Hi @anna22 many UK home owners’ car insurance companies won’t allow them to put non UK resident sitters on their insurance. That means they are prohibited from providing their car to becused by sitters no matter how much they want to.
Public transport in some rural areas is non-existent so many sits definitely require a car. My experience with French sits is that most HOs have a second small car that they are happy to lend us. Car hire costs are still crazy and having to pay £750 for a 3 week car rental (double that in mid summer) would prevent me from taking a sit.
Hello! I have a filter for long sits that have a “car included”. But it seems like so many HO get it wrong - they often put “car included” but then say in the description, that sitters must bring their own car or rent a car. This annoys me so much! Is there a way to resolve that?
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And it’s harder to find in listings now. You could amend your profile to state that you need the use of a car for most sits.
I completely get the hesitancy with letting sitters use cars. Where I’m from people do not drive safely or responsibly. I think maybe 1/3 of my sits I’ve been allowed use of a vehicle and I’m very grateful to HO’s who are able to provide that kind of transportation.
I had an interesting situation on one of my recent sits about this. We agreed use of one of their cars and it was written into their version of the welcome guide. So start of sit, a few minutes before the HO departed they told me they changed their mind about letting me use their vehicle and I’d be fine with other options. I certainly didn’t push to use it but walking back on something like that last minute wasn’t ideal. I think it’s important that people feel comfortable in their agreements and commitments so biggest takeaway here is don’t offer or agree if you’re very concerned about sitters using cars.
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Has anyone ever asked a HO for use of a car prior to applying for a sit? I will be flying in to visit my daughter in the city I used to live in. It’s in the southern US and a car is definitely needed to get around. I checked rentals and it’s $900 for the 10 days and I’d plan to come in a day early. I thought I’d ask the HO prior to applying to not muck up their applications. It’s not until Oct and I’d be happy to pay any additional premium and provide proof of my personal car insurance. I thought all they could do is say no, but wasn’t sure if it was inappropriate to even ask.
@ktblin
When in a location where public transportation is not good, I do ask in my application message, if the HO hasn’t offered. Some say no and I withdraw the app. But many say sure - in the US it generally doesn’t cause an add-on for their insurance. I understand that if anything happens, I’ll be paying the deductible but I can’t really get hit for their premium increase. Fortunately, no problems so far. Probably used HO’s car on 40 sits so far.
tom
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Hi @ktblin
Yes I have asked but only if I’m sitting dogs, as dogs aren’t generally allowed in rental cars.
In most instances, with my sits in NZ and Oz so far, I’ve been offered a car without asking. I’ve asked twice and been loaned a car when I’ve explained I like to take dogs for different walks. It’s the car that is insured in those countries and not the person I believe. When housesitting in the UK, where I’m from, I use my own car to transport dogs in my care. I don’t mind, it’s old!
I think this has been discussed before on the forum but I can’t find the post. You might like to use key words in the search spyglass.
I’ve never asked, but a couple of pet parents have offered. I was thrilled as it saved me huge amounts of money.
I see a lot of very remote sits that do not offer car use and sit available for a long time. I’d say some never get suitable applications. I wonder if THS gives them tips on increasing the likelihood of finding a good sitter.
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@ktblin Welcome to the community forum and thank you for your questions and contribution to this topic.
This is a very apt question for me and my husband as sitters, we always travelled with our car and were happy to use it to take the dogs out and about with us. However it is not the largest car and if we had multiple dogs that needed walking away from the home then it wouldn’t work for us, plus we have had some very muddy dogs in the car over the years!
We have been invited to some sits where we would need to fly, we are more than happy to do that and some have been wonderful invites, but most have been rural with no public transport and/or needed the dogs walking away from the home daily. So without the use of a car, we have had to decline.
As mentioned due to rental cars not allowing dogs and the cost of rental at the moment (we just got a few quotes from different sites for a 3-day car rental during July in Bozeman MT and the cheapest was coming up at $150 per day for the smallest size car).
Whilst we have never asked for the use of a car when applying, we have mentioned it when we have been invited to the sits discussed above and it is something that we might actually consider asking in the future as it can really make the difference if an owner can not find a sitter or needs their dogs to go out and about with you or be walked away from the home.
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I’ve been using a car subscription service through Sixt+. It’s a monthly fee - renting the car by the month. When I’m done I can turn it in with no further obligation. I can also put the subscription on pause for up to 90 days. I have a newish Mazda 3 sedan and it’s costing me $649 a month plus some miscellaneous fees. So much cheaper than a regular car rental. One month minimum, no prorated refund if turned in before the end of the month.
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2 posts were merged into an existing topic: Adding temporary car insurance (UK) for Sitter with no UK licence
I had this problem with getting on a girlfriend’s uk insurance when I was staying with her. My license is Australian. The reason being is that I wasn’t here permanently and so if I had an accident, I might skip the country 
. Obviously this has been an issue in the past with non-residents
Its a good idea to ask potential sitters about their preferences