I've just got an injury during a house sitting

[Mokina]

Thank you @Cuttlefish @Silversitters

I wonder if they accept all sorts of accommodations and not just Airbnbs just to mention one. I’m renting a holiday cottage from a lady I know for some years. I always pay the rent by bank transfer.

That’s right @Happypets I wish I had more written conversation as @sandydandy recommended to do, the HO called me twice which I would have avoided. After the second call I wrote everything on a text. Anyway, yes it is on the texts.

I informed the Support team as soon as I got injured even before possibly thinking that the sitting would be cancelled at some stage. Then I contacted them again on the same day that I left the house.

I haven’t heard from the Support team today after sending the transcript yesterday, I’ll get in touch with them on Monday morning. I guess they don’t give support by email at weekends, is that right?

Thank you for the link and suggestion of threads, I’ll have a read shortly.

I’ll know better for the future now, hoping though this won’t happen again.

[Silversitters]

The Urgent Support Phone Line is a 24/7 number . They should have talked you through the claim process and everything that you need to submit . Ask them to send you an e-mail with all the information.

@Mokina

I’m renting a holiday cottage from a lady I know for some years. I always pay the rent by bank transfer.

. It needs to be within 20 miles of the sit .

You do need to provide a receipt for your alternative accommodation. It should show the address of the accommodation, the dates of the stay and the amount paid .

[Mokina]

@Silversitters I called the Urgent line after the claim was already emailed to the team.
I called them upon your suggestion as they were not getting back to me and finally after the call they emailed again. I guess that I’ve submitted all I have to do.

Yes, it is definitely within 20 miles.

I’ll ask the team how to deal with the receipt being a private home.

If I had to find an Airbnb being Ireland very expensive and due to the last minute I would have paid €3000 or more.

[Silversitters]

The receipt is the main part of your claim for reimbursement. Ask the lady who owns the cottage to give you one asap.

If she usually rents this out as a holiday cottage it should be straightforward for her to do this . The team are unlikely to provide anymore help other than to say they need the receipt to make the claim .

[mdarden1x]

There are plenty of rental receipt templates available online. You may want to download one that includes the necessary fields for filling a claim, filling in your details to share with her in case she doesn’t have one available.

[Mokina]

They’ve just come back to me saying that the claim for the cancellation is not eligible for processing, despite the HO had cancelled the sitting.

I’ve been told that the policy is designed to cover situations where the pet parent is the one who cancels. Because the injury prevented from completing the sit, this would be considered initiating the cancellation, and as such, they are unable to process the claim.

Because the cancellation was initiated by this, the claim is not eligible under terms of service.

As the pet care responsibilities could not be completed, the owner had no other choice but to cancel. In light of this, they consulted the partner’s adjusters regarding the nature of the injury sustained as a result of walking the pet to see whether this reason would suffice instead, and there is no way of proving the injury was actually caused by the pet, so they declined to process the claim.

I was also invited a thorough read of the terms and the relevant points as follows:

"III. Are there circumstances where we will never pay under this Plan?

This plan is offered at our sole discretion, but in any event, we will never pay sitters under this plan where:

1. The sitter initiates the sit cancellation.

…

9. When the Sit is cancelled due to a breach of Our Terms of Service or code of conduct by the Sitter."

"5.3. The following applies only to Sitters. You will:

…

5.3.2. abide by all of the Pet Parents requests or instructions that are stipulated in their HomeListing, Welcome Guide and Handover;"

[BonnyinBrighton]

So in effect in plain English- because the HO wouldn’t have chosen to cancel the sit then it’s not covered. Hmm

[Silversitters]

The refusal seems to hinge on this

@Mokina

there is no way of proving the injury was actually caused by the pet, so they declined to process the claim.

It’s unfortunate that in this instance - you have no way of proving that the injury was caused by the pets behaviour, so they only have your word for it which is not enough for them to make a claim .

If for example you had been bitten by a dog you would be able to take photos of the bite marks to prove that the injury has been caused by the pet . Or if you had video footage that showed you being pulled over by the dog .( from neighbours ring doorbells ) then you could submit that .

[Silversitters]

There are other threads on the forum where sitters have left a sit ( in consultation with THS ) because of serious breaches of the T&Cs by the host and the Sit Cancellation did pay out the sitter .

I will look later and link them …

[Silversitters]

This was advise given when a sitter queried the clause

@systaran

This is what I was told regarding the insurance and violations of T&Cs.

“Please rest assured that if there is a breach of the Terms and Conditions and the sit is cancelled beyond your control, you will be eligible to make a sit cancellation insurance claim. The conditions stating that the cancellation can’t be agreed by the sitter is referring to a mutual agreement to end the sit early by both parties. The sit cancellation insurance is there to assist you if something out of your control causes the sit to end prematurely.”

[Silversitters]

This quote is from a sitter who enquired if the Sit Cancellation Plan covered sits cancelled due to violations of the T&Cs by the host - this was what member services (MS) told them :

@systaran

I checked in with MS later just to clarify the cancellation plan. I specifically asked about whether it applied in cases where a sitter needs to leave due to violations of the T&Cs such as untrained aggressive dogs, or any other violations (third parties, indoor cameras, filthy house, etc) and was told that yes, the insurance applies in those scenarios. So, anyone trying to file a claim in those situations, if you are told the insurance doesn’t apply, ask to talk a manager or supervisor

[Mokina]

Thank you all for your comments.

@Silversitters I really appreciate your time in investigating other similar cases.

Unfortunately, there is no video footage or neighbours ring doorbells. Who knows? Maybe the neighbour next door saw it all from the window, but to be honest I cannot recall the exact moment I got injured, if it was when I was still outdoors or inside the house. It happened so quickly and I noticed the pain only after 5 or 10 minutes.

@SteveS I was injured on Wednesday and the HO cancelled the sitting on Saturday. During this time I continued carrying for a pet that caused harm, but apparently the insurance doesn’t cover.

I would also like to say again that I enquired with THS support team since two days after the injury when I realized that walking was very difficult for me, even before informing the HO (which I did a few hours later).

I was hoping to get some guidance on the procedure to follow, but no instructions were given to me.

I asked if continuously biting the leash could be considered as an aggressive behaviour, I was told that it depends. It could be a way for the dog to play, but aggressive dogs show these kinds of behaviors: growling, snapping, lunging, and biting.

After talking for 4 days regarding the injury. Despite a lot of information was provided, in the last email I was asked what was the reason why the sitting was cancelled and I was told that she understood I was cancelling the sit because the dog is reactive to motorcycles, which I never mentioned at all.

She also delayed in answering, had to ask many times to get back to me and missed answers to questions which I had to repeat several times.

I wasn’t sure if she was making fun of me or if there was just incompetency . I had to start a new query and speak to someone else in order to go ahead.

To be fair, the dog is not aggressive, and was biting the leash almost all the time in an annoying, but yet playful mode. The last time, was a playful/aggressive and I found very hard to manage and we had to go back home. When we arrived, she wouldn’t come in and had to pull her with all the strength (the alternative would be let her going on the road with all the possible risks).

Said all this, I wonder if after reading the last messages it is still worth it to escalate the request to the manager or supervisor and see if they can have a second look at the case?

[Henry_R]

I am on a sit right now and the dog is not behaving as expected. He got very aggressive when we went past a yard with another dog that he reacted to and he started barking and growling. I tried to restrain him and he jumped on ME and left small bite marks and scratches. I’m afraid to walk him again.

I posted a topic but it’s not working can someone please helpme.

[Shafofo]

@Henry_R You should call the Urgent Help Line on your dashboard and explain the situation immediately so THS can help you figure out next steps.