are on site and see the problems. That is precisely the worst moment.

Reversing that logic — notice in summer, decide in September, execute in winter — is probably the simplest saving available in the whole business of running a holiday house.