A sitter’s health, well-being and personal safety has to be a priority.
THS state that they provide 24/7 support , so it is disappointing to hear that this hasn’t been your experience.
It’s good that there is an emergency contact to take care of the pets , so they are also being cared for.
I hope you recovery quickly, once you are in a clean and safe environment.
I don’t think you are over-reacting. THS is not the boss of you. if the homeowner cancels you and agrees to have a friend/paid person/ relative etc take care of the cat and the sit is cancelled without dispute that is that. If the homeowner disputes the cancellation, you can provide evidence of the living conditions and your many flea bites and start your own dispute. No reviews for either party.
That’s so disappointing you have heard no more from THS especially where @Maeve has also passed this on to Member Services. 50+ flea bites is serious and no one should have to endure that. Very glad you are leaving the sit.
@meow so sorry you have had to deal with this and amazed you have managed to stay so long in those circumstances, hope the bites have stopped!
Did you email support or phone them? Just thinking it is a public holiday in the UK today. End of summer long weekend before the schools go back, could explain the silence 
. If 24/7 support is one person on shift then my guess is they are not able to deal with emails and the phone.
Out of more than 60 sits the 2 or 3 occasions I’ve arrived to a dirty house have been new HOs who seem to be under the impression that they’re getting a cleaner as well as a petsitter. I won’t sit for new HOs any more, it just isn’t worth the risk.
@Wildcolonialgirl We’ve completed sits for many pet parents who are new to the site and have only encountered a problem on one occasion. We’ve also encountered the same problem (really dirty home) with experienced hosts (x 3). That’s out of 39 sits.
This is a medical emergency and you were mislead. I regret staying in the sit where I had flea bites (fleas and rats weren’t disclosed) - but I also had nowhere else to go!
Really sorry to read your experience @meow. You are absolutely not overreacting, nor are you the ‘bad person’. You have unknowingly signed up to a situation which is untenable and have received little support from the HO or THS. I hope you find some solace in the responses you’ve received here.
I am frankly shocked at THS’s response to you, and others who have found themselves in such situations. The support tends to favour the HO, whereas, arguably, the sitter is in a much more vulnerable situation. I found this out the hard way last year, when I was treated really poorly by a HO (I won’t go into details for fear of identifying said HO, but it badly affected me at the time). I had hoped to receive more support from THS but learned that the support is limited, as is enforcement of the T&Cs.
You absolutely have to do what is best for you. I say this as a chronic people pleaser, who would frequently sabotage myself in favour of helping others. House sitting is not the best environment for overcoming such patterns! If it means walking away from a sit, please do so knowing you are in the right. I’m not sure why a dispute would be raised given you have done absolutely nothing wrong but respond appropriately to a dire situation. Wishing you the best, and please keep us updated.
I had nowhere to go either. I’m paying for a hotel. (TH insurance doesn’t cover me because I chose to leave the sit.)
If a sitter has to leave the sit because it’s unsafe , unliveable or owners have broken T&Cs ( third parties, internal cameras ) then you should be covered, shouldn’t you ?
One would think, but no. I canceled, so I’m not covered.
Unsolicited advice to someone who finds themself in a similar situation and has the insurance: try to convince the HO to initiate the cancellation and then you’ll be covered.
This can’t be correct !!! Can it ???
If owners break the T&Cs and the home is unliveable or unsafe sitter must be covered !!!.
THS says that “ The trust and safety of all our members are of paramount importance to us.”
My unsolicited advice to you is ask that this is escalated to a manager - stress that you left the sit because it was unsafe and unliveable. You did not abandon pets .
Inconsiderate hosts are never going to cancel a sitter when the owner’s behaviour is the cause of the problem…!!
Don’t know if it helps but I’m a premium member and will be writing to member services to let them know that I won’t be signing up for premium in the future. That’s absurd.
Well, this is worth knowing for both sitters and HOs. I guess it would be the same if an owner cancels because their pets are unattended.
At one point I asked MS about this for clarification of the insurance plan. I was told that if a sit was cancelled because T&Cs were broken that the sitter would be eligible for reimbursement. I recommend contacting MS again. It seems what they say varies depending on who you talk to. I’ll see if I can find the email that I received in answer to my questions about the cancellation plan.
Hi @meow
Which type of membership do you have please?
Agreed, Which illustrates that the sit cancellation insurance isn’t worth diddly squat in this type of situation.
I have premium
Thanks for confirming.
Surely if a sit falls outside of the acceptable parameters of a THS sit as per their own Ts and Cs, eg. the home is uninhabitable due to a flea infestation, then THS should step in and cancel the sit on behalf of the home owner, regardless of whether the home owner themselves is willing to do so. Or better still, a sitter with premium membership should be able to cancel the sit themselves and file an insurance claim, as you would expect to do in this situation.
If that’s not the case, then the premium membership is a complete waste of money. It’s also another example of the imbalance between sitter and home owner – a sitter could have an emergency situation which requires them to leave the sit, but ability to file a cancellation claim is completely at the mercy of the home owner and their willingness to cancel the sit. And I expect that if a home owner cancels the sit, they wouldn’t then be able to file a cancellation claim themselves for costs incurred in returning home early/finding alternative pet care, so there is no incentive for them to do so.
