Housesitting in Indonesia

This is the one country where the border risk should lead. A tourist visa-on-arrival isn't a work permit, and Bali is actively deporting foreigners who work — with immigration now treating unpaid volunteering and free accommodation given for a service as work.

This is the one country where the border risk should lead. A tourist visa on arrival (30 days, extendable once by 30 at an immigration office, in person) is not a work permit. The visa on arrival costs 500,000 rupiah. Foreign visitors arriving in Bali pay a tourist levy of 150,000 rupiah, online or on arrival. Indonesia's immigration site says a visitor is “prohibited from receiving rewards, wages, or any similar”, and the UK Foreign Office says the visa on arrival is not suitable for volunteering. Bali enforces this hard: its immigration office deported 342 foreigners in January–June 2026, and a dedicated patrol task force, “Dharma Dewata”, has run operations since April 2026. Since the 2024 amendment, re-entry bans run up to ten years and can be extended by a further ten. Staying in a private home (not a hotel), you must register with the local police; the Foreign Office warns of a fine of up to 5 million rupiah if you don't. No case has named a housesitter specifically, but a sit-for-accommodation is exactly the value-exchange the task force targets — so this is exposed, not safe. The clean route for genuine remote work is the E33G visa; there is no lawful route to do a local sit on a tourist visa.

Recording your own home isn't a crime in Indonesia: the interception offence in the ITE Law reaches intercepting data in transit through a computer system, not a camera or mic in a room, and there's no all-party-consent recording crime. A home security camera runs on a “legitimate interest” basis under the data-protection law, lawful with notice. The sharp risk is the other direction — PUBLISHING. Posting someone's image or words, or a stinging review, can be prosecuted as online defamation under the ITE Law (people have been jailed for a critical post), and Bali has deported foreigners over “offensive social-media posts.” So disclose every camera, keep them out of private spaces and audio off, and — the real catch here — don't post pictures or accounts of each other or the household online.

Consent: Notice/legitimate-interest under the PDP Law; disclose cameras; the real risk is POSTING, not recording. Here, cameras are mainly a privacy-law matter. Filming someone where they'd expect privacy is a crime in most of the countries our guides cover; this country's own rule is set out below.

Indonesia's cruelty law reaches whoever is keeping the animal, so a sitter carries the duty: the new Criminal Code (Law 1/2023, art. 337, in force since 2 January 2026) punishes hurting an animal or harming its health with up to 1 year or a fine of up to Rp10 million, rising to 1 year 6 months or Rp50 million where the animal is crippled, badly injured or dies. The serious issue is rabies. It is endemic across most of Indonesia and notably present in Bali (a 2008 outbreak there killed more than 130 people and needed over 130,000 courses of post-exposure treatment). In January–August 2026 Bali's health office recorded 45,365 bites from animals that can carry rabies, and seven rabies deaths, which it put down to victims not seeking treatment. A bite or scratch — from a dog, and monkeys carry it too — is a same-day emergency: wash the wound for 15 minutes and get to a hospital immediately. In August 2026 the health office said its vaccine stock was sufficient, but it screens bite victims before giving the vaccine, and immunoglobulin has run short in past outbreaks. Know your nearest stocked hospital before the sit, and confirm your insurance covers rabies treatment and evacuation.

You can't drive on your UK licence alone — the UK government says you need an International Driving Permit issued by the UK, carried with your licence (Indonesia isn't actually a party to the driving-convention treaties, but it accepts the permit in practice). Indonesia drives on the LEFT; check the dates printed on your permit.

Indonesia's compulsory scheme (Jasa Raharja) is a no-fault social fund paid for by a levy on the vehicle, so there's no “named driver” to add — but it only pays out for injury to PEOPLE, and crucially it does NOT cover the at-fault driver or a single-vehicle crash. Private motor insurance is uncommon and rental scooters usually carry none, so on the owner's car or scooter there is often no policy standing behind the sitter at all. The cover that actually matters is the sitter's own travel insurance — and it is voided by riding without the right permit, licence or helmet.

Drink-drive limit: No statutory blood-alcohol figure — impairment is policed instead, and treated as zero-tolerance. Indonesia sets no numerical drink-drive limit; the law (Road Traffic Law No. 22/2009) punishes driving without “full concentration,” and the heavy penalties land through accident-causation — negligently causing a death can mean up to six years. Treat it as zero-tolerance behind someone else's wheel. And the roads are genuinely dangerous, with motorbikes in the great majority of deaths.

Foreigners cannot own land in Indonesia — the Basic Agrarian Law reserves freehold to citizens, so even a “villa owner” holds only a right of use or a lease, and a sitter holds nothing but permission to occupy. Don't try to force an occupant out yourself by changing locks or removing belongings; recovering possession is a matter for the courts. A short, dated, documented sit creates no possessory claim. Keep it dated, rent-free and in writing.

Safeguard: A dated, written, rent-free agreement reciting the care purpose and a fixed end date — it keeps the sit a permission to occupy, not a tenancy, and records that the stay was temporary and by consent.

Indonesia has a quick small-claims route — the “simple lawsuit,” for money claims up to 500 million rupiah, decided by a single judge in around 25 days (land-title disputes are excluded). It works against a counterparty still in the country. It does not reach a departed one: Indonesia does not enforce foreign judgments at all — a UK judgment can't be executed here, and a creditor would have to start a fresh Indonesian case from scratch with the foreign judgment as no more than evidence. So a sitter who has flown home is effectively beyond the Indonesian courts. For a sum this size a court rarely pays its way, so what helps most is agreeing clearly in writing before the sit.

the “simple lawsuit” (gugatan sederhana) track — a single judge, decided in about 25 days — claims up to IDR 500,000,000 (Supreme Court Regulation PERMA 4/2019; land disputes excluded).