A House File for staying in your Charleston home

Plenty of people here plan to stay right where they are: the house on the peninsula, the place across the river, the newer street a little inland. MOSES is a digital service for homes anywhere, and this page is a Charleston example of what the file holds. There is no local office, no crew, and no list of customers. If you own a home here, or help someone who does, join the waitlist. The ZIP on the form helps us plan where to bring Moses help in the future.

A House File is a calm record of one place: where the water shuts off, who holds a key, which policy actually covers rising water, and which company last serviced the air conditioner. You keep it, and you share it with the people you trust. It is not a contractor marketplace, not cameras, and not someone who answers the phone at midnight.

Wind, surge, and a flood policy that is a different document

Charleston houses meet water from more than one direction. A hurricane brings wind, and sometimes surge. A summer thunderstorm can fill a street that sits only a little above the marsh. Homeowners insurance and flood insurance are not the same paperwork. If you carry a flood policy, it belongs in the file beside the homeowners declarations, the mortgagee clause, and the month each policy renews. So does a plain note of whether water has been inside, and where it came in. An elevation certificate, if you have one, lives there too. A guess about a flood zone does not.

Before storm season the useful pages are practical. The main water shutoff. The electrical panel, photographed once. Any generator inlet or transfer switch, and who is allowed to run it. The name of the person who will check the house if you leave, and where the spare key actually is. The roof’s year matters more than a story about the roof. If a battery backup sits on a sump in a crawl space, the file should name who services it.

Humidity, salt, and termites are the rest of the year

Air conditioners run for months. Condensate lines clog. Crawl spaces and older plaster stay damp. The record that helps is dull: filter size, last tune-up date, the service company’s number, and the warranty card that is usually still in a kitchen drawer. Salt air is harsher near the harbor and the islands than it is inland toward Summerville. It works on coils, door hardware, and exterior metal. Write down the HVAC company that already knows the unit, not a new search every July.

Subterranean termites are a Lowcountry condition, on historic brick and on new slabs. The House File should hold the bond or warranty, the inspection month, and the company phone. “Someone came” is not a record.

Peninsula houses and newer suburbs do not keep paper the same way

Older houses in the historic core, and in villages along the creeks, often sit up on piers, with additions that do not match the original plan and a shutoff nobody labeled. Newer subdivisions more often arrive with a builder warranty packet, an HOA or regime contact, and appliance manuals that expire on a schedule. Both need the same habit. The file answers who, where, what, and when for that specific building.

• Water, power, and any gas shutoff, with a photo
• Homeowners and flood declarations, kept as separate papers
• Termite bond, HVAC service, and roof date
• Key holders and the vendor who already knows the house