If you travel and are planning to use housesitters have you thought about what you need to do to prepare? In this article we consider the most important thing to prepare and offer you some top tips on what to do before the housesitter arrives. If you need a house sitter to care for your home and pets, read on.

Things You Need to Do Before the Housesitter Arrives

Whether you’re going away on holiday, planning to be out of town for work or you’re leaving your property to go travelling long term, more people than ever before are choosing to leave their homes in the hands of house sitters. 

But whether you prefer someone from Housesitmatch or you find an agency to help you, or a family member or friend to move in for a few days or weeks, it’s important to have everything in place and ready to prepare for house sitters. And that doesn’t just mean plenty of clean towels and teabags. Though it does help to stock up before the housesitter arrives.

From contact information to insurance provider details, handing your home over to someone even for a short period of time is something that should be done properly, that way, everyone (including your finances) is protected, should the worst happen. In this post, we’ll explore the top things you need to do before letting a housesitter into your home. 

Get In Touch With Your Insurance Provider

You’ve worked hard to find the cheapest home insurance, so you must adhere to the rules of your policy to ensure that if the worst happens whilst you’re away, your policy is still valid.

Before you leave for your holiday or trip, let your home insurance provider know that you have a housesitter in your property whilst you’re away. This means that your home won’t be empty and shouldn’t impact your premiums or coverage. It is a useful precaution before the housesitter arrives.

Pack Away Valuables And Breakables

This isn’t to suggest that you can’t trust the person who housesits for you, however, it’s important to remember that by packing away your valuables and your breakables you’re making life easier for yourself and providing peace of mind. This also reduces the risk of a claim for accidental damage or breakage. 

Create a Handover Document for When the Housesitter Arrives

There’s a lot of information for anyone to take on when they house-sit for you. And while you can take peace of mind by listing all these nuggets of information, it’ll be easier for your housesitter to digest if they have everything they need to know in a document that they can access whenever they need it.

Consider including your contact details for while you’re away, information about how to use the boiler, heating and TV streaming services, utility providers and an emergency contact such as a friend or family member if they can’t get in touch with you. 

• Remember – you can always get your housesitter to send you updates about your home so you can keep in the loop with everything before you return.

Prepare a Set of House Rules

Setting some ground rules for your house sitter is perfectly normal. Whether this is a rule about having visitors over, what items they can use, what rooms they can go in etc, it makes sense to put something in place to ensure that there are no crossed wires and so your housesitter feels comfortable. 

• Final Thought  – on what to do before the housesitter arrives…

Leaving your home in the hands of someone else can feel a little daunting. Consider the tips above to ensure a smooth handover. 

Find house sitters or house sit

Find your housesitting solution register with HouseSitMatch:

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Other useful blogs about housesitters

At Housesitmatch.com we like to share useful blogs and practical advice about housesitters, housesitting and pet sitting. We hope you find this small selection of our blogs on house sitters useful.

Housesitters keep pets safe at home and save money

What a housesitter does – Top 10 responsibilities

Preparing a home for a house or pet sitter

The Affordable Alternative to Dog Kennels

What is House Sitting?