Thanks all. This is very much about doing things correctly. Not sure where you thought this was about doing this under the radar. Trying to find a solution so house sitters have a car, car is legally insured and it’s a win for everyone
1 Like
I know, your post stated that. What I meant is if you (or anyone, really) couldn’t find a solution through the insurance company they may be tempted to allow sitters to use the car for short, safe trips for essentials or for emergency trips to the vet. I’m sure this has been done before.
1 Like
I see many fabulous house/pet sits requests in Hawaii, of coyrse highky sought after and desirable.
Problem is, many of these are located a fair distance from all services, shopping, beaches, etc. and the owner does not include a car.
Car rentals are very expensive in Hawaii, minimum $50/day. It prohibitive for most house sitters. Owners are missing out on fantastic house sitters for that reason.
I wonder if owners are aware of that, and if it’s been a common problem for recruiting top notch sitters.
4 Likes
I’m guessing not since most Hawaii sits have many applicants and have their pick.
(Personally, I wouldn’t mind spending two weeks in Hawaii for the cost of a rental car and a flight. It’s the condo that always costs me the most…).
That being said, I wouldn’t say no if the HO offered use of their car!
1 Like
Is it usual for an applicant to ask if they can use your car during their sit? Do I need to get extra car insurance if we do allow her to use our car?
1 Like
Hi @DebraJoy12. We are generally offered the use of a car for most of our sits, but when it hasn’t been offered we have asked about it and have been declined only a handful of times, for one reason or another. You would need to check with your insurance to see what is required.
1 Like
We travel from Australia to sit in the UK and Europe. The offer of a car makes the sit much more desirable.
3 Likes
Thank you @anon1411559 for your quick reply. Good to know! Yes, I will check with my State Farm Car Insurance to see what will be required to let someone else use my car. Perfect! Have a good night and thanks again.
1 Like
Where do you do most of your sitting? We’ve done all our sits in the UK and France and have only been offered the car once. Plus one sit in the US where we were able to use the car. I suspect it’s easier to manage insurance in the US.
@Kelownagurl Pre-covid we did 2 years of house sitting throughout the UK, Europe, NZ and Australia. Throughout the pandemic all of our sits were in NZ and we are currently in Australia. In our 4 years of house sitting, if we are not in a large city well served by public transport, we are generally offered a car. If a car is not offered we ask about it. Some HO respond immediately with, “of course, I didn’t think about that”, and some respond with “let me check with my insurance”. We almost always offer to pay the cost of being added to their insurance but are rarely asked. As I mentioned, we’ve only been declined a handful of times. I’ve learned that you never know until you ask 
4 Likes
@DebraJoy12 Here’s what I’ve done, as a sitter: When I did not own a car, I maintained renter’s/borrower’s insurance, which covers third-party liability and my own medical expenses in case of accident. The owner’s comprehensive insurance covers the vehicle itself. I provided my insurance information and my driver’s license to the HO. In some states, a driver can obtain a summary driving record. In Virginia, for example, a good driving record shows as +1 or +2, something like that.
1 Like
Yeah, it definitely makes sense to ask. In most cases, we do travelling before/after and in between sits so we generally rent a car and haven’t bothered to ask. The one time we did use the owners car was to transport their 4 big dogs to a place they usually run. I’ll admit we were pretty uncomfortable using their vehicle though. It’s one thing to bump a rental car, it’s another to do damage to the owner’s vehicle, and that even slight prospect made us nervous.
1 Like
Have you spoken to your broker or insurance company? A few years ago that we got a quote for adding my wife’s sister (who is from Malaysia) to our car insurance while she stayed with us for a few weeks and the extra cost was horrendous.
It didn’t really matter too much for us (we are on the edge of London with good public transport), but it just wasn’t economical we thought.
Yet we borrow a “family” car when we visit Malaysia and it costs nothing to add us to their insurance.
2 Likes
A few years ago we asked if we could include our cat sitter in the car insurance for the time we were away and they said that this is certainly free of any extra charges once a year.
3 Likes
It especially important to us now with the cost of car rental being completely out of site! Just recently here in Oz, we looked into the cost of renting a car for a week and it was $848 AUD for 7 days!
2 Likes
Yeah, we paid $2300 CAD for 4 weeks in the UK. We normally pay about $1200 for 7 weeks.
2 Likes
That’s insane! Hope the rates go down at some point, after the rental car companies recoup all their losses from COVID. We sit full-time and that kind of cost is simply not in our budget.
3 Likes
Yeah, it must be a totally different situation for full time sitters.
2 Likes
The high costs are mainly due to the chip shortage. The rental car companies can’t refresh their fleets as a result, and then the demand soared as people started traveling again.
I couldn’t even GET a rental car in Tucson, AZ, last April.
3 Likes
Hi @Gwailo, I did ring them, but obviously couldn’t get a quote as we didn’t have any idea of who it would be. UK car insurance is such a minefield🙄
1 Like