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In this section we give some guidance on how to run a home in the Cayman Islands. A lot of it is very straightforward and probably common sence but we do give inside information on the domestic helper/nanny scene (how much to pay them etc), we discuss how to maintain your property and garden and even suggest shade trees that are indigenous to Cayman. We give you the costs and details on how private property Government-run rubbish collection works. We discuss pest control and explain that in this humid and tropical environment quarterly pest spraying (particularly for ants and cockroaches) is essential and finally we give an overview of home security in Cayman - what to think about and what to consider. It will help you feel like setting up a home here is easier than you might think!
Domestic Help
The majority of expatriates and many local families employ domestic help either on a full-time, live-in or part-time basis. The affordable luxury of live-in help makes entertaining a pleasure and allows parents to spend more time with their children or have precious quiet hours away from them! Helpers are employed primarily to do housework, cook and care for children and pets.
The domestic help network (of mostly Jamaican and Filipino helpers) flourishes in Cayman and it is not difficult to secure help through word of mouth. Alternatively, there are domestic agencies which hire out help on an hourly basis. They charge approximately CI$12 per hour for a minimum of 4 hours if hired on a full-day or half-day regular weekly basis. If you hire them as a one-off, the hourly rate is CI$14 (more if they supply the cleaning products). If you do not go through an agency then the going rate for a full time (5 days a week) helper is approximately CI$1200 per month or CI$50-60 per day. For occasional babysitting you will find that almost everyone will ask for CI$10 per hour.
If you want to hire your own helper on a full-time basis you must apply for a work permit. Paperwork and instructions can be collected from the Department of Immigration or downloaded from their website: www.immigration.gov.ky. Both the employer and the employee must fill in separate parts of the application and such things as a police clearance and a full medical are required. They may be required to take an English test as well. It is worth noting that the Immigration Department does not usually grant expatriates a work permit for domestic help unless they show sufficient need i.e. they have children who need looking after. You will also need to take care of their health insurance, give them two weeks paid vacation per year and pay them double time for working any public holidays. At the time of going to press you are not required to pay a pension for them. Other things worth noting are: you cannot submit your domestic helper's work permit paperwork until your own work permit has been approved; it is illegal to make them pay for their own work permit; helpers are not allowed to have dependants on their work permit and the absolute maximum time they will be allowed to stay on the Island is seven years.
If you want a full-time or part-time helper the following company will organise it for you. They also drop off and collect the helper from your house. They charge less per hour if you use the cleaner on a regular weekly basis, even if it is only once a week. Hew's is a family run business and we highly recommend them.
Hew's Janitorial, Tel: (345) 949 0734 or learn more about Hew's services online
Garden Maintenance
If you live in a condominium or apartment block, the strata generally has a garden maintenance company which will service the property regularly. This is the same if you have a pool. However, if you do find yourself having a garden to maintain, equipment such as lawnmowers and fertilizer are available from most home centres such as A.L. Thompson’s, Kirk Home Centre and Uncle Bills. For garden maintenance and landscaping Every Bloomin’ Thing, Green Thumb, Thompson Landscaping, Power Flower and Vigoro Nursery will send a team to maintain and design your garden. They all also sell plants, herbs, trees and soil and have the knowledge to guide you as to what will work best in Cayman. Most garden centres carry an extensive array of plant pots and accessories. Absolutely Fabulous Outdoors sells teak garden furniture and unique and large garden pots. If you are renting, planting potted plants on the porch is a really nice way of personalising your new home. Sticks & Stones also sells outdoor furniture as well as local plants in partnership with the Department of Agriculture.
Trees & Shade
If you buy a house, planting shade trees on your property can make a huge difference to how cool your house will stay, even in the heat of the summer months. Choosing trees that are indigenous to the Island or ones that support the local wildlife, birds in particular, is something that the National Trust, the Cayman Islands Garden Club and many long time Cayman residents would love us all to consider. For example the Wild Fig is an incredible tree, growing tall and wide. The fruit is eaten by birds and bats and the trunk is a shelter for lizards and geckos. It is native, gives wonderful shade and can be found growing in any wild, rocky spot. Popnut is salt tolerant, grows fast if you water it and makes lots of lovely shade. Sea Grape has large round leaves, grows near the seashore and is native. Mahogany is nice but slow growing though will grow faster if watered. The Royal Palm is not a particularly good shade tree but it is important to birds and the agouti (same family as the rabbit). The Tamarind tree isn't native but birds love it for nesting because it is so twiggy and dense, and it's highly wind and salt tolerant. The Indian Almond (also not native) grows fast and is tough, but makes a lot of leaf debris - fruit bats love the almond fruit. At the top of the list of trees to be discouraged is the Casuarina which is not native, very invasive, the fallen needles inhibit the growth of indigenous plants and it does not support any wildlife. It also offers little or no shade. Top of the list of scrubs/bushes to be discouraged is the Scaevola which is highly invasive. It crowds out other vegetation and its small white fruit are inedible to birds or other animals. For more information on indigenous plants and shade trees you can read Fred Burton's Wild Trees book available at the National Trust or you can see Anne Stafford's well researched list posted on the Cayman Wildlife website: www.caymanwildlife.org. A great place to buy plants in addition to all of the nurseries on Island is the Department of Agriculture (Tel: (345) 947 3090) located in Lower Valley.
