Housesitting Gone Wrong: Red Flags, Real Disasters, and the Homeowner from Hell
Quick answer: we’ve housesat for nearly ten years across England, Ireland, Spain, Malta, Cyprus, France, Canada, and Mexico, with a track record of repeat invitations this is the one genuinely bad experience in all that time, and the lesson is simple: trust your instincts on the very first call. Every red flag we ignored here a homeowner fixated on complaints about past sitters, visible drinking on a video call, vague or shifting answers about the location turned out to matter.
We have been housesitting now for nearly 10 years, we have multiple repeat sits in England, Ireland, Spain, Canada and Mexico and have been invited back to housesit most of our homeowners’ pets and properties.
Housesitting is not easy and it really is about working, caring for someone’s house and pets is not something to take lightly. I would say that 98 out of 100 homeowners understand that they are getting fantastic care for their pets and their homes and it is a serious business but once in a blue moon, you get the homeowner from hell.
This is our long sorry tale of bad homeowners and a housesit nightmare and I will admit that this is partly my fault, I didn’t listen to my instincts on that first Skype call, but I had wanted to visit this area for a long time and the pets looked adorable. My cautionary tale is about listening to your instincts, trusting yourself when you see or hear red flags and learning from the experience.
- Housesitting Gone Wrong: Red Flags, Real Disasters, and the Homeowner from Hell
- Fast Facts: Our Housesitting Background
- The Homeowner from Hell: When a Housesit Goes Bad
- Arrival: The Rules Change Before We've Even Unpacked
- Eight Weeks in Extreme Heat
- A Medical Emergency in the Middle of the Night
- The Money Demands
- Cutting the Sit Short
- The Aftermath
- The Rules We Live By as International Housesitters
- Red Flags to Watch For Before You Accept a Sit
- Property Problems in Long-Vacant Homes
- 10 Tips for House Sitting
- Further Housesitting Resources
- More Housesitting Disasters We've Faced
- Frequently Asked Questions About Housesitting Gone Wrong
Fast Facts: Our Housesitting Background
| Years housesitting | Nearly 5 years |
| Countries sat in | England, Ireland, Spain, Canada, Mexico, Cyprus, Malta, France, Northern Ireland |
| Typical outcome | Repeat invitations from most homeowners |
| This story’s outcome | The one genuinely bad experience in that entire track record |
| Biggest lesson | Trust your instincts on the first call every ignored red flag here mattered |
| What saved us | Documenting and timestamping everything from day one |
The Homeowner from Hell: When a Housesit Goes Bad
That first Skype call was not terrible we just noticed that the homeowner spent a lot of time complaining about previous sitters and how awful they were damaging things, killing her plants, neglecting the animals and stealing stuff from her house, running up the utility bills and so on. We commiserated and promised we were definitely not that kind of housesitter and had the references to prove it. But that should have been my first clue.
The homeowner spoke of needing a car but said that there were shops in the village and the banks were “down the road” little did we know this was a complete untruth. The homeowner said we could “rent” her car for £8 Euros a day, which we turned down, as it was much too expensive, and we felt we could manage with public transport or taxis (of which it turns out there were none another “untruth”).
My second clue was the fact that both of them appeared to be drunk, clutching wine glasses and pouring the whole time they were online. She kept complaining about his drinking and how he had fallen down drunk at a “do” last night. That was the second red flag that we ignored.
Nevertheless, we proceeded to accept the housesit and continued our conversations via email where she sent us pictures of the exterior of the house and the dog. He looked like a lively happy fellow but when we tried to get more details about the house, we were sent pictures of the multitude of pots in the garden and more untruths about the location.
The third red flag came when I got a screamingly pissy email about how I hadn’t kept my promise about keeping in touch. Now we were 12 weeks out from the sit and I did recall promising to keep in touch with her when we were housesitting on a regular basis and I did agreed to check in each week before the sit began which I did you. I shoulda listened to my gut but at that point, we had already made the commitment and the tickets were booked and they were expensive.
At this point hubs and I decided we couldn’t let the lovely animals down and it wasn’t fair to the homeowner that we backed out now and to be totally honest we didn’t have another sit booked as we had stopped looking when we got this one. So off we flew hoping against hope that all would be well.
