Nem
Public liability insurance that excludes damage to the pet owner’s property or home!!!!
We found someone who came across as a lovely potential local pet sitter for home visits and were just finalising the meet and greet when I asked her if she had full public liability insurance. She replied that Pawshake took a reasonably high percentage of her earnings for insurance so she didn’t have her own nor did she want to spend the money on additional insurance and that no one had asked for it before. Looking at the Pawshake cover on their website they do say they provide “Public Liability Insurance” with their sitters as a peace of mind guarantee (if booked through the site etc) but then reading further they then say that this Public Liability in fact excludes “Damage to personal property of either the pet owner or pet sitter (such as damage to personal items, home and/or vehicles and/or cleaning costs)”. So should my home be burgled because, say the pet sitter doesn’t exercise enough care of my home’s security or the keys for example, I’m not covered?!!! That’s not public liability cover!!!!!!! And, as a home owner, I’m not going to hand my house keys to anyone who isn’t fully covered for loss or damage to my home. Anything could happen while she was in control of my home, its security and the keys, and regardless of intentions the pet sitter would be legally liable. Your own home and contents insurance won’t cover any losses that happen once your home is in someone else’s custody and control when you’ve hired them as a service provider and have handed over your house keys to them, so be careful… worst case scenario and your house burns down as a result of a pet sitter’s action, who do you think will pay for your house to be rebuilt without appropriate Public Liability insurance, the pet sitter? I’m sure they’ve got a few hundred thousand spare for that… I don’t fancy having no choice but to accept a £10 per week payment plan for eternity from someone when I’ve lost my home due to their negligence. Needless to say I’ve gone for someone else not on Pawshake who has the full appropriate insurance for the work they do. From her attitude to insurance I don’t think the potential sitter realises the implications for her should something go wrong either. Without proper insurance she could so easily find herself on the wrong end of a very expensive legal action and court judgement and having to pay for it personally for years to come. It was a shame because she seemed perfect on the face of it, but despite the glowing reviews, I just wouldn’t take the risk.