I am currently on my fourth sit. It is my first bad experience with the environment of the sit. There is an extreme mold in every room. I am travelling with a baby so the more stressed I am about that. The owner did not state humidity and mold issues before, although I believe they know it’s out the normal category because the sit pictures do not have ceilings seen. I am supposed to come back May to sit one more time, with both my daughters, but I am more than sure I will not come back. I do not want to take my children to such environment. We have another sit after this one in May and I already have my flight tickets bought. As a premium sitter, do I have any rights here? How would you solve this situation? Of course at the end I can cancel the tickets and book the ones to come straight to the second sit, health first. But it is not a pleasant situation. Current sit ends in 3 days and I have communicated my concerns to the HO.
I went through the mold debates on the forum but I am interested in knowing your opinions on such situation when you are about to be back and have the sit confirmed for another time.
Hi @MichaelaP
As an Asthmatic person I understand your concerns for your children’s health. As you say you’re in a bit of a pickle here. I’d advise you reaching out to support@trustedhousesitters.com to advise of the mold issue. I’m not sure if the insurance attached to your premium membership will cover your flights if you cancelled. What’s the airline policy on cancelling. Could you at least get a credit note for future travel use?
Lastly I know after the fact but I never agree to do a second sit until I’ve seen how the first sit goes.
Good luck.
The mould issue can be reported to member services ( with photos ) - raise a member dispute that the listing was not accurate and a health hazard . THS will then investigate. In this case it’s easy to prove the situation by taking lots of photos that show both the mould and the home as compared to the photos in the listing .
State that you wish to raise a dispute for an inaccurate listing .
With regard to the premium sit guarantee- that only covers sit cancelled within 14 days so you won’t have any cover for a sit in May .
Again for the May sit - you can request that the HO or member services cancel that sit now as the home is not habitable- so that you can start looking for a replacement sit for those dates.
If I found mold on a sit, I’d give the hosts notice that they’d need to find alternative care within 24 hours and I’d notify THS membership services.
There’s no logical reason to me to risk my health to take care of the home or pets of someone who doesn’t give a toss about sitters. And if I get a bad review for something serious like that, so what? I’d be giving them the lowest possible rating anyway and making clear that their home is moldy, so other sitters can avoid them.
I am sorry to hear of your current on sit issue. I can see that you have already received some kind and helpful support from other Forum members which is great to see.
Just to let you know this thread has been passed on to the Membership Services team who will be in touch with you so please keep a look out for their email. You can also chat with them by clicking this link.
I hope that you manage to get this resolved very soon and please feel free to keep us updated here.
You need to leave the property as soon as possible and so do the animals. Don’t mess around with this. This could be detrimental to your health, your baby, and the animals. I went through this recently with a landlord who wanted his handyman to fix it and it was a disaster. They need a professional remediation team to take care of it and if you need to go to a hotel, I would find out how you can be reimbursed for your housing costs. So sorry this is happening to you.
What are the facts, what is the reality, how much mold is there exactly? In all the rooms or just in one room and how many centimeters and where is the mold?
A little bit of mold is not a big deal, you can keep calm, but of course you don’t have to return to a moldy house.
Thank you. I did decide to finish this sit and cancel the future one. I must say the HO is really well in communicating about the issue. We spend a lot of time outside and venting the rooms. I think switching acommodation would actually cause me much more stress right now. But I agree 100000% that mold is that much of an issue!
I think that you can not say that a little bit of mold is not a big deal, because mold also does not have to be seen. So just a little bit of moldy stain does not define the actual mold situation.
There are mold stains all over bathroom ceilings and on some walls, also on a big part of kitchen ceilings and few spots both in living room and bedroom.
That’s so tough. I would not easily cancel a sit but if my health or the health of my children were at risk, I would take the necessary steps to cancel the current and future sit. Negative review or not, it would not matter to me.
Yes, I can say it.
