@Newpetlover Keep in mind the reverse of checking each room. By that I mean if any areas of the home are to remain locked, just bring to the homeowner’s attention that you won’t be able to monitor for any leaks or other incidents. For example, if there’s an ensuite bathroom in a locked primary bedroom. I make it clear that I have no issues with them choosing to lock an area but they need to be aware of how it could complicate things.
i think there is a lot to be gleaned in fine tuning how to be a proactive sitter and homeowner. I honestly don’t know what I would have done differently to have prevented this on the front end. I feel as though I did everything a reasonable homeowner would have done and has worked so well for 9 other sitters. I am now in a house with tens of thousands of dollars of destruction and reconstruction happening which insurance should cover minus $5000- money I wasn’t expecting to spend on this and will impact me. I work from home with clients on line and there will be plenty of noise and need for my presence to oversee. My children are coming home from to be here this summer and their rooms are not usable. The what to do for the future to prevent something like this is productive, yet leaves me wondering can everything be thought of and said, will it ever cover everything? I can slso say the consequences are huge.
I am curious if you do get a reimbursement for your deductible. Pleae let us know if it works out. I agree you acted reasonably and reasonibly.
Update.
So far the home and contents plan seems very hard to use. When insurance, which must be used, covers the damage (anyone with a home and mortgage will have home insurance) the plan covers nothing. I am lucky that I will not lose my insurance over this and likely won’t have my rates go up. Not everyone may be so lucky.
I wrote THS and asked for further consideration since I do feel, even in hindsight, that there were no red flags about these sitters toward the cost of the deductible. Out of pocket $5000 is not something I had budgeted for and has significant impact.
I received a response, and while quite lovely and empathetic, reiterated that the plan does not include this. The response was so repetitive to the words from before I am wondering if it is AI generated, and not a real person at all. I have asked to have a conversation. I’m not sure this will happen.
I am also concerned that I do not see any process happening on THS’s side to ensure sitters are in good standing other than homeowner reviews - even when something very problematic has happened like what happened to me. It might be entirely dependent on individual reviews and I have not heard back about that question.
Leaving a bad review ( which I did ) feels vulnerable. I don’t like doing it at all for many reasons. I too have compassion for the sitter and deeply trust no harm was intended. It is quite vulnerable literally as they know where I live. I would feel so irresponsible not saying what happened and rating accordingly so I did, but it is a lot. i offered them a chance to respond in any way they wanted to what happened before I left my review. The husband did not respond at all, and the wife has only repeated she had not seen water days before when doing laundry, but was not staying in the house. It still was hard I’m not confident everyone will leave this kind of review for good reasons
I don’t think anything to happen to me in retaliation for my review, but it is an added worry on top of the next month if dealing with insurance and water remediation people as well as those who will help rebuild what was damaged. This whole experience is pretty close to a worst case scenario. If I didn’t have homeowners insurance that is in good standing, has not been used previously, and 5000 that I can pull together somehow, it absolutely would be up there. It is in all ways really hard and extremely disappointing.
I would consider reviewing THS on TrustPilot so that other homeowners or potential homeowners are aware. It also seems nuts to me as if I’m reading it correctly it sounds like you have to have insurance to get anything covered, and if insurance covers it (even with a very high deductible then THS won’t cover anything, so what exactly is the point of the coverage? How could it possibly be used?
This solidifies my own feeling that I will no longer pay to use THS and will no longer recommend to anyone. This is matching site that does nothing else but makes claims that it is more than that.
Have you tried to dispute the sit as the sitters never told you about the damage when deailng with it sooner might have helped?
(Edited in line with the Terms of Service)