On the upside of this horrible housesit we did manage to visit places like Paphos, the mosaics at the Archaelogical Park, and many othe ancient sites in Cyprus such as the birthplace of Aphrodite.
Arrival: The Rules Change Before We’ve Even Unpacked
We landed late at night and the homeowner and her boyfriend came to pick us up which we were extremely grateful for, as we had no clue where we were going to be. The entire way back to her house we were subjected to a litany of complaints about her boyfriend (who was in the front seat) his drunkenness, his appalling behaviours socially, the fact he had cheated on his wife and had ended up at 67 with a daughter.
It went on for the whole 45-minute drive with us cringing in the back seat of the car. We managed to get to the house without incident and the homeowner proceeded to show us around and detail our “duties”, well she did – he sat and drank an entire bottle of wine and several beers that were in the fridge.
We had to water all 300 potted plants at least every other day and ensure that they stayed alive, as the other housesitters had killed them all. We could not leave the house longer than 4 hours at a time or the dog would go crazy. We should feed the cat but she didn’t care about it as both pets had been bought for the boyfriend’s daughter. The cleaner was to come in every few weeks and take care of the house. She pointed out the stained stair carpet (we didn’t care really lol), finally exhausted we managed to get them to leave us alone so we could rest and see them in the morning.
The next morning they arrived from the boyfriend’s house where they were staying for a few days before they left. Again we were instructed on animal care, how to plug the TV in, be careful of the very expensive glasses in the cupboard and so it went on and on.
We then proceeded to the car and they showed us a small dent on the driver’s side and explained the insurance and the rules of the road for the area. We hopped in the car with them for a tour of the area and were again subjected to another session of complaints about how the previous housesitters had “taken them for a ride” and because of this they had changed the rules of the housesit.
We were no longer allowed to use the private pool at the boyfriend’s house, they had arranged for us to use the pool at the Clubhouse. This was a 5 km drive but it sure as hell beat a 50km drive to his house. We also learned there were no shops in the village just a few restaurants and the actual banks and ATMs were a good 2.5 km away.
At this point, we said to ourselves thank god we have the car we would be totally stranded and they must have been sensible enough to realize they couldn’t ask us to housesit without any transportation.
Finally, after a few days, they actually got on the damn plane and left. We were exhausted, they complained constantly about each other and each other’s drinking, they complained about all their previous housesitters and how much they had stolen and cost them.
They drank constantly and expected us to clean up after them. The homeowner did cook us two dinners that we had to suffer together but of course did not lift a finger to set the table, clear the table or do the dishes. It was a nightmare and we couldn’t wait for them to leave.
Eight Weeks in Extreme Heat
So we spent 8 weeks watering the plants, feeding the dog and cat and walking the dog twice a day in 45-degree heat. The area was suffering a heatwave they called Lucifer so we went and bought a portable fan, as we didn’t want to use the aircon. It was brutally hot; high walls surrounded the cottage so no breezes and the heat built up to near unbearable levels.
The kitchen was so tiny a camper kitchen would have felt luxurious. The BBQ was so old, wobbly, and low on fuel but the dog was adorable, such a sweetie and the terrace garden was lovely.
A Medical Emergency in the Middle of the Night
One night the dog fell over around 9 pm and had a seizure it was terrifying. We found a vet that was open and raced through the night (over 20kms) to get the poor creature down to the vet’s where he was given three shots and x-rays were taken. He was alive that’s all that counted.
By the time we got him back his snout had swollen to 4x its size and we realized he had been stung by a wasp and had an allergic reaction. We took him back to the vet the next day who confirmed our belief, gave the dog 3 more shots, one more x-ray and charged us £79 Euros.
The Money Demands
Later that night the homeowner called the house after I had sent her an email describing the excitement. During the phone call towards the end when the connection was going fuzzy, she said something curious to me about sorting out the cost and deducting it from what we owed her. I didn’t get to question this as the phone died. So the next morning I sent her an email asking what she meant and for clarification.
