We had had wonderful experiences with our Housesitters until __ came to sit. She had outstanding recommendations and we were eager to have her take care of our pups. We always leave a sealed envelope with $200 in cash in case of an emergency with the dogs. [She]took the money and bought clothes with it, leaving us with a check that was no good. We were very concerned that [she]would sit for someone else and potentially steal agin. Often, people steal small amounts at first and then go for larger amounts/ things if they are not caught. We contacted Trusted Housesitters with evidence of [this] crime and asked that [this sitter] be omitted from the list of Housesitters to protect owners and Trusted Housesitters itself. Trust Housesitters refused to delist [her]. People should know that Trusted Housesitters has no policy against delisting people who steal from owners.
I would not come to the conclusion that she purposely left you a bad check. Maybe she is on a tight budget and thought the check would clear. She may have funds deposited into her account directly and a one day holiday she didn’t take into consideration will delay the check a day or four days if just before the weekend. The funds can be there now. Did you speak with her about it or just came to the worst conclusion that she steals. The way you present it I am on team sitter that it was not intentional that the check bounced. Maybe she thought by emergency you meant if food ran out for the pups and maybe three days before she left she knew it wouldn’t and she needed new walking shoes before she traveled again. I don’t know if she is a young nomad or not. Having had young Workawayers stay at my home I know what a tight budget they are on. If you did not discuss this with her I can’t feel bad for you.
Sorry this happened to you. How much time has elapsed since the money was found missing and what were the circumstances leading up to her writing you a cheque?
No one with any smidgeon of intelligence would take money from an envelope without asking first. Absolutely ridiculous to think it would be ok for her to do that.
Well, she may have stolen from others, but they haven’t noticed yet. Maybe found hidden jewely and HOs haven’t checked yet.
What did she say when you told her the check bounced?
Wow that is crazy. This is not OK and there is no excuse as suggested by others . Please do follow up with this step suggested by Maggie. Did you review her accordingly? Is the sitter trying to rectify this with you? Have they gone silent on you? Please keep us posted.
Here is the process as provided by @Silversitters in another post:
Here is a link to the Help article and a brief summary of how to raise a member dispute
email the Membership Services department at [support@trustedhousesitters.com]
a detailed explanation of your complaint and include any relevant evidence that you may have.
Supporting evidence THS will accept:
Time and date stamped photos
Time and date stamped videos
Screenshot of email, texts and any other messages on our platform that is in relation to the sit (it must be a full thread conversation, not one message screenshots)
Police/Crime Reports
Vet Reports
The member dispute should be raised within 30 days of the end of the sit .
There is another thread now about a “creepy” homeowner. This works or rather dysfunctions two ways. Trustedhousesitters has a terms of conduct for members: both sitters and homeowners. It does not enforce these terms. It acts as a marketplace and doesn’t police it’s own market. Anyone with the $ to join can. The only checks are ID checks for sitters and substandard (not for employment or housing purposes) public record “criminal” background check for sitters in the US. For homeowners the checks are even less.
I’m a combined member. Yesterday I had a great call with a combined member about sitting for them in the fall. Despite my reviews and theirs, despite a chain of THS messages going back years where they invited us to sit after sitter cancellations, and even some talk of meeting up when they were in our town, they made sure to give us their last names and we them ours.
If you haven’t given the person a review mentioning this, please do so. I’d recommend figure out another way besides leaving a lot of cash for emergencies. A bad check can also be a criminal offense, so you might consider filing a police report. I’d explain it in terms of the sitter’s boundaries, the money was for emergencies but was spent on clothes so using it was for a different purpose then indended. It was never supposed to be a loan and would not have been available in an emergency as she spent it so this was very bad judgement. The bad check shows she understood it wasn’t her money to use as she wished. Even if the check had been good, it wasn’t good. So you can write about what happened without writing it in a way that is accusatory.
Because THS is an exchange, generally the great sitters on the site are somewhat picky. You describe multiple dogs. Some sits are difficult and won’t get a lot of interests. The interest may come from people who aren’t the best, Review inflation is rampant here. People aren’t really encouraged to report stuff after the fact like noticing missing stuff.
We deposited the check and waited a week to make sure it cleared and then wrote a very favorable review for the sitter. A few days after we wrote the review, we received the notification that the check was not any good.
When we arrived home, the sitter told us what she had done and gave us a check. She did not ask us to wait any period of time before depositing it and gave no indication that the check would not be good. After the check bounced, it crossed my mind that she must not have had a credit card or a debit card, which is strange in this age and also strange because she was in her 50’s and driving a very nice car.50s,
Maybe the store wouldn’t accept checks or perhaps she knew that the store’s electronic check verification system would reveal that the check was no good.
. Please do follow up with this step suggested by Maggie. Did you review her accordingly? Is the sitter trying to rectify this with you? Have they gone silent on you? Please keep us posted.