Agreeing a Paid Housesit

The dog is fourteen, deaf in one ear, and takes a tablet with breakfast and another with supper. His owner is away for five weeks, and this time she’d rather pay someone than ask a favour. She finds a sitter she likes, they talk on a video call, and they settle a weekly fee by message.

It feels done. Then the small questions start to arrive. Is the fee paid before the sit, or at the end? Does it include the sitter’s ferry, or is that separate? The sitter lives in another country: is she allowed to be paid for this there? And if the owner comes home a week early, what happens to the last week?

Neither of them is being difficult. They agreed a number, and a number turns out to answer one question and raise five.

A paid housesit isn’t an exchange sit with a fee attached. On a free sit, “the garden could do with some attention” is a hint. On a paid one, it can sound like part of what the fee was for. The sitter may have turned down other sits for these dates. The homeowner has budgeted for something specific. Both of them now have more to lose if they’ve pictured different things.

Money also brings in questions a free sit can mostly leave alone: tax, insurance and, if the home is abroad, whether being paid counts as work there. None of these is a reason not to pay a sitter. They’re reasons to talk before the sit, while it’s easy.

Payment without terms is just money with assumptions attached.

The fee. The figure, and whether it’s by the day, the week or the whole sit. Say what it covers: the animals’ care, and anything else you’re expecting, like the garden, the post or the bins. Saying what isn’t included is just as useful.

When and how it’s paid. In full before the sit, half before and half after, weekly as you go, or in full at the end. By bank transfer, cash or another way you both like. And if the sit ends early, for either of you, say what happens to the fee. That’s worth agreeing in plain words now, not working out later.

Travel and food are not pay. If the homeowner covers the sitter’s travel or gives a food budget, that’s paying back what the sit costs, or household money spent on someone living in the home. It isn’t part of the fee, and it’s worth keeping it separate, in your messages and in what you sign. Abroad, though, read the border point below: some countries count these too.

Whether it counts as work. Is a paid housesitter self-employed, or something closer to an employee? For housesitting, the honest answer is that the law hasn’t settled it, and it can turn on the details: who decides how the work is done, how the pay is worked out, how long the sit runs. An agreement doesn’t decide the question for you. What it does do is record what you both actually agreed, which is useful evidence if the question ever comes up.

If the sit crosses a border. Being paid to look after a home abroad can count as work in the country where the home is, and a border officer may ask what you’re there to do. In some countries, a free bed, food or travel paid back can count as a reward for work too, even with no fee. The rules differ from country to country and change over time. Read the country guide for where the home is, talk it through, and decide together. We’ll give you what’s known; the choice is yours.

Tax and insurance. A fee is money earned, so the sitter should check how it’s taxed where they live. The homeowner’s insurer may see a paid sitter differently from a friend doing a favour, and the sitter may want cover of their own. Check, rather than assume.

A paid sit starts with the same questions as a free one. One of them already touches money: Getting there, for the sitter’s travel. The sitter’s own food isn’t among them, so agree that between you. The fee itself is asked with the basic facts.

Alongside the questions, the agreement asks a few plain facts, and one of them is whether there’s a sitting fee. If there is, the sitter writes the fee and whether it’s by the day, the week or the whole sit, and you can add when and how it’s paid. The sitter also says where they stand on the right to work in the country where the home is. “Not sure, needs checking” is an honest answer, and the agreement records it as it is. It isn’t a green light.

You each answer from your own side. Where your answers match, that line is agreed; where they don’t, you both see which lines aren’t matched yet, and either of you can change an answer. You sign when every line matches. Once you’ve both signed, nobody can change the agreement, not either of you and not us, and you can each download a copy.

The money passes directly between the two of you. Reputable Sitters never holds or moves it.

Whether paid housesitting counts as work in law isn’t settled, especially when the sitter is paid, so no form of words can promise how a court or a tax office would see it. A spoken agreement can still count in law; the trouble is proving what was said, and writing it down settles that before it matters. At borders: refusals of house-sitters are on record at the US border (reported in 2022), and one sitter has published an account of being refused at a UK airport in 2019. In our research, up to October 2026, we found no documented case for France or elsewhere in Europe. If an agreed fee goes unpaid in England and Wales, smaller claims usually go to the small claims track, for claims up to £10,000 (Civil Procedure Rules 26.9), where you don’t need a solicitor. Elsewhere, check the guide for your country.