Sitter has to pay veterinary expenses up front!

Sitter Questions, Advice & Chat
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BTW, in the U.S., various states have provisions to prevent exactly what @pietkuip mentioned was theoretically possible in Sweden.

I mention this, because if any sitter potentially thinks they’d be at risk of losing their home say in the U.S. if some host tried to pursue you for freakish damages, check out whether your state / province / country has a homestead provision or something similar.

Why: In various jurisdictions with them, they keep creditors from seizing your home (meaning creditors besides the bank that holds your mortgage).

It’s a very unlikely path anyhow, but some folks seem genuinely worried about the risks. To me, because I know how hard it would be for someone to pursue anyone for damages even in legit cases, I don’t take seriously potential exposure given ridiculous terms written by THS.

And agnostic of THS, just because any company writes terms doesn’t mean they’re automatically enforceable. The ones they can typically enforce involve booting you off their site.

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Thank you for this research and information @Maggie8K

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Commenting on the mention of the “homestead” in the US. The actual amount protected varies widely from state to state. In many states, it will NOT fully protect from judgments. I am a practicing Virginia attorney and deal with the homestead law all the time.

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That’s why each person should check where they live, as I mentioned.

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I was never aware of this. I recently had a sit where the dog was having seizures. It turned out she had a brain tumor–nothing at all to do with the sit, just poor timing that it came to light at this time. The PP must have incurred thousands of dollars for the blood work, overnights in the hospital, etc. There is no way I could have afforded to pay this up front.

5.3.5 is unreasonable, unfair, and, honestly, outrageous. It needs to be eliminated. Instead, it should read that the HO is responsible to make an arrangement with the vet ahead of time to either be billed on account or pay by credit card over the phone–which, by the way, is how it’s been handled all four times I’ve had to take a pet to the vet in the past 8 years I’ve been sitting on here.

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As the owner of a 25,000 dollar border collie cross, it’s unacceptable that a sitter would have to pay vet bills up front.

She’s been cancer free for 3.5 years now.

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168

Hello everyone

As you know, I’ve already come back to the discussion with an update, after passing your initial feedback about vet fees to the team. Some of you asked for a bit more information so I wanted to be sure to reply to those members who tagged me. @Marion @Twitcher @GillianWings @systaran

The Forum team is always happy to pass on member’s comments and suggestions to the relevant teams as we want you to feel that your voice is heard and also to provide internal teams with a transparent view of what our Forum members are thinking.

We are here to listen to and support you, however there is a limit to what we can do, and a limit to what information we can share when it comes to certain topics. With that in mind, we’re not able to provide any further updates on the vet fee clause, other than what I’ve already shared with you. While we do our very best to elevate your voices, when we pass along your feedback, we can’t ever guarantee what the outcome will be.

While we can’t guarantee the outcome you’re looking for, we’ll continue to look at how we can make your voices heard, including how we tell you about product updates, and how we collect and pass over feedback within THS. As Carla has already mentioned in another thread, we’ll be updating everyone soon with some changes to how we manage product updates, something that we’re doing as a direct result of your feedback on discussions like this.

As I mentioned in my previous update, it’s important to remember that the majority of sits will go ahead without any issues, and we support the recommendation that some of you made to communicate in advance of a potential sit, to make sure you felt comfortable that emergency situations were covered off before accepting it.

I know that some of you had questions about hypothetical situations, but I must remind you that the Forum isn’t a formal branch of Membership Services, so if you have any questions about the vet fee clause and what might happen if something did go wrong and you didn’t have funds to pay a vet (or any other related questions), you should reach out to the wider team via support@trustedhousesitters.com.

In closing, please keep in mind that our Forum was created to be a place to discuss housesitting and provide peer-to-peer support. The Forum team’s role is to look after the Forum, its members, and to help facilitate discussions while keeping a safe and supportive environment. Many of the Forum team are sitters and/or owners just like you, using the platform in the same way as all of our members. What matters to you, matters to us too.

Thanks everyone.

Angela

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169

Thank you @Angela_L

I wrote to member services about my concerns about this specific clause back in September when the issue was first raised and other members such as @Cuttlefish said they had previously raised it with them . I have not had an answer other than they are reviewing it .

That is why I came to the forum because member services do not reply to concerns raised through the official channel.

The following questions (which were first raised in September ) are not hypothetical questions -they are straightforward questions that since the team have been reviewing the issue for 2 months they must know the answers to these reasonable questions by now.

  • What happens if sitter does not have sufficient funds to pay the fees upfront ? That’s not hypothetical I don’t have sufficient funds to pay for a stranger’s pet’s emergency vet bills.

  • What is there in the T&Cs to protect the sitter who does not have sufficient funds to pay vet fees upfront ? As a sitter I need to know this

  • Would a sitter who doesn’t have sufficient funds be considered in breach of the THS T&Cs ? As a sitter I need to know this.

  • Would action be taken against them ?
    As a sitter I need to know this.

Keeping the clause means that I as a sitter am liable to pay these fees - so I need to know the answers to the questions above .

Since member services do not reply to these concerns and we can’t get answers on the forum how do we find out the information we need ?

