Moving into a new flat: what to do yourself in the first week

Day one: locks, keys and who else has access

Before anything else, work out how many keys exist and who has held them. Estonian flats sold or rented often come with two or three keys copied over several tenancies, and previous owners, cleaners or letting agents may still hold one. If you cannot account for every copy, changing the cylinder is the only way to be certain.

Check that the front door lock, any communal stair door fob, and the postbox lock all work smoothly before you decide whether to change them. A lock that sticks or needs jiggling is worth sorting in week one rather than living with it for a year.

Changing a euro cylinder yourself is realistic if the door is a standard size and the old cylinder comes out with a single screw. If the door has been rehung, the frame is out of true, or you want a security cylinder fitted properly, that is metal fitting work, from 45 € an hour, and worth doing once rather than after a failed attempt.

Sockets and switches: a quick test before the furniture goes against the wall

Test every socket in the flat while rooms are still empty, because a dead socket behind a wardrobe can go unnoticed for months. A cheap plug-in socket tester from a hardware shop checks wiring polarity and earthing in seconds and costs a few euros.

Flick every light switch, including two-way switches on stairs or in hallways, and check that dimmers and any smart switches left by the previous owner respond as expected. Note down anything odd: a switch that does nothing, a socket that only half-works, or a breaker that trips when you plug something in.

If a socket is dead, warm to the touch, or a switch sparks or crackles, stop testing and do not use it. That is electrical work, from 49 € an hour, and it is not a job to guess at, particularly in older panel-block wiring or a flat that has had informal rewiring over the years.

• Test every socket with a plug-in tester before placing furniture
• Check both directions of any two-way light switches
• Note which circuit trips first if you overload it
• Leave any socket that feels warm or smells odd switched off
• Photograph the fuse box layout before you touch anything

Stopcock and fuse box: label them before you need them in a hurry

Find the main stopcock on your first day, not when a pipe bursts on a Sunday evening. In an apartment block it is often under the kitchen sink or in a hallway cupboard; in an older building shared with the korteriühistu, there may also be a riser valve that affects the whole stack. Turn it and confirm the water actually stops before you rely on it.

Do the same with the fuse box: open it, photograph the layout, and work out which breaker feeds which room by switching each one off in turn and checking what goes dark. Stick a printed label next to each breaker rather than trusting memory a year from now.

This is the cheapest hour you will spend in the new flat. A handyman visit to trace circuits and fit proper labels, alongside checking the stopcock and any isolation valves, is a normal odd job from 39 € an hour if you would rather not do it with a torch and a phone flashlight.

First week: the small mistakes new owners usually make

The most common mistake is treating small snags as low priority because nothing is actively broken yet. A slightly loose door handle, a curtain rail that was never quite fixed, a wobbling toilet seat: these get left for months and then all need attention at once, usually just as something more urgent comes up.

Another is calling out separate tradesmen for each small job as it is noticed, which means paying the 25 € call-out fee, or the first hour, several times over for work that would fit into one afternoon. A list kept on the fridge for the first fortnight, then booked as one visit, is nearly always cheaper.

People also assume fittings left by the previous owner are sound. Curtain rails, shelf brackets and towel rails are sometimes fixed into plasterboard or a thin skim over concrete with the wrong plug, and the first time you actually use them is when they come away from the wall.

What to handle yourself, and when to stop and call someone

Testing sockets, checking locks, labelling the fuse box and stopcock, and noting snags are all things any new occupant can do with basic tools and no risk. Tightening visible screws, adjusting a door hinge, or re-hanging a curtain rail into a stud are reasonable DIY jobs if you have a drill and a spirit level.

Stop and call a tradesman once a job touches wiring, gas, or a load-bearing wall, or once you are working from a stepladder above head height on something structural. We do not do gas work and do not touch load-bearing walls; a gas smell or a suspected structural crack goes to a specialist or the building's management, not to a general handyman.

For everything in between, a single odd-job visit that covers the fuse box labelling, a lock adjustment, refitting a loose rail and any other snags from your list is usually better value than solving each one on its own, and it gets the flat properly settled in one go rather than in instalments.