I was told at that point that since we were going to pay for the utility bills for our stay, the car rental, the wifi cost, the propane cost for the BBQ and the insurance she would take the money she owed us off the bill. I was told that I “couldn’t possibly expect to stay free in someone’s home and that I had to take responsibility for the bills that we had run-up. Did I think that housesitting was a free ride, how dare I believe that housesitting was about living in other people’s homes for free?
I was speechless and astounded, to say the least, and knew that this wouldn’t be the last of that conversation and that we were in for another 8 weeks of being berated, abused and held to what I considered monetary extortion.
Cutting the Sit Short
We were halfway into the sit and had another 8 weeks to go when we received a call from home about a medical emergency. Within 3 days we had made arrangements for the dog to stay with his previous sitters, the homeowner had called and booked the cattery and the car was removed to god knows where. We made our own way to the airport and left thanking God we had managed to escape without having to deal with the inevitable arguments that were to come, as we had no intention of paying anything that we had not agreed to.
The Aftermath
We received numerous emails threatening us, demanding to know why we expected to stay “free” accusing us of all sorts of things like neglecting the dog and cat, costing them huge sums of money on damage to the house, car and gardens, leaving a filthy house that was badly damaged and a garden that was a disaster.
We have been accused of running up the electric bills, using the phone to call all over the planet, hijacking their WiFi and costing them a fortune in wifi charges and the list goes on. Yet for 6 weeks the house has sat empty, the car was with someone else and the filthy house had supposedly been cleaned twice by the cleaners.
This homeowner continued to stalk us on social media joining SM channels like LinkedIn and Facebook to try to harass us. They have reported us to every housesitting platform they can think of, which we have successfully dealt with and have not been “blacklisted” as threatened.
We have been threatened with being reported to the Police in Canada, blacklisted on housesitting websites and all SM channels and literally called every name under the sun. One communication was via LinkedIn that we owed them over £600 Euros for the cost of putting the dog and cat into the kennels. Rather ironic given the fact that we were supposed to do this for free saving them well over £1800 euros over the course of the housesit, but now we owe them?
I decided to tell this story as a cautionary tale to all housesitters and homeowners and to put down in writing some ideas and thoughts about housesitting that may help others in future. As for us, we are letting it roll off our backs – we know there are horrible, nasty grasping people in this world and we are not going to let this stop us or prevent us from housesitting. Mr and Mrs Nasty can threaten, attempt extortion and wail all they want.
The one thing I made damn sure of before we left is that I documented everything, and photographed everything (including the car the first day we were there). I time stamped all my photos. I may be stupid enough not to listen to my gut before but I learned well and will be prepared in the future.
Since that particular sit, we have had a couple of others that were by no means as bad as this one but had some downsides. We believe in housesitting and we know that you have to be extremely adaptable. Not everyone’s house will be as clean as yours so learn to live with it. Not every homeowner will be your “friend” so get over it. Not every location is ideal but hey it’s an experience you have never had before. Oh, and if you have to deal with allergies or are a vegan do not expect a homeowner to accommodate you by removing everything scented, or ensuring that the house is veganized remember you are sitting for them and it is their home NOT yours.
The Rules We Live By as International Housesitters
Choose a reputable platform you can find our favourites listed in Housesitting for Newbies. Since this particular sit came through a reputable platform, the platform did send us a notice asking us to clarify the situation. We understood that if the platform had any doubts about our credibility we could be removed from the platform and unable to apply for sits in future. Since we had documented everything we could prove our story and meet the requirements of the platform.
Red Flags to Watch For Before You Accept a Sit
Beyond the specific warning signs from our own experience, a few broader patterns tend to predict a sit going badly, and they’re worth screening for before you commit.
Unrealistic Chores
A sit that demands extensive gardening, deep cleaning, or round-the-clock animal care can quietly turn into an unpaid full-time job rather than a housesit. If the list of expectations feels more like a job description than a favour exchanged for accommodation, that’s worth questioning before you agree to anything.
Communication Breakdown
Homeowners who refuse a video call, or who take a long time to respond during the planning stage, are often hiding poor property conditions or unpredictable animal behaviour. A homeowner with nothing to hide is usually happy to hop on a call and show you around.