Long time ago I lived in a rental house and had mold in a room on the bottom floor. We fought a legal battle for two years after I moved out. The owner then has to pay me quite a lot of money back because of this. Several experts came to the house and took a look. And in these 2 years I have dealt intensively with the topic of mold and talked with a lot of experts.
For example, last year I stayed in an Airbnb for 3 nights. There was some mold on the ceiling in the bathroom. It wasn’t a big drama. You can endure this for 3 nights and it won’t harm your health.
Unfortunately, you give absolutely no answer as to exactly how much mold there is and don’t answer these questions. In that respect, one can’t really judge it based on the facts you give here. Now you have decided to do the sit until the end.
I’m assuming that there wasn’t too much mold then, otherwise you wouldn’t endanger your child’s health. So you’ve probably made the right decision now.
@Coclico, she said “There is an extreme mold in every room.” Are you quibbling over what her definition of “extreme” is? Does she really need to go in with a yardstick?
And you’re making an assumption that because she isn’t abandoning the animals, there can’t be that much because she wouldn’t endanger her child’s health – which, btw, you’ve been arguing wouldn’t be endangered?
Seems a bit of a circular argument. Mold isn’t dangerous, but if it was, you wouldn’t stay there, so since you are staying, it must not be enough to be dangerous. Which it isn’t really anyway. Unless there’s a lot of it. Which there must not be, or you wouldn’t stay.
At least you have the option to leave and never return, whilst the poor homeowner has to return to a mouldy house. I doubt anyone really wants to live with mould, but in older places with poor energy efficiency it can be difficult to avoid it completely unless you keep windows open and the heating on full blast throughout winter.
In the UK, any home that is being sold or rented has to have an EPC (energy performance certificate) assessment carried out, unless it is Grade II listed (often applies to properties of historic significance), in which case it will be exempt. The certificate is valid for 10 years, and with a postcode and house name/number you can see the results online, at Find an energy certificate - GOV.UK
I’ve never thought of looking up the EPC rating of a potential sit before, as I’ve always gone in with the mind-set that even if somewhere turns out to be less than desirable, at least it’s not forever. But for longer sits, particularly during winter when heating bills could potentially be an issue between sitters and HOs, it would be worth knowing, and would also give an idea of whether somewhere is poorly insulated and likely to suffer with mould. The rating runs from A to G, with A being the most energy efficient (think double-glazing, good insulation, renewable energy sources) and G being the least energy efficient (think single-glazing, solid walls with no insulation).
Cameron Diaz definitely got the rough end of the deal with her chocolate box English cottage in the house-swap film ‘The Holiday’. Looks cute, but I bet it would have been at least an F on the EPC rating - freezing!
When you feel at the mercy of a situation, the tendency can arise to see everything as “extreme”. That’s why I’m usually most interested in facts. But she didn’t even begin to comment on them.
So I realize that we are talking about something that is considered “extreme” without knowing anything about it. No, in fact, the poster refuses to provide more detailed information. But we now read that she has decided to stay for another 3 days. Ok. End of the story.
Just because a house has a decent EPC rating, absolutely no guarantee of less mould.
The more insulation you have (EPC rating), the more you need to ventilate and how many people do not open windows at all?
Ventilation is the only answer to mould.
I did reply further to you as you can see. I see mold is an issue. There are 2 forms of stress for our body - physical and psychological. Suddenly moving from the sit, getting acommodation last minute, all that whilst taking care of 7 months old baby seemed a huge stress for me, bigger than staying those 3 days with knowing it’s temporary and there are some precautions I can do to minimalize the physical stress my body and the body of my baby can be under.
I do not have to prove anything to you but I did to the support team. But I do recommend you reading more thoroughly in between all this criticism. I asked for help, if you aim to give none, just keep your thoughts and comment none.
Good point. I’m in an old F-rated cottage with solid walls and no scope to insulate them. Mould was never an issue until a couple of years ago when I put in DIY secondary glazing to at least try to avoid losing a bit of heat through the rickety, single-glazed sash windows. I think up until then the draft blowing through them even when they were closed kept the place suitably ventilated!
