What a Housesitting Agreement Should Cover

It’s ten at night, a week into the sit. The old cat has stopped eating and is hiding under the bed, and the out-of-hours vet wants to see her now. The homeowner is somewhere over the Atlantic. The sitter has the template they both signed, which says, in full, that emergency vet care will be provided.

In the waiting room, the questions that sentence never answered arrive all at once. Can she say yes to treatment herself? How long should she wait for a reply? Who pays the bill tonight? And when the estimate is far more than anyone pictured, whose call is it?

If you’ve been searching for a housesitting contract template, you’re already thinking ahead: plenty of sits run on a friendly video call and a hope that everyone means the same thing by “look after the place”. Wanting something in writing shows you understand that trust and documentation aren’t opposites. They’re partners.

And templates do three things well. They establish intent: two people who sign something have agreed it’s worth writing down. They handle the basics: dates, the address, the animals’ names, keys, alarm codes. And they give you one place to look when you need the vet’s number at midnight.

If your choice is a template or nothing, use the template.

The trouble is that many templates were written for something else, a letting or a pet-sitting form, and adapted. They cover the things nobody argues about and skip the ones people do. Here’s what a good agreement covers, set against what a template usually says.

The urgent vet decision. A template says “emergency vet care will be provided”. A good agreement answers four separate questions:

• Can the sitter act alone, or must they call first?
• How long do they wait for a reply before deciding?
• Who pays the vet on the day?
• What happens when the limit is about to run out?

Cameras indoors. Many templates don’t mention cameras at all. An agreement should cover every device: indoor cameras, outdoor ones, smart speakers that can listen, smart locks that log each coming and going, doorbells that film the step. Whatever you agree about each one, agree it before the sit, not on arrival.

The last morning. A template says the sitter will leave the property in good condition. To one person that’s hoovered and tidy; to another, a deep clean. A good agreement names the standard, and if it’s “as you found it”, you take photos at the start.

Keeping in touch, someone drops by, meeting first. How often you’ll hear. Whether a partner can visit for a weekend. Whether the sitter meets the animals before you both confirm. Each goes wrong when two people guessed differently.

Food for the stay and getting there. Who buys the sitter’s own food, and who pays for the journey. On a long or distant sit these can be real costs, and they land on one person unless somebody says otherwise.

On Reputable Sitters, every agreement starts from the same questions: keeping in touch, cameras indoors, someone drops by, meeting first, getting there, the urgent vet decision and the last morning. That covers much of the list above.

The difference from a template is who fills it in. A template gives you a sentence. The questions ask you both to settle something, and the two of you fill in the answers. On the urgent vet decision, the homeowner is asked, “If the vet can’t reach you, what can the sitter decide?”, with answers from “Call me first, except in a genuine emergency” to “The sitter can agree any necessary treatment”. The sitter is asked, “If the vet can’t reach the homeowner, what would you be comfortable deciding?” The figure, the wait for a reply and who pays on the day are yours to settle too, so write them down beside it.

Or the last morning. Where a template says “good condition”, settle on a basic tidy and the agreement says:

Some things that belong in a good agreement aren’t among the questions. Agree them between you, write them down, and keep the note with the agreement:

• The sitter’s own food: who buys it, and whether there’s a budget for it.
• Calling it off: what counts as a good reason on either side, who covers which costs, and that the same terms apply both ways.
• Damage and liability: who pays if something breaks, and how breakages get reported.
• Insurance: what each of your policies covers, and what it doesn’t.
• Valuables: what’s put away, and what’s off limits.
• The jobs: the garden, the pool, the bins on collection day. Each one included or not, listed rather than assumed.
• The house itself: honest word about anything wrong, and whether the sitter can turn the heating up in January. You can’t ask someone to live in conditions that make them ill.

If the sit is paid, our guide to agreeing a paid housesit covers the fee.

You answer the questions from your own side, and the agreement writes itself as you go. The plain facts a template would cover sit alongside them: the dates, the home, the animals. You send it to the other person, they answer from theirs, and each line matches or isn’t matched yet. You both sign once every line matches. Then you can each download a copy, and nobody can change it, not either of you and not us.

In an emergency, a UK vet should give first aid and pain relief whoever brings the animal in. Beyond that, treatment and its cost usually depend on the owner, which is why a written note of authority from the owner, before the sit, helps (RCVS supporting guidance, chapter 3). A spoken agreement can still count in law; the trouble is proving what was said, and writing it down settles that before it matters. Elsewhere, check the guide for your country.