Insurance
Pet insurance while someone else is looking after your animal
If your animal needs the vet while a sitter is looking after it, who pays, and will your pet insurance still pay out?
What pet insurance usually covers on a housesit, what it usually leaves out, and what to ask before you go.
On day three of a ten-day sit, the cat stops eating. The sitter takes her to the vet named on the fridge. The receptionist is kind, but asks for payment before the cat goes home.
The sitter rings the homeowner, who is somewhere over the Alps. Her first thought is the money. Her second is whether her pet insurance pays when she wasn’t the one at the vet.
Why it goes wrong
Pet insurance is bought with the owner at the vet in mind. On a sit, someone else brings the animal in, and the vet may ask that person to pay there and then.
Neither of you has asked the insurer how that works until the bill arrives.
What pet insurance usually covers
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) says in its pet insurance guide that the core cover is “The cost of diagnosing and treating illnesses and/or injuries”: consultations, tests, medication, surgery and hospital stays.
Policies can also include:
- liability (insurance that pays if you’re held responsible for harm to someone else or their things), if your dog injures someone or damages someone else’s property and you’re found legally responsible;
- money if your pet is lost, stolen or dies before a set age;
- “the cost of looking after your pet” if you go into hospital, usually only after “four consecutive days”;
- your holiday’s cost if it’s cancelled “because your pet needs emergency lifesaving treatment close to the start of your holiday”.
What it usually leaves out
- Illness or injury your pet “had or showed signs of having before the policy started”.
- A waiting period at the start, “typically the first 14 days”.
- Routine care: vaccinations, neutering, flea and worm treatment, dental care.
- The vet’s own charges for filling in a claim form.
- Limits per condition: the ABI’s example is “£10,000 of cover may have a limit of £2000 per condition”.
And for a housesit in particular: the only cover the ABI lists for looking after your pet is for when you go into hospital, on policies that include it.
Ask your insurer whether yours pays for care while you’re away.
What to ask your insurer before the sit
- If someone else takes my pet to the vet while I’m away, is the treatment still covered? Do you need their name first?
- Can the vet claim from you directly, or do I pay and claim back?
- What’s my excess (the part of a claim I pay myself), and is there a limit per condition?
- Does my dog’s liability cover still apply while someone else is walking it?
Get the answers in writing; an email is enough. The ABI’s own advice is to “tell your insurer about any relevant changes to your circumstance”.
What it costs
The ABI’s average pet claim was £685 in 2024 (ABI, 31 May 2025). We found no published average price.
The ABI says the cost “can depend on a range of factors”, among them the type of policy, your pet’s age and health, its breed and where you live.
Compare policies by what they cover, not only the price.
If you’re the sitter
If you use the agreement on Reputable Sitters: whatever the vet figure, an animal that needs a vet goes.
(The vet figure, in that agreement, is the most you can agree at the vet without the homeowner’s yes.)
- Up to the vet figure, the vet bills are the homeowner’s.
- If the vet asks you to pay, the homeowner pays you back within 48 hours of seeing the receipt, even if they think you caused the harm; they can claim that from you afterwards.
- Above the vet figure, don’t agree to more without the homeowner’s yes: if you do, that’s yours to pay.
- If the homeowner can’t be reached, the vet decides what the animal needs to be out of pain.What the vet does on the vet’s own authority to ease suffering, or to put an animal to sleep, is the homeowner’s to pay.
- Before the sit, ask the homeowner for the vet’s details and their policy number, so the practice can reach them or their insurer.
How to talk about it
“Here’s my policy number and the vet’s details; if they ask you to pay, I’ll pay you back” settles it before anyone is standing at a reception desk.
How it works on Reputable Sitters
Your agreement says who pays the vet, and up to how much, in plain words both of you see before signing. It doesn’t sell, arrange or check insurance.
The legal bit
This is information, not legal advice. Your agreement binds the two of you; it can’t change who the vet bills, or what your insurer pays.
Only your policy’s wording and your insurer can say what’s covered.
Your pet insurance pays for the treatment. Your agreement says who pays the vet on the day. Make sure both work when you’re the one who’s away.
Where next
Tell us what we’ve got wrong: listening@reputablesitters.com
Information, not legal advice. Laws change, so check anything important with the official source linked on each page.
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Reputable Sitters Ltd, registered in England and Wales, no. 17032078. Registered office: 71–75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9JQ.
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