Pool Maintenance
If you rent or buy in an apartment complex then the strata will take care of the cost of pool maintenance. If you buy a house with a pool expect to pay a minimum of CI$250 per month to have a service technician come around once a week to add chemicals and vacuum the pool.
The Dump, Garbage Disposal & Illegal Dumping
The Department of Environmental Health (Tel: (345) 743 5952) is in charge of household waste and management of the landfill.
> Garbage collection is conducted twice a week: George Town (Tuesday and Friday), West Bay (Monday and Thursday) and Eastern Districts comprising North Side, East End and Bodden Town (Wednesday and Saturday). Individual houses are charged CI$100 per year (except if along SMB CI$300), split into two payments due in January and July (or you can pay it all in January). Sign up and pay your fees for garbage collection at the DEH, 580 North Sound Road, George Town. You can mail your fees to PO Box 1820, Grand Cayman KY1-1109. Apartment and condominium complexes will have garbage collection as part of their monthly strata fees.
> Bulky items, hazardous or toxic waste, plus used motor oil and lead acid batteries (which will be recycled by the DEH) should be taken to the landfill drop off area, which is open 24 hours every day of the week. All material can be disposed of there. There is no disposal fee and the landfill is located in the Industrial Park area. Bulky items are collected by DEH during November/December at roadsides. Please listen to the media for dates. At other times of the year, you can pay the DEH to collect items or you can call a private disposal company. Real Christmas trees are recycled in January - look out for the green skips on the side of the road with a very obvious "Christmas Tree Disposal" sign on them.
> Dumping (or Fly Tipping as it is known locally) is illegal and if caught can lead to a hefty fine, as can public littering. Please do not litter or allow your children to litter - Cayman is very proud of the fact that the streets are not lined with litter like they are in many other Caribbean islands and we would like to keep it that way!
> Most apartment complexes have skips for waste disposal. It is frowned upon if you are dumping waste in other complexes' skips and building construction skips. Either get permission or drive to the dump.
Recycling
Cayman unfortunately does not do very much recycling. The main reason for this is that it is so expensive to ship things off the Island. The National Trust ran an awareness programme in the first 6 months of 2008 when they encouraged people to drop off glass bottles at their facility in South Sound. The response was overwhelming! The Trust had been lent a bottle crusher and with it they wanted to demonstrate not only that people were willing to recycle, but that by crushing the glass it used 80% less space in the land fill. They proved both points very effectively. So, the Government knows people want to recycle, it just needs to work out how to do it economically. There are some things that are recycled. Aluminium cans can be dropped off at the "aluminium can only" containers located at major supermarkets. Caybrew (a local manufacturer of beer) recycle all their own glass beer bottles - you just have to drop them off at their facility in Red Bay, and quite a few private companies shred their office paper which cuts down on the amount of space it takes up at the land fill. Bars and hotels are encouraged to buy bottle crushers as a starting point. There is a company who is recycling used cooking oil from restaurants, mixing it with diesel, transforming it into biofuel and actually running cars on it! For info, call Larry at Cayman Biofuels on (345) 925 6997.
'Recycle with Iggy' is an initiative aimed at people joining the recycling team with the motto "Don't Trash it, Recycle it!" Check the John Gray Recyclers' website http://anthonyfraser.tripod.com where you can also get information on other recycling initiatives.
Cayman's Solid Waste Management Committee is also looking into the possibilities of a 'waste-to-energy plant' to convert burning waste into energy. If you would like more information you can contact the Recycling Unit on (345) 949 8793.
Alphasoft, who represent HP and McIntosh, recycles laserjet printer cartridges and ships them to the US. For information contact them on (345) 949 8251. Just bring used cartridges to GKF Business Park on Godfrey Nixon Way, next to A.L Thompson’s home centre, and they will do the rest.
Pest Control Services
The Cayman Islands have a warm and humid climate. Consequently we do get insects, like any tropical island, and thus on occasion we have to deal with uninvited guests. These guests range from ants, cockroaches, termites and weevils to centipedes and non-venomous scorpions. Rodents can also be a problem and people with pets likely will likely encounter ticks and fleas. There are no poisonous snakes in Cayman, but we do suffer the discomfort of fire ants, mosquitoes and sand flies from time to time. There is an indigenous black bird nicknamed "ching-ching" that may be a nuisance - especially during spring nesting time when they become increasingly aggressive. They may try to attack anybody who approaches the vicinity of their nests, so you may want to consider moving the nest to another location. Perform this task in the evening when the adult birds strangely abandon their chicks and sleep with other adults elsewhere. You will see chickens roaming everywhere and they are considered part of the landscape. therefore everywhere! Many of the locals like to feed them and then they breed like rodents. If you feel the chickens are interfering with your garden or the roosters are waking you at all times of the night, you may request a trap be set by the Department of Agriculture who will then come and take them away. This service is done free of charge. Call them on (345) 947 3090.