An Overwhelming Number of Pets
Caring for a large number of animals, or animals with aggressive tendencies, without any backup plan or support nearby creates real stress and genuine safety risk. Ask specifically about the number and temperament of pets, not just “do you have pets.” We once had a housesit in Spain that was supposed to be 2 horses, one dog 3 tortoises and nothing else. Turned out to be a pet boarding place and they forgot to tell us there were 2 dogs expected and 6 cats.
Property Problems in Long-Vacant Homes
If a property has been sitting empty for a while before you arrive, a few practical issues tend to show up more often than homeowners expect.
- Stagnant plumbing: pipes and fittings that haven’t been used in a while can develop leaking valves or dried-out rubber seals, sometimes not showing symptoms until you actually run the taps.
- Hidden moisture: poor ventilation in an empty house allows humidity to build up, and mould or musty odours can appear within days of you moving in, even if the house looked fine on arrival.
- Neglected upkeep: broken appliances or early-stage pest problems that an absent homeowner hasn’t noticed can compound quickly once someone’s actually living in the space again.
None of these are necessarily red flags about the homeowner themselves they’re just realities of an empty house that’s suddenly occupied again. Worth flagging anything you find early, in writing, so there’s no confusion later about what existed before you arrived versus what happened during your stay.
10 Tips for House Sitting
1. Ask for a written copy of the house rules. Make sure you know what the homeowner’s expectations are, be they cleaning, about the car or financial responsibilities.
2. Don’t forget to get the WiFi password, and make sure you ask if there is good WiFi before the sit. If that Skype conversation cuts out, you know you may have WiFi issues.
3. Leave the house exactly as you found it. If need be, take photos to ensure that you put things back and clean the way the homeowner likes. It is critical to leave the house in better condition than you found it. If you kill a plant replace it. Break a glass replace it.
4. Do what you say you are going to do or what the homeowners request. If they say to water the plants every two days, make sure it is done. If you are asked to mow the lawn, get it mowed. If they ask you to pick up the mail every day at 4 pm, go and get the mail.
5. Replace anything you have used or eaten. Make sure that the homeowner comes home to some basics in the fridge bread, butter, tea or coffee, sugar and milk. There is nothing worse than returning from a long trip and no cup of tea to be had.
6. Treat the homeowner’s home and property like your own, if not better.
7. Keep in touch with the homeowner as requested, or simply make sure you send photos of the pets or property so they can see their beloved pets are well taken care of and loved in their absence.
8. Introduce yourself to the neighbours, or ask the homeowner to introduce you. You want to establish the fact that you are an invited guest and housesitter.
9. Make sure you wash all the linens and towels that you used, and that they are clean and fresh for the homeowners’ return.
10. We always try to leave a small gift for the homeowner fresh flowers, a small thank you card, or some home-baked bread. We want them to know that we cared for and enjoyed our stay.
Further Housesitting Resources
- House Sit Search: a great resource to check out what sits exist before you join a platform
- House Sitting – The Ultimate Lifestyle Magazine
More Housesitting Disasters We’ve Faced
That Cyprus sit wasn’t the only time things went sideways. Over nearly ten years, we’ve run into a handful of other situations worth sharing not because they ruined the experience, but because each one taught us something about when to push through and when to walk away.
The House Was Filthy
We arrived at one sit to find the house genuinely filthy the kind of state that would send a lot of housesitters straight back to the airport. We stayed anyway. The homeowners and their kids were absolutely lovely, and that counted for a lot. We found our own comfortable spots in the house, worked around the mess, and got on with it. Not every housesit will be as clean as your own home, and sometimes the people are worth putting up with an imperfect property.
Terrible WiFi
On another sit, the WiFi was so bad it was barely usable. We asked the homeowners’ permission first, then paid for an upgrade ourselves. It solved the problem immediately, and asking before spending anything meant there was never a dispute about it afterward a small thing, but it’s exactly the kind of situation where getting agreement in writing or over email first protects you.
