An empty home fails quietly. Away & Okay visits weekly while you travel — mail cleared, garden watered, leaks checked, the house kept looking lived-in — with a dated photo report to your phone as proof of care.
Away & Okay is a weekly home care service for Melbourne families who travel. An empty house shows. The letterbox fills, the bins never go out, the lawn goes wild. It also fails quietly. A flexi hose drips, mould starts to form, and the small things no one is there to notice become big things.
While you're overseas, the same police-checked, insured keeper visits every week for your whole trip. They clear the mail, manage the bins, water the garden and indoor plants, and check every room for the early signs. If your keeper can't make a visit, a vetted, police-checked backup covers it, and your report tells you exactly who attended.
A timestamped photo report reaches your phone or email after every visit, and each visit is recorded in a dated inspection log you can provide to your insurer. Reports go to you and anyone you nominate. That might be adult children interstate or overseas, a relative nearby, or the friend who used to check the house for you. It's the professional alternative to asking a neighbour. No one lives in your home. It just stays yours.
One key handover before you fly. One weekly visit while you're away. One photo report to your phone after every visit. Booked in ten minutes — and your home never looks empty.
We learn your home before you leave, so a found problem can be stopped — not just reported.
One police-checked keeper for your whole trip — every room, every week, and your house keeps looking lived-in.
No musty air, no mail mountain — just your home, exactly as you left it.
Every plan includes our Find & Act protocol: your keeper can isolate the issue on the spot — every keeper knows where your water main is — and engage a licensed trade up to a spend limit you set before you leave, with photos and the invoice in your report. Anything bigger waits for your go-ahead, with the home made safe in the meantime.
Weekly pricing, only while you're travelling. No lock-in contracts — your trip length is the contract.
$69 / week
$129 / week
$199 / week
Every trip begins with a Departure Setup visit ($199, once per trip) — keys collected, home video-inventoried, water main and switchboard photographed, and a pre-departure checklist for your call to your insurer. It's included in your fixed quote and doubles as your booking deposit.
Optional add-on: fridge basics restocked before you land Basics only, from a set list: milk, eggs, bread, butter, juice and seasonal fruit. Groceries are purchased on your behalf and billed at cost — the receipt is included in your final report — plus a $25 shopping fee.
We keep our round tight so the same keeper can visit every home, every week — within about 20 minutes of Carnegie.
Just outside these suburbs? Ask anyway — if you're on our round, we'll say yes.
One consistent, accountable person — not a rotating cast of strangers.
The same police-checked, insured keeper cares for your home from key handover to homecoming. If they can't make a visit, a vetted, police-checked backup covers it — and your report always names who came.
Keys are stored off-site under a code — never labelled with your name or address. Every visit is timestamped in your log.
Police check and public liability insurance certificates shown to you at your Departure Setup, before you hand over a key — and you can see a sample inspection log right now.
Many Australian home policies treat your home differently once it sits empty for around 60 consecutive days — extra excesses, extra conditions, or a requirement to notify your insurer. A six-to-ten-week trip can cross that line without you knowing it exists. Every engagement covers all three answers:
At Departure Setup we help you locate the unoccupancy section of your own PDS and give you a checklist for your call to your insurer — so you can tell them your travel dates before you fly, informed and in writing.
Some major insurers' policies spell out what an empty home needs — lawns kept, mail managed, weekly checks inside and out. Our visit is built with exactly those conditions in mind, subject always to your own policy's terms.
Every visit is logged with dated, timestamped photos and retained for 7 years — a documented record of regular care you can provide to your insurer if you ever need to make a claim.
Read what the major insurers actually say →
General information only — policies differ, and we're not insurance advisers. Whether any record satisfies a particular policy is a matter for your policy terms and your insurer. Always check your Product Disclosure Statement or speak with your insurer about your own cover.
This service is built for adult children arranging care for Mum and Dad's home while they travel. Every report goes to anyone the owner nominates, at no extra cost — so you see every visit, wherever you are.
Two reasons. When water sits unused, the water seals in drains can dry out, letting sewer smells into the house — and water left standing in pipes for weeks isn't what you want in your first glass home. Running the taps each visit keeps the seals full and the water moving. It also lets us check under sinks and around the laundry for any sign of a leak while the water is flowing — the best moment to spot one.
The 60-day mark is about paperwork; risk starts the day the house goes quiet. A leak doesn't read your policy — a tap that starts dripping in week one of a seven-week trip has run for six weeks by homecoming, and damage that builds up slowly over time is often treated very differently by insurers than damage found and stopped within days. Weekly visits cap any problem's discovery at seven days, keep the house looking lived-in, and give you a dated record of its condition — whatever the trip length.
We stop it first and tell you fast. Your keeper isolates the water at the main, photographs everything, and messages you the same day. If a plumber is needed, we can engage one immediately up to the spend limit you agreed at your Departure Setup — you'll see photos before, during and after, and the invoice in your report. Anything bigger waits for your go-ahead, with the home made safe in the meantime.
Many Australian home policies reduce or condition cover once a home is unoccupied beyond a set period — often around 60 days. Every Away & Okay visit is logged with dated, timestamped photos, giving you a documented record of regular inspections. At your Departure Setup we help you locate your policy's unoccupancy section and give you a checklist for your call to your insurer — and we always recommend confirming details with them directly. We've also put together a plain-English guide to what the major insurers actually say, with document references.
One dedicated, police-checked, insured keeper — the same person on every visit, for your whole trip. Keys are stored off-site under a code and never labelled with your address.
Cameras detect; they don't respond. Your camera can see the leak — it can't turn off the tap. It also can't clear the letterbox that tells the street the house is empty, water the garden, or produce a dated inspection record you can provide to your insurer. We're the human layer on top of your hardware, not a replacement for it. We've written more on this: what your system can and can't do while you're overseas.
No — and that's the point. No one lives in your home. It just stays yours. Your keeper visits, cares for the essentials, documents everything, and leaves. If you're weighing up both options, we've compared them honestly: house sitter vs weekly home check.
No. Our promise is that you come home to your house as you left it — nothing moved, nothing rearranged. If you'd like the fridge basics restocked for your return, that's an optional add-on (see the plans section for what's included).
On Cared For and above, we coordinate lawn mowing with your regular gardener — or arrange one of our trusted local gardeners — and check the result on our next visit. Garden beds, pots and indoor plants we water ourselves.
We spot them early and we deal with them gently. Your weekly visit includes checking for signs of ants, cockroaches, rodents and wasps — and weekly visits are designed to catch activity early, before it becomes a problem. Our approach is prevention and humane removal: sealing off what's attracting them, escorting the odd spider outside, and using deterrents rather than poisons. We don't kill — as a matter of principle, we believe even the small lives in your home deserve better than that, and pesticide treatment is licensed work in Victoria in any case. If an infestation genuinely needs professional treatment, we'll photograph it, let you know the same day, and coordinate a licensed pest controller of your choosing — that decision always stays yours.
Yes. Reports go to you and anyone you nominate — an adult child in Sydney or overseas can receive every report, at no extra cost.
We're launching soon. Tell us your suburb and dates — we'll reply within 24 hours with a fixed quote for your trip, and founding clients get priority booking when visits begin.