Agreements
Four Things No Agreement Should Take Away
Almost everything in a sit is yours to agree between you. Four things aren’t, on either side. Here’s what they are, and why.
Sitters & Homeowners · 4 min read
Two people setting up a sit can agree to nearly anything between them — how clean it’s left, who’s allowed in, what happens if plans change. That’s the whole point: it’s yours to shape, on either side of the door. But a short list isn’t yours to sign away. There aren’t many. Four, really. And we’d rather tell you exactly what they are, and why, than let you find the edge the hard way.
Nearly all of it is yours to set
Most of what goes into a sit is yours to answer: how clean it’s left, who can drop by, cameras indoors, the vet decision. You answer from your side, the other person from theirs, and you both sign once every line matches.
Everything else is yours to settle between you. These four aren’t. There’s no setting for keeping an animal safe.
What the four are
All four are written into every agreement made with Reputable Sitters’ free agreement tool (the animals one wherever there are animals). We draw these lines ourselves rather than leave them to be ticked off a menu — because the whole reason to do a sit on a real agreement falls apart if any of them can be quietly waived.
In every agreement with animals
The animals are always looked after.
Even if the sit ends early or you fall out, the sitter keeps caring for the animals until the homeowner, or someone they name, takes them back.
In every agreement
The sitter can always leave if they have to.
If the home is unsafe or unlivable, or there’s a real emergency, the sitter can go, after first contacting someone to take over the animals.
In every agreement
The law still applies.
You can’t agree to anything illegal: signing it doesn’t make it allowed.
In every agreement
The sitter leaves on the last day, and nobody hides a danger.
The sitter leaves on the agreed last day, unless the homeowner agrees they can stay on, and hands back every key. If either of you knows of anything dangerous in the home, like a fault or a hazard, you tell the other.
A floor, not a fence
It would be easy to read four hard rules as four walls hemming you in. They’re the opposite. A floor is the thing you stand on — it’s what lets the rest be open. Because these four are guaranteed underneath, everything built on top can be as flexible as you like, and still be safe to lean on. Take the floor away and the freedom above it stops being worth much.
Almost everything is yours to agree. These four are what make “almost” safe.
It cuts both ways — and that means evidence still counts.
Each of these is real, but none is just a word you say. Two different things live inside it, and we’d rather spell both out than let one stand in for the other:
- Acting on it needs no one’s permission. Leave the unsafe house — you’re never trapped waiting for someone to agree, or for proof. Where there are animals, you first contact someone to take over their care.
- Establishing it, if it’s ever questioned, needs evidence. What settles it afterwards is what happened — the broken heating, the message you sent, the photo you took, the vet note — not how you felt. “I had a bad feeling” is real, but it isn’t something anyone can weigh.
Same line, pointing both ways: it protects you, and it protects the person you’re protected from.
What if two of them pull against each other?
It looks as if they could. Say the dog has turned dangerous: does the sitter have to stay, because the animals must always be looked after? They don’t actually pull against each other, once you see what each one asks. Say the dog has bitten the sitter, and it’s no longer safe:
A person’s safety comes first. The sitter can go, and needs nobody’s permission. Nothing here asks anyone to stay in harm’s way.
But the dog isn’t left on its own. Looking after the animals means not leaving them to come to harm, not staying and getting hurt. So before going, the sitter contacts someone to take over: the homeowner, the emergency contact, or a local service such as a vet or boarding kennels.
Nothing here asks you to stay in harm — and nothing lets you walk away leaving harm behind.
We’d rather be straight than tidy: the four don’t all behave the same way when they meet a safety exit. Welfare turns into a hand-off. An unlawful term doesn’t hold — there’s nothing to hand on. And being honest about what you left behind still holds — leaving for your own safety isn’t a licence to walk out in silence. We won’t pretend a hand-off always finds someone in time; only that abandoning an animal by saying nothing isn’t on.
You won’t go looking for it. It’s just there.
All four are written in before you start. You don’t tick them and you can’t untick them. They’re simply part of what you both sign.
The questions that tend to cause trouble, answered from your own side. The other person answers from theirs, and you both see where your answers match. Free, with no account, and nothing binds until you both sign.
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