Turned Into Unpaid Renovation Project Managers
One of the more surreal sits saw the homeowners expect us to take care of renovations on their rental property while we were meant to be housesitting. We ended up making multiple trips by cab, removing garbage, organising and picking out a new carpet, and eventually handing the keys over to a rental agent an absolute nightmare that had nothing to do with the pets or house we’d actually agreed to look after. To make it worse, the homeowner was then unhappy that we’d used £200 of the expense money they’d left us to cover it all. If a sit starts pulling you into work that was never part of the original agreement, that’s worth pushing back on immediately, not absorbing quietly.
A Homeowner Who Stepped Over a Dying Dog
The worst of these was a sit where we watched the homeowner step over a very sick dog lying on the floor just to get a cup of tea. Hours later, they finally took the dog to the vet and it died there. We ended up leaving that sit early, since there were no animals left for us to actually be there for. Some situations aren’t about red flags you missed beforehand; they’re simply a sign to leave as soon as you reasonably can.
Frequently Asked Questions About Housesitting Gone Wrong
Is housesitting really free accommodation?
Yes, in a genuine housesitting arrangement, accommodation is exchanged for pet and property care that’s the entire model, and no legitimate homeowner should expect you to pay rent, utilities, or ‘rental’ fees for their own car on top of the care you’re providing for free.
What are the biggest red flags when arranging a housesit?
A homeowner who spends the introductory call complaining extensively about previous sitters, who gives inconsistent or vague answers about the location and amenities, or who seems intoxicated or discloses relationship conflict during your calls are all worth taking seriously. Trust your instincts on the very first call they’re usually right.
What should I do if a homeowner disputes payment or threatens me after a sit?
Document everything from day one photos of the property and car on arrival, timestamps, and copies of all communication. If you sat through a reputable platform, report the dispute to them directly with your evidence; platforms generally side with sitters who can demonstrate they met their obligations.
What should be included in a housesitting agreement before you arrive?
Get written house rules covering cleaning expectations, any financial responsibilities (utilities, car use), the WiFi password and connection quality, emergency vet contacts, and how often the homeowner expects updates all agreed before you travel, not negotiated after arrival.
How common are bad housesitting experiences?
Genuinely rare. After nearly ten years and dozens of sits across multiple countries, this is the only seriously bad experience in a track record otherwise full of repeat invitations and returning homeowners it doesn’t reflect the norm, but it’s worth knowing what a bad one looks like.
Should I leave a housesit early if something goes badly wrong?
It depends what’s actually gone wrong. A filthy house or bad WiFi is usually worth working through, especially if the family themselves are genuinely kind. But if you’re asked to take on work well outside what you agreed to, or you find yourself in a situation involving genuine animal neglect, leaving early is entirely reasonable and in the case of neglect, arguably the right call.
Have you ever had a housesit go wrong? We’d love to hear your story and if you’re just starting out, our best advice is simple: trust your gut on that very first call.
Check out my European Travel Highlights posts
A great cautionary tale Faith!
We have never had such a disaster but we do have very well honed ‘spidey’ senses (our nickname for those gut feelings). Once they start going off, walk away it is not going to get any better.
Thanks for sharing
Yep always gonna trust my spidey sense in future – it is one of of the best lessons ever for that to trust your own instincts and just know that it will work out regardless of what the brain thinks…lol
OMG! That whole episode sounds really awful! Really smart with the time stamps though. 😉
lol thank god for technology – at least I knew 5 minutes after meeting them in person I had to protect myself I am getting much better at that…
This is a really helpful post for anyone thinking of house sitting! I am always worried about doing it for reasons like this! Thanks for sharing 🙂
We have now had over 10 sits and this was the only one that went bad for the most part people are pretty good and you can protect yourself with what we call the housebook which is all the instructions you ever need and of course clarifying everything up front.
Wow. This story is like taken out of a strange, creepy movie. I’m so sorry you had to deal with people like that. And they kept harassing you online after the ordeal.. Oh my… They should’ve been banned from all housesitting websites/communities :/
Edin Rudin is building a platform for housesitters for exactly that reason a safe place for housesitters to talk about homeowners and the difficulties or success stories. Most homeowners are pretty great, well prepared and with lots of information. Some seek to take advantage of “free labour” or in this case making money off the housesitter. But she and her boyfriend are now on notice with all the platforms since they complained about us to platforms we don’t even belong too…lol
Absolutely what Kristine said. Although I’m sad that an emergency cut your stay short, I am really glad that you were out of there sooner rather than later. Thank you for sharing; it will help to make us all more alert to the potential pitfalls. And we can learn a lot from your careful and methodical approach to documenting the situation and dealing calmly and reasonably with people who were neither calm nor reasonable.