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@Silversitters is right @Angela_L - these aren’t hypothetical questions, they’re real issues that we as sitters have to deal with. If the membership team don’t solve them or offer solutions, where else do we go other than the forum and the offshoot team? The vet issue is massive. The repercussions are huge and the onus is entirely wrong. HOs own the pets, HOs take ultimate responsibility. It’s no more complicated. Why won’t THS change the clause? We as paying members (read customers) have the right to know and no one is giving us an answer.

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Hello @Silversitters

Thanks for your reply. Those are good questions, and we understand why you’re keen to get an answer.

Membership Services should be able to handle these kinds of questions, and if they don’t have the answer to hand, they should be able to find out.

We checked for an update on your enquiry, and we’ve been able to confirm that the agent dealing with it passed over your feedback as promised, but that the questions you’ve noted above don’t seem to be part of the (very appreciated) general feedback you sent them.

My advice would be to copy and paste those bullet points into an email, and contact MS to ask for a specific answer to each point.

If you don’t get a response within a reasonable timescale, we can always check in on your behalf, to see the status of your enquiry.

Angela

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If @Silversitters follows your advice and actually gets answers to the very specific questions I hope they will come back to the forum.
The answers are very important to all members.
If there is a change in policy please ensure it is communicated to all members.
This thread has now been marked as resolved but I don’t feel it has.
Thank You

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Hello @Twitcher Just to let you know that @Silversitters marked this thread as resolved, by selecting one of their comments as the solved answer as they are the OP. The forum team are more than happy to keep the thread open for everyone to continue the discussion :slight_smile:

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We are very careful when selecting sits and we avoid sit where the pets are too old, sick or on a medication, however in 40 sits we had to make 15 vets visits (12 for just 1 pet). 3 visits were emergencies, one was life threatening, and we had to make a decision whether to authorize treatment or the pet would have died. We are careful to select sits also where the PP has provided vet info and information how to handle any urgent vet visits. Despite this we have found ourselves having to deal with those situations without much support from THS. Back then the excuse was severe staff shortage, but we were never able to reach and talk to anyone. Placing the burden of paying for the vet bills on the sitters is totally unfair and shows once more that sitters don’t really matter to THS. We always make sure to ask the PP to include vet info but how do you discuss or prepare for unpredictable situations where the pet’s life is at stake? THS should revise this section to make it more balanced and practical for both sitters and pet parents. The policy should read something along the lines of:

In the event of a veterinary emergency, the pet sitter should promptly contact the pet parent by all available communication means to discuss the necessary steps, including vet visits, procedures, and payment options. If the PP is not available, the sitter should contact the PP’s emergency contact and receive guidance on the above.
If the pet parent and PP’s emergency contact are unreachable, the sitter should then contact the TrustedHousesitters vet emergency phone line for guidance on the next steps, involving vet visits, procedures, and payment arrangements. Only if the pet parent, PP’s emergency contact and the THS vet line are unavailable should the sitter arrange an initial emergency vet visit. During this, the pet sitter should inform the vet office that they are an unpaid volunteer pet sitter and that any pre-authorization and payment arrangements should be made directly with the pet parent.

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Thank you for the clarification @Carla1

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Definitely a typo on my behalf -thank you for bringing this to my attention- I was unaware I had done that - now back as unresolved .

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@Angela_L @Twitcher
I have sent these specific questions to member services . I will update the forum when I receive an answer

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This is what I asked
“ Please can you answer these specific questions in relation to a sitter’s responsibilities regarding pay for emergency vet fees upfront:

What happens if sitter does not have sufficient funds to pay the fees upfront ?

What is there in the T&Cs to protect the sitter who does not have sufficient funds to pay vet fees upfront ?

Would a sitter who doesn’t have sufficient funds be considered in breach of the THS T&Cs ?

What action would be taken against a sitter who did not pay vet fees ?
What assistance will member services provide a sitter if the Pet Owner doesn’t reimburse the sitter ?
Will TrustedHousesitters reimburse a sitter if the pet owner does not do so at the end of the sit? ”

This is the reply (which was very promptly received )
“
I will be happy to answer any questions that you may have regarding this.

Unfortunately, this clause in our Terms and Conditions will remain the same and will not be changed as someone has to remain responsible for the pet in the absence of the pet’s parents.

Some pet parents have accounts set up through their vets for emergency situations. You will need to discuss with the pet parent prior to confirming a sit what their plan may be in the event that their pet needs care in their absence. We would like to urge you to communicate your concerns with the pet parents regarding any emergency situation that may arise. \

We unfortunately do have any terms and conditions in place for sitters who cannot pay the vet fees. This is something that will have to be worked out with the pet parents and we do not provide reimbursement of vet costs. ”

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@Silversitters This response from member services is absolutely appalling.

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I would love to hear from someone beyond member services about this issue. What is the rationale for putting financial responsibility for the pets on sitters. It does not make any sense. I’m certainly not responsible for costs associated with someone else’s pet.

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@Silversitters , you’ve got to be joking right? :crazy_face::fearful: