I’ve just read the subject T&CS and have some questions that I’ll submit separately, so each post isn’t so long.
3.2.11 - “an Accident and 3rd Party Liability Plan provided at our sole discretion to Sitters
with a standard or premium membership, where Sitters have suffered damage or injury
caused by a pet while housesitting, subject to these terms and conditions; Please note
that this plan will not be available to Co-Sitters as they are not Members.”
Does this mean a subscription only covers one person, so a damage suffered by the other party in a “couple” will not be covered by the insurance? If this is the case, shouldn’t there be a warning that for sits requiring a couple, one person of that couple will not be covered by THS insurance unless they too are a paid subscriber?
5.2. The following applies only to Pet Parents.
“5.2.4. ensure that no pets to be left under the care of a Sitter have ever caused a person
or animal any physical harm (no matter how minor the injury);”
This needs clarification. Anyone who has played with a dog or cat knows you may suffer a minor injury during such event. It should specifically say “unprovoked” injury. Aggressive or abusive behavior towards an animal may also result in injury, but the animal should not be faulted and precluded from THS.
“5.2.11. not have any inherently dangerous pets (such as venomous snakes or constrictors, primates, wolves or wolf hybrids, non-domesticated cats, alligators), banned
dog breeds, or any animal with a history of attacks on pets or people”
Snakes like king, milk, corn… should bot be considered inherently dangerous. I’ve dealt with these snakes for decades and domestic ones are definitely not dangerous. Technically, parrots can be incredibly dangerous to those they have not bonded with. I know from personal experience.
“5.3.3. abide by all of the immigration rules and local laws of any country you visit while
carrying out a Sit;”
So if pet sitting in a country that does not allow it, does that mean THS insurance will be null and void even though the main reason for the countrt visit is tourism? A sit concelled within 10 days of a sit would not be covered?
Hi @Cat-ophile
I wanted to swing past and recommend reaching out to our Member Service teams for support, they can be contacted by email support@trustedhousesitters.com
Though, our fantastic community may be able to offer their opinion and share personal experiences which may also help. 
For years some couples operated like they had 2 separate memberships. They clearly do not even with the “duo” feature which the company promotes. Would be great they offered couples coverage or even an a la carte/per sit coverage option for a second person. Would also be great who ever received a dime from THS after an injury would let the rest of us know.
In my opinion, the T&Cs are solely for the purpose of protecting THS from liability issues with 5.2.4. being epitome of degree to which THS has insulated itself from those liabilities. It’s good business practice for THS but paying members need to view the T&Cs with healthy skepticism.
With all due respect to @Mark_B, there have been many reports on this forum making clear that support from Costumer Support is spotty depending on who picks up the call/answers the email. This is true with real world situations requiring a real resolution. I expect answering hypotheticals will be even more hit and miss and, whatever the answer, are nonbinding. 3.2.11’s “at our sole discretion” is telling all us the important bit.
5.3.3. is crystal clear in my mind. If you get stopped from entering a country by immigration, you failed to abide by immigration rules and the sit “cancellation” is on the sitter. Hosts with sitter cancellation coverage should still qualify.
5.2.4 - we suffered a very poor housesit experience, and our only Member Dispute, on this topic. Sad. Personally we support simple, strong language. Whether an injury is ‘unprovoked’ seems subjective - easy to reassign blame.
We guess, and we recognize housesitter bias, that the risk that you identify (blameless pet) is much less important than pet parent choosing not to disclosed prior injuries. Our proposed change in regards this THS term would be its inclusion to pet parents at time of posting each listing.
3.2.11 - we’ve posted about this term previously. It is our understanding the name of the ‘plan’ is deceptive, in that THS members may read ‘accident and third party insurance’ and assume coverage that is very different to the actual coverage.
It appears that coverage is limited to damage caused a pet. Any damage (to property, humans, otherwise) caused by housesitter (and co-sitter it seems) does not appear to be covered, at all, by this plan.
@Cat-ophile, reading THS Terms of Service is hardly exciting but a great idea for THS Members (pet parents or housesitters) that use the service quite a bit. Kudos for starting thread. We read THS ToS, especially sit cancellation insurance section, after pet parent cancelled sit on us in an international location.
For those that seek to read noted paragraphs in context, weblink to THS Terms of Service.
It worries me that members are still referring to it as insurance and are not being corrected by THS staff, it is not insurance, at best it offers a limited amount of financial protection at the sole discretion of THS.
Personally, we pay for our own petsitter liability insurance cover. We pay around £85 a year. As very regular sitters we feel it is money well spent.
What does surprise me, is that THS isn’t able to negotiate a proper insurance policy with large insurance companies at a good rate which sitters can choose to opt in to.
@Colin at least one of the new competitors offers pet sitter insurance.
It’s probably because it’s not a priority. It’s easier to just wait for stuff to happen and then point out to both sitters and homeowners that they only a matching service.
Honestly, in terms of a business that would attract both sitters and hosts, it would be great if there was actually insurance whether it was something included in a tier OR something that could be purchased by each party at confirmation per sit, so people could weigh the risks on a case by case basis.
But lets not kid ourselves that this is going to happen.