Thanks Bernadette – luckily the emergency was not as bad as we initially thought it would be so that turned out well. And that was exactly the point for writing the piece – sometimes its good to know the dark side and how to protect yourself. In this case I will now always listen to my instincts although it can be difficult when its long distance. I refuse at my age to get worked up over this kind of nonsense…I am just too old for drama….lol
Oh my, what a tale! It started badly and got worse. They sound like a nightmare and I’m really sorry they’re still hassling you. But it’s interesting that you ignored your instincts at the beginning – am sure you won’t do it again. Poor you.
What an awful experience. I’m relieved to know that you documented everything. This kind of story does make me feel like maybe housesitting isn’t for me!
Don’t let it put you off, listen to your gut, make sure you get all the details and believe me you will meet some amazing homeowners that will become friends for life.
This is the craziest story ever!!! I’m actually kind of glad you had an emergency (but hoping everything was okay) and had to leave early. This sounds like an absolute nightmare. Love the tips you put at the end!!!
Omg I’m so sorry for what you had to go through. Some people unduly take advantage of the fact that they’re hiring house sitters! I’ve never housesitted before, but now after reading your post I think I’m better prepared.
Wow sounds like a greatly unpleasant experience for you all. We have never had any house sitting experiences yet. It’s something we plan on pursuing in the coming years. Hopefully we wont encounter any owners like this
Like I say its a learning experience, trust your gut and document everything but also make sure the homeowner has used housesitters before and check with the previous housesitters for references on the homeowner.
What a horrible experience! I don’t know if I could handle the same situation like you did. It is really important to trust your instincts especially for people you haven’t met yet or don’t know really well. Glad to know that you were able to get out of that safely.
Oh my god this made me feel so bad for you !! What a crazy couple… I am sorry! I hope you had other more pleasant experiences in house sitting.
Oh my gosh! I can’t believe all this happened! That is a horrible experience. I have never done housesitting but I can see how it works well for travelers. I’m glad you were able to fight the allegations and I hope she leaves you alone!
Holy crap! That is some crazy terrifying story. Glad you got out of there alive! Haha. Thanks for sharing all the details and tips for successful housesits. I’ve never done it before, but have thought of it for various trips. Your suggestions are really helpful.
lol yep managed to get out before my hubs punched out the boyfriend and ended up in a foreign jail – housesitting is a great way to see the world just make sure your ducks are in a row and you trust your gut on the sits then you won’t go wrong.
Gosh was a brutal experience. I am glad that you were able to get through it and clarify with the organizations they supposedly reported you to. I hope that you don’t have to deal with such an experience again. The dogs are adorable though!
Aww the cutest post I have seen today <3
Carmelatte
I’m sorry you had to go through this. Red flags all over the place for sure. I am an home owner myself and for the past 2 years I have had housesitters. Some were great others not so. Some treated it as a job and were grateful they got to stay in my house, others turned the heat up and left the windows open, used all of my stocked good supply and didn’t refill and left the place unclean. I sometimes feel I should draft up an agreement about exces use but then I feel fussy and complaining. So I don’t do it and hope the next sitter is better. I hope your next sit will be better for sure!!
I think you should have an agreement about excessive use – we have worked with several homeowners who have done this and it was a good thing. We are Canadian and we have been both tenants and landlords so we are very accustomed to watching utility bills and ensuring that we don’t waste money leaving lights on and things like that. We have been horrified by some of our homeowners who simply leave everything on and have massive energy bills when we are carefully shutting of lights, not putting the heat on and so on. It does cut both ways, for example a sit we have coming up is for 6 months with no pets. We have agreed we will pay for the heating costs over and above the normal baseline and since this couple goes away a lot they have a range of the heating bills so we can see what we will be paying for on average and its a fair exchange. I do think both sides need to be very clear on expectations. For example you cannot expect a housesitter to pay for water when it is needed to water all the plants and gardens, or to go without a car when there is no easily accessible local transportation. Knowing this makes it much easier to negotiate what the expectations are.
