Multiple issues with the house

Sitter Questions, Advice & Chat
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I’ve been pet sitting with THS for 14 months and have not had any significant issues with the houses until now. The heater stopped working during a cold snap and was out for two days. I did the leg work and troubleshooting to figure out what the problem was. He eventually had to bring somebody in to rewire it and replace the thermostat.

Now, there’s a known problem with flooding on the first floor of the house in a room that’s not used. We’re having multiple days of rain where I am now. The room has started to flood and we have 3 to 4 more days of rain. I informed the homeowner and he has asked me to get a wet vac from a neighbor and clean it up. This is a band-Aid and will not fix the problem. He has known for a while that he needs to address this issue.

I am one to go above and beyond, but the expectations of this homeowner seem unreasonable. I wanted to get some feedback from others before I set a boundary. Thank you for taking the time to read this; I appreciate your attention.

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@scottchikes welcome to the forum .

My suggestions and advice would depend on how much longer you have at the sit and do you want to continue with the sit or do you envisage other issues if it continues ?

Hosts are required to provide sitters with a home that is clean and comfortable .Any required tasks should be in the listing .

https://support.trustedhousesitters.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360001758337-What-household-tasks-are-sitters-responsible-for

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Hi @scottchikes I would treat these as two separate issues, even though, combined, they are affecting your overall enjoyment of the sit.

It sounds as though the heater issue was unexpected, happened out of the blue, and has been dealt with by yourself and the home owner as best as possible.

The flooding issue was ‘known’, so presumably the home owner had mentioned the possibility of this happening, and whilst it’s inconvenient, it’s also part of the reason why somebody might want to use a house-sitter in the first place, ie. it’s at least part of the reason why you’re there. It’s not always easy to tell where water is getting in, and it can be unclear whether or not the problem has been properly solved until there are a few days of heavy rain, so it may even be that the home owner has had remedial work done, and it’s only now showing up in wet weather that the fix has failed.

Only you know the full extent of the inconvenience, and whether it’s something that you are prepared to deal with for the extent of the sit. Hopefully there are some positives about the sit as well?

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Just wondering if it was mentioned in the listing and/or Welcome Guide about the possibility of the flooding? If so, why did you accept the sit?

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Irritating but not major- all just part of house management I’d say. Things break, some things are ongoing issues, some houses need constant maintenance due to age…

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Sorry you have had these issues, glad the Owner got the Heating sorted at least you are warm again.

Flooding in a room that’s not used, us not knowing if you know the backstory, I would borrow a wet vac from the neighbour, as much of an annoyance that it is.

IDK if this is newish to the Owner and they having to wait until Summer time to have the repairs done to stop the flooding? if it’s an old house the saying is “old house, deep pockets” we have sat many a farm house, thatched cottages, old listed houses (charming when all going well) not great when a problem springs up.

We have had Owners when at hand over asking “any quirky things with the house, you a sticky door lock? a Window that if you open it, it will never close again, window that leak etc” some home owners are just used to it and will say oh “there’s a heap of old towels in the cupboard in the laundry room or under the stairs” for that Window that the rain just comes through when it rains, or the door when it rains the rain just leaks through and then it swells and you have to really slam it or not use it and use another door, or the laundry room taps that drip, the drip never stops, the step that you can’t step on that stair or you will go through it, or just use the other staircase even though the guest bedrooms/bathrooms are at the end of the house where the “ skip that step” stair case is, because they rarely use them so it just is.

You need to mention it in person to the Owner that maybe they get a Wet vac themselves if this is going to be an going problem and on your review.

We lived in a rental and the hot water system screamed like someone was being murdered, we had numerous visits from heating/boiler engineers who said “it’s all working fine, it’s just noisy” because it was a rental we were stuck with it. We used to put Music on when having a Shower or Bath so you drowned out the noise, my Parents came over from Aus, Mum had her Shower she came running downstairs “the water is broken” Silly us had forgotten all about it, we had been living with it for years, people get used their quirky homes, we had Mail arrive from Australia a few months after we moved out the new Tennant’s rang me to tell me Mail had arrived, they asked me when I went around to collect it about the noise, I told them the House problems that we had had, the boiler blew up and the whole laundry room had to be repainted because the smoke damaged the ceiling, the newly painted hallway ceiling but not the walls was because the hot water service broke and it needed a new tank but not before leaking and damaging the downstairs hallway ceiling all things the letting agent said nothing of, they wondered, 7years later they are still in that house and the still living with that noise. (it was a really nice house, in a really nice location so we put up with it, obs the same reason they are)

Anyways, sorry you are having to wet vat up the room, fingers crossed no more heavy rain and clean up and you can get on and enjoy the rest of the sit.