Quarterly Spraying
As mentioned previously, if you are buying a property you will want to know if the property is being sprayed regularly. If you are renting, ask your landlord if they have a pest control company carry out quarterly spraying to control ants and cockroaches. Most property owners will do this as a matter of course to protect their investment. If your landlord doesn't arrange this, it might be worth organising it yourself to keep these pests at bay. A typical house, depending on size, costs between CI$125-$160 per quarter to treat. To treat a two bedroom apartment costs approximately CI$95-$105 per quarter.
Abacus House, 311 Walkers Road, George Town
Tel: (345) 949 9145 or (345) 640 9145
Home Security
Although Cayman does enjoy a low crime rate in comparison to its Caribbean neighbours and the world in general, burglaries do occur from time to time and are often crimes of opportunity. The majority of burglaries occur at a residence where no one is home and entry is both easy and concealed. Here are some simple suggestions for reducing or limiting the chances of your home being burgled:
1) Closing and locking windows and doors is the first step. It is important to lock both the top lock (deadbolt) and the bottom lock (the lockset). Burglars often rely on the fact that the deadbolt is not locked.
2) One can also check that locks on both windows and sliding doors are secure. In older style sliding doors and windows fitted locks may be insufficient. Devices such as security bars and pins can be installed to prevent both doors and windows from being opened should the lock fail.
3) A home security system is a great deterrent. Nothing tells a burglar to "get out quick" like a home alarm system!
4) Consider installing lighting with motion sensors. As well as illuminating the burglar's activity they will also ensure the burglar doesn't feel comfortable enough to stick around. Unfortunately, these motion sensors may malfunction due to heavy rains and winds, especially during the rainy season. Video cameras are also an option, and police will review them if there is a burglary.
5) Get to know your neighbours and create a 'Neighbourhood Watch' scheme. You can do this by calling the police to get in touch with the police officer assigned to your area. A twitching curtain can always be an effective deterrent to any burglar 'sizing up' a neighbouring property. Remember never to leave keys by the door or in the lock. Suspicious behaviour should be reported to the police as well as your neighbours.
For more information on home security systems contact The Security Centre on (345) 949 0004.
Sewage Treatment
Residents of Grand Cayman that live along West Bay Road and in the connecting neighbourhoods are served by the Island's only sewage collection system operated by the Water Authority. The collected sewage is treated at the Water Authority's Wastewater Treatment Plant. If you are renting an apartment, the sewerage bill should be in the landlord's name.
Residents not located in the West Bay Road area will have their sewage collected in a concrete or fibreglass two-compartment holding tank and connecting drain well called a septic tank. Others, particularly those that live in large (more than eight unit) apartment complexes, will have their wastewater collected into a sewage treatment plant located on the premises. In a properly sized system, pumping of the sludge tank can be done every two to five years. Some systems require more frequent pumping because there are more people using the system than was intended, the water table in the area is high and prevents proper drainage, or there are products being introduced to the system that it was not intended to collect. Because septic tanks use 'friendly bacteria' to break down natural waste products, introducing harsh chemicals will do a very effective job of killing these bacteria! Most complaints of odours from sewage treatment plants and septic tanks can be attributed to the system not working properly. This can be caused by the following being flushed down the toilet or poured down the kitchen drain: excessive bleach and cleaning agents, grease or waste oil from cooking, used coffee grains, cat litter, excessive use of antibiotics, disposable wipes and feminine products, condoms, herbicides, pesticides, paint thinner, paints or solvents, motor oil, any petroleum based product, etc.
Incidentally do not allow your cleaner to mix bleach with household cleaners. It releases a toxic gas called chlorine which causes lung damage and is extremely poisonous to them and anyone else, particularly children, who are in the house at the same time.
Home Efficiency
Living in Cayman is significantly more expensive than other countries. Both water and electricity are highly priced commodities but if you make a little bit of effort it is possible to run your home more efficiently. For example, most people choose to run their air conditioning year round but if the system is not maintained, and the filters cleaned at least every quarter, then it will not run as efficiently and it will use more electricity. By running your fans on high, and raising your thermostat by one or two degrees, you can significantly reduce your electricity bills while still keeping your home cool and comfortable. Finally, remember that water is not only very expensive but should be conserved. Simple things like not leaving the tap running while brushing your teeth, taking a shower instead of a bath and watering your plants in the early morning or evening can go a long way in conserving water.
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