Although we have never done housesitting, I can empathize with you.It must indeed have been a harrowing experience. It is really good of you to share your experience as this will be of great value for people looking to housesit.
Very good article and I enjoy reading it very much. It sounds like a lot of work to housesitting having to deal with pets… mails… mowing the lawn…. and grocery…. it’s intense! But I hope you would get some benefits our of this 🙂 @ knycx.journeying
It is most certainly like living at “home” you would do all the same things at your own home so housesitting is really no different. The biggest advantage is that you do get to live “rent and mortgage free”. It is a lot of responsibility though but we love it, we get furbabies to enjoy and spoil and to actually live within the local community exploring at our leisure.
Oh wow you been through a lot. I always thought house keeping would be a good option for saving money. I have never done it before but I was going to give it a try. Now I am having second thoughts now, thank you for sharing this post.
It is a great option you just need to ensure that there is plenty of information on the sit and the owners and make sure you trust yourself and your instincts. This was one sit out of 100 that were just awesome – and there is simply no way for us to afford to travel like we do without housesitting. So don’t give up on it yet – you need to try it to see if its for you.
Wow, what a tale! I’ve never tried housesitting but have always been intrigued to try it. I’d especially love it if the owners had pets I could play with but having to take the dog to the vet must’ve been such a scary experience! I’m not sure I could handle that. After this experience I’m surprised you still want to housesit. But good for you for being the bigger people!
It’s one experience out of one hundred and we love the ability to move around to various locations and have lots of pets to love and take care of. The benefits far outweigh these types of issues. In part it was my own fault as well I should have trusted my instincts but I didn’t so I hold myself responsible as well but will never give up housesitting.
What a nightmare! I can’t believe they are still hassling you. Trusting your gut is a really good tip.
I feel for you, but how do you think you can you help the next house sitter they contact to avoid the same experience you went through with couple, after-all, no names were mentioned, and of course I understood the legal ramifications, but?……
Good point – but there is a new site coming soon that will help deal with naming names. The site is to be for housesitters by housesitters where we can talk about homeowners and the good, bad and ugly. The point of the piece was to say trust your gut, put into place things like contracts and agreements that are clear to protect yourself and the homeowner. Here is the new site coming soon https://forsittersbysitters.com/
Oh man what an experience. Frankly I am in India so never had this kind of an experience. But i will keep the tips in mind. You never know when you need it 🙂
I am so sorry to hear about this nightmare. Thank you for your honesty. This is certainly a cautionary tale for anyone who thinks house-sitting is a free ride with little to no responsibilities. Those homeowners were horrible!
First of all, I didn’t know of House Sitting. I went to your post about it and read it fully. Interesting concept. That said, this particular experience sounds miserable. Too bad, way too bad.. Thanks for the tips – if at all I decide to do housesitting, I’ll keep it all in mind.
I have been looking into housesitting, I would have just jumped in. After reading this I can see you have to be cautious on the house that you sit – or with the people who you choose to sit for. It must have been stressful for you but others like me can learn from your experience.
It is a great way to travel, but it is not a holiday and that is what some housesitters expect, it is work and you need to have an agreement in place before you start. But if you join a reputable platform and make sure you do your homework and trust your instincts it is truly an awesome way to travel.
Wow, this is just insane. I felt like I was reading a novel and not an actual account of something that happened to someone. There are always going to be crazy people out there, and while yes, there may have been some warning signs for you, there’s no way you could’ve known that it’d be as bad as it was. Thanks for sharing this so we can all learn from your experience and hopefully never have to go through something like that!
If they weren’t at opposite ends of the country Faith, I’d say you sat for the same people we sat for recently! It was our first bad experience after 20 + sits, and we too should have listed to the first red light. Criticism of previous sitters. That’s such a good red-light. The occasional remark maybe, but when (as we were told), every sitter had failed in their duties, we should have known better, but like you gave the benefit of the doubt. Never again 🙂 So many other similarities too it’s quite spooky reading your account. Thankfully these situations are few and far between, 99% of sits are wonderful experiences. Bringing these stories to people’s attention certainly helps raise awareness and helps other set their expectations.