Happy sitting

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This exactly. I spend all winter despairing over my elderly cottage and its variety of quirks, then fall in love with its charm all over again come spring!

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Setting a boundary is not wrong. It’s your time and effort to borrow and use the wet vac. Not sure how a rural a location this is, but I do feel that the homeowner should be compensating you somehow and/or arranging for someone else – hired or a friend or relative who owes them a favor to be helping. The homeowner is not going to know you are having an issue unless you are honest and upfront about it.

Before talking to the homeowner figure out what it is that you want and what your boundary is. Do you want to end the sit because the home is uninhabitable? This is possible as the flood conditions could lead to mold and be really problematic. Do you want help with the flood cleanup instead of making it your responsibiity to dry out the house? While it sounds like the homeowner should have acted pro-actively, they might not have anticipated the flooding would happen now. Is some of this your resentment that the homeowner wasn’t proactive and left you in this position? Those feelings are valid, but might not be a part of the discussion which is really about your ask. Know your ask.

Extreme weather has led to problems on many sits. We experienced a power outage for several hours due to a windstorm in a major US city on our last sit. There was no home damage, but the homeowners could not have been nicer and more concerned about our comfort and safety. While they didn’t have flooding, I’m pretty sure if there had been flooding, they would have gotten their cleaner in or someone else to clean up even if we’d offered to help.

It sounds like the least they could do would be to call the neighbor themselves about bringing the wet vac over, and to maybe send you over some groceries or a restaurant gift cert or something to make this up to you.

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Sorry to hear you are having those issues. Certainly not ideal and not something I would like to handle either.

Ultimately there is no right or wrong way to handle it, and this is just my perspective…

If it were me, I would probably just clean up the room with the vacuum as asked. Ideally, he would ask the neighbor to bring it over rather than task you with also having to get it, regardless of how close by the home. But I wouldn’t read too much into that aspect of it.

The only reason I would refuse to do something of this nature would be if I physically was unable to because of an injury or something like that, or if it was something of a more complex nature and I didn’t feel confident in my abilities.

Housesitting can present us with unpredictable situations and I just do my best to go with the flow. For me to outright refuse to do something, it would have to be a pretty big ask that I felt was egregiously beyond the scope of my responsibilities.

But again, like I said, ultimately sitters are free to decide for themselves how they wish to handle such situations.

And one piece of advice I always repeat in posts of this nature is that if a sitter decides not to speak up about something because they feel uncomfortable with conflict, are worried this could affect their review, worried about creating an awkward dynamic with the host and the like, it is just important to own that choice and realize you value keeping the peace more for myriad reasons than speaking up.

This goes a long way in making sitters feel less put upon, taken advantage of and such. There is power in realizing they are making a choice even if deep down it is not the choice they actually prefer. The reason I always throw this in here is because I suspect that much more often than not, sitters end up not saying anything to the hosts about the problems they bring to the forum.

Best of luck however you decide to proceed.

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I will be here until 1/11/26. I anticipate the current issue worsening as more rain is coming. Thank you for your input, I appreciate it and the link.

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Thank you! Yes, there are always positives. :slightly_smiling_face:

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No, it was not. Thank you.

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If a wet dry vac is not immediately at hand but is a band-aide more or less adequate in the past, the “flooding” is obviously minor and a band-aide is all that is needed for someone temporarily in the house. Whether the owner is fixing it, will fix it or not or is a renter is not a sitter’s problem.

A heater problem that gets sorted in 2 days is an inconvenience more than a real problem.

An obvious motivation for hosts to have sitters is to keep an eye on things. That usually involves nothing. Occasionally, it’s not nothing. Your issues are inconveniences but really aren’t any big deal. Last year’s tree crashing across our road onto our driveway blocked comings and goings for most of a day and knocked out power for 4 days. That was a bigger deal but I would have expected a sitter to deal with it if I had been 6000 miles away at the time.

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Ontheroadsgain - That’s exactly what happened two years ago when I had a sitter at my house! I took care of arranging the tree removal and getting the electrics fixed. But, my sitter dealt with everything wonderfully. I’m so glad he was there to do so. It’s not always just about the pets.

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I appreciate you taking the time to reply. The issues with the house are significant from a health and material standpoint. I would not have posted if the problems were just inconveniences.

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You sound like an empathetic homeowner who took responsibility and appropriate actions. I appreciate how you handled the situation.