Work
Six months in another city, with the Calgary house still yours.
Long enough to be a genuine vacancy, short enough that selling makes no sense, and frequently extended at the last minute.
Typical duration
Three to eighteen months, usually extended
Notice you get
Often short
Contactable?
Yes, and in a working time zone
Dominant risk
Insurance classification, and drift
A temporary assignment — three months, six months, a year — leaves a property in an awkward middle. Too long to treat as a holiday, too short to justify selling or letting, and often decided at short notice by an employer.
The most consistent complication is extension. Assignments get extended, sometimes repeatedly, and a six-month arrangement quietly becomes eighteen months without a single decision being made about the house.
Some owners let the property during the posting, which turns it into a tenancy question rather than a vacancy one. Others leave it furnished and empty, which is squarely a vacancy — and one their insurer should be told about.
What makes this different
Every situation on this site is empty for a reason. These are the things specific to this one.
Set by an employer, not by choice
Notice is often short and the end date is not the owner's to control.
Extension is the norm
Arrangements should be open-ended rather than tied to a date that will move.
Fully furnished and fully vacant
Belongings all present, nobody there, utilities running — the classic unoccupied-versus-vacant question for an insurer.
What typically goes wrong
- An assignment extending well past the original arrangement
- The property crossing an insurance threshold nobody is watching
- A full house of belongings in an empty building for a year
- Corporate relocation packages that cover the destination and nothing at the origin
Services
What this situation usually involves
In roughly the order people add them.
Vacant Home Checks
Scheduled physical visits to an unoccupied property, with a timestamped photo record and a written report after every visit.
Departure Preparation
A structured walkthrough before you leave that sets the property up for vacancy and records its baseline condition.
Mail & Package Checks
Mail and parcels collected, brought inside and organised to your written instructions, with notification of anything that looks important.
Maintenance Coordination
When something needs fixing, the right trade is sourced, scheduled, given access and documented — with your authorisation at every step.
Seasonal Property Care
Property care that changes with the Alberta seasons — freeze risk in winter, meltwater in spring, hail in summer, winterisation in fall.
Need someone at the house?
Tell us what the property needs. Direct services throughout Greater Calgary.