House sitters and pet sitters
House sitters and pet sitters and the risks:
Do you have someone come to your home to either house sit or pet sit? Especially this time of year, this happens a lot. You want to be smart about your liability and what risks are involved when you have someone coming into your home, staying at your home, etc.
In most of these cases, you’re giving someone keys to your house. They’ve got access to your personal things. So what do you need to know?
Common sense rules the day on this subject.
Obviously you want to be able to trust the individual you’re giving this kind of access to. If it’s not a friend or family member, you’ll want to do a background search on the person. You can hire a company who does these types of searches, you can do a credit report search as well.
You can also have the individual sign a contract
that they’re responsible for any damages they cause to your property and that they’ll hold you harmless & indemnify you (famous legal words) should something happen. Your homeowner’s insurance also covers certain incidents. You can get people bonded but that can be expensive and it’s a hassle. And for typically what is just short-term, a vacation, etc., that wouldn’t make sense to do in most cases. Ultimately if the person doesn’t have much material wealth of course, what are you going to get from them, so really this is one of those due diligence matters.
You’ve read stories about circumstances where people were trusted and something goes terribly wrong.
Pets not being well taken care of, things being stolen, items or something at the home being destroyed while you’re away. You’re doing the person a favor often, letting them stay in your nice home, giving them your keys, paying them and all you’re asking is that they keep everything in one piece for when you get back. It’s unfortunate we even have to talk about it. It happens more often than you think!
Joe Stanley is a personal injury attorney but takes many different types of legal questions each week on his different radio interviews. As an advocate for consumers, Joe and his team at Stanley Law have offices in Syracuse, Watertown, Binghamton, Rochester, and Montrose, PA. All consultations are FREE. Joe and his team only get paid if you WIN. Contact Joe at Joe@StanleyLawOffices.com or at 1-800-608-3333. There for you.