Being Safe as Houses by arrangement

From Peoplebrokers

Being Safe as Houses by arrangement JUDITH WOMERSLEY reports on a new house-minding service. "The Age"

CHRIS KAINE is a small, efficient woman with a humorous smile. She was a medical representative ("I've always liked working with people") before establishing her house-minding business, Safe as Houses, this year.

Sixty per cent of her business comes from referrals. She explains the increasing demand for professional house-minders thus: "Drug-related crimes are increasing and with the break-up of the family unit or members living interstate, relatives are often too busy to want to know about feeding the dog or bringing in the mail."

She has found that business people going on trips, academics on sabbatical leave and retired people are the groups most interested in using her service. The shortest house-minding job she has had to fill was for eight days and the longest for eight months.

Each person leaving a house is asked to nominate a third party who can be contacted if any big problems such as plumbing faults arise, and who can pop in from time to time. Owners are asked to fill in the answers to such questions as: "Will you have a smoker in the house? Is your insurance policy current? Names of people who are allowed access to the house? Do you object to the minder being absent overnight? Can the minder entertain friends?"

People wanting their house minded pay a service of $100 for each "mind". Minders pay $200 to join and although they are not paid for their services, they have the use of another house for long or short periods. It may be that their own place is being renovated, they may be between buying and selling houses, they may be saving to travel, be mature-age people wanting a change of scene, or creative people wanting space in a different environment.

Ms Kaine says she has so many minders on her books that she can be very fussy about whom she chooses. Each minder has to provide three written references from people of standing and they are asked questions such as: "Do you have experience with swimming pools and security systems? Will you look after the garden? Will you care for pets?"

Ms Kaine says: "The key thing is that I match personalities. For example, I am careful not to put a very tidy person in an untidy house."

Both couples and singles are on the books as minders, but single females outnumber men. "I'm probably not as prone to accept a male minder and always ask males about their idea of keeping house. Some males are tidier than females, though."

She quotes one couple whose only criteria for a minder was: "We want the tomatoes planted and the loganberries picked and put in the freezer." And the reaction of the minder? "I've got a green thumb and I'll be glad to plant the tomatoes, but I'll only pick the loganberries if I can eat some."

June Ryan is minding a house in Blackburn for eight weeks while the owner is overseas. She says: "My children are grown up and it's lovely to be on my own after looking after a big family. I've had only two assignments but I want to travel around Victoria and this is a good way of being able to stay in places without rushing through them. You meet interesting neighbors: With the first house I minded in Beechworth I stayed on for two weeks afterwards because the owner and I got on so well together."

"I think my wife rates our cat higher than me," says house owner Peter Macdougall. "It was her concern for the cat that prompted us to get in minders, Cindy and Howard O'Meara. It also stopped niggling worries while we were away like 'Did I really shut all the windows?' We have unqualified praise for Safe as Houses and would never go away again without using it."

Cindy and Howard O'Meara, the Macdougall's minders, have travelled extensively. Cindy is a nutritionist with her own practice and Howard was in the New Zealand Police Force for nine years. He was assigned as Prince Ed-ward's personal protection officer when the prince was at Wanganui Collegiate as a tutor. The O'Meara's live in a small Greens-borough apartment and would love to move nearer the city but can't afford it because Howard is now studying to be a chiropractor. Cindy says: "By minding houses we can live in a bigger, more comfortable and more central house for a while. We are pet lovers and with no garden we can't have any of our own, but this way we get to mind other people's animals."

"Anyone who goes away these days and leaves their house unattended is asking for trouble," says house owner John McDonald.

Minders of his house were a married couple, Robina Watson, a law student who has deferred, and Richard Daw, a merchant banker, both originally from Adelaide. Robina said that the McDonalds' house has "everything that opens and shuts, including an intercom and television sets in each room".

She remembers vividly the night the two-year-old daughter of friends who were visiting pressed the red panic button of the burglar alarm system. Within minutes two armed policeman had vaulted the front fence. Just as Robina and Richard took on the minding job to coincide with their house being renovated, they learned that their builder could not start for another six weeks. She mentioned this in passing to John McDonald who suggested she contact the builder, who had just finished his house earlier than expected. You guessed it. The Watson / Daw house was renovated by John McDonald's builder while Robins and Richard minded his place.