I could tell from some of your comments that our experiences were similar and sometimes its difficult to see beyond the personas that people put on for the benefit of others. Funnily enough we had just turned down a sit in Turkey that threatened to be exactly the same as the one we got into. But as you say given the fact that we have had loads of sits no problem I suppose its the luck of the draw really – every housesitter probably has to experience one not so great sit. The really stupid thing is the sit itself was fine, the dog and cat were lovely creatures, the area was amazing but it was the person who made the sit seem like hell because they tainted everything with the lies they told.
God, this really is horrifying. I am glad that you painted a realistic picture. Most people tend to glamorize housesitting. They sure are house owners from hell. I am amazed that instead of paying you they demanded money from you. Ridiculous!
Honestly, I did not know anything about house-sitting but after this post, I am definitely warned for the future. There are so many things involved. There are good people but then one experience changes your thought process. After reading it all, I feel you should have gone with your instincts. But on the positive note, this became a lesson for a lifetime and this blog will help many.
Wow, this is an absolute nightmare! I feel so awful for you. They truly see house sitting as a way to scam kind people. I’m so sorry they’ve tried to make your lives a living hell. They really need to get a life!
Thank you for sharing your story. I had a very similar experience with a homeowner where I was accused of all sorts of things and also was harrassed through social media! Sadly the website we went through also offered very little support. I hope you have a better experience next time!! Comforting to know wasn’t alone.
It was interesting when I started telling the story how many others came out and told similar tales. I guess nobody wants to talk to much about it because you don’t get any support platforms where you get the jobs. The one we used “investigated” and then just didn’t do anything. I guess its difficult when its your word against theirs. But it certainly is a learning experience that’s for sure. I will never make the same mistakes again…lol..
Was this through Trusted Housesitters? If so, I find that they do such a garbage job of vetting homeowners. I had one lie through their teeth about their poorly-behaved high maintenance dog, and then complain that I hadn’t done every single one of their chores for them to their satisfaction. This person clearly thought they were getting a servant rather than a housesitter. The experience was so lousy I don’t really recommend using it to anyone anymore. It’s just easier to pay for budget accommodations and enjoy my free time.
No it wasn’t but for many of the same reasons I don’t belong to THS, I have never found them particularly helpful and in fact I find them way over prices and as a homeowner totally inadequate. They want a police check on one person in a couple???? I mean really?
Oh my what a story! I have had one housesit nightmare also but yours is even more unbelievable . I also did not listen to my gut for the same reason. Was so eager to get to that part of France! Lesson learned!
Yep sometimes we are so into the destination we forget to listen to ourselves.
oh my gosh, I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see how bad things would get, wow! So sorry you had this experience, and I have been considering house sitting, so thanks for the tips.
Always trust your instincts and watch for flags apart from that we’ve been doing this for years and this was the absolute worst and my fault for not listening to my instincts.
A fabulous post Faith. I relate well, though we’ve never never had anything even remotely as bad as this experience. How awful! We did a ton of housesitting during the nearly 6 years we were homeless and nomadic and almost all experiences worked out pretty well, though there are the usual horror stories.
When you do a lot of sits there’s bound to be the occasional bad one for sure. We’ve had some great sits lovely people but the state of the houses were unimaginably bad but we just loved the sit.
Wow…what a nightmare. So glad you were able to leave a bit early. It also sounds like wouldn’t matter what you did they would have found complaint.
LOL true they did
Never distrust your intuition. Such a sordid tale, one can never be to trusting. Thank you for sharing the experience.
OMG I had a similar story that happened to me. So have they really put you into trouble or have you been blacklisted or anything or not ? I hope not… I think grumpy crazy people never win.
All the best
Fortunately the platform I was and got the sit with accepted my responses and documentation and blacklisted the couple. That didn’t stop them from attempting to comment on all my social media channels for at least a year out from the sit. But they never succeeded and I gather there were others who had the same treatment from this particular couple and recognized them in the article which made me feel better.