Sitting Pretty
From Peoplebrokers
SITTING PRETTY
Peter Weekes
June 26, 2002 The Age Domain
Need someone to look after Fluffy or Spot and mind the place while you’re away for a while? Join the club.
YOU’VE Just boarded the plane for a much-needed holiday, having rationalised away your worst fears about leaving the ageing family pet at some unknown pettery. It is then that the next wave of panic hits: have you turned off the iron? Did you lock the back door? Did you set the light timer?
But for Imira and Ray Goldsmith, these are fears already confronted, and conquered.
For the past two years, the couple from one of Melbourne’s eastern suburbs have been using a house-sitting agency.
"We feel much more comfortable going away now," says Imira Goldsmith. "When we know our 13-year-old Siamese (cat) is unsettled, we are unsettled", Chris Kaine, of house-sitting agency Chris Kaine & Associates, who finds sitters for the Goldsmiths, says there was a time when people could rely on family members to look after pets and homes.
"Those times are now gone," she says. "People are more mobile and independent. Most children have their own children and their own lives, they just don’t have time to look after their parents’ home while they are away, even if they live in the same city."
Kaine, who started her business in Melbourne 15 years ago as a house-share service, is part of the burgeoning house-sitting industry, which Paul Collis, of Australian House Sitters Directory, estimates is growing at 15 per cent annually.
The premise is simple enough: people have ageing pets that need to stay at home and gardens that need watering, or they don’t like returning to a dusty musty house after a holiday.
Enter the house-sitter, who in exchange for rent-free accommodation, will walk the family dog, feed the cat and goldfish, water the garden and air the home. While most sits last two to three weeks, they can range from a weekend to 12 months.
"It's all about community," Kaine says. "I guess that's what I really do: put people in touch with like-minded people, who create a community of their own. Some of my sitters and home owners have become good friends."
The cost of signing up as an owner or sitter depends on the agency and the service it provides.
For the home owner, registration costs vary from free to $100, while, for the sitter, fees range from $185 to $300 a year, depending on both the agency and area.
Chris Kaine & Associates give perspective house-sitters an extensive questionnaire that is used to vet applicants, then match them with a suitable owner.
Others, such as Australian Home Sitters and Happy House Sitters, give owners a list of registered sitters in the area, including occupation, age and a brief description written by the sitter. It is then up to the owner to interview perspective sitters. Some agencies can also put the sitter’s bond in an independent trust account if the owner asks for one.
Still, Collis and Kaine say problems between owners and sitters rarely arise and, when they do, they are usually as trivial as a carpet stain and are easily and quickly resolved.
"Basically, the sitters live in the house as you would," says Goldsmith. "The day we got home from our Easter holiday, the sheets had been washed and were drying on the line. We have never had a problem."
Ian White, of Internet-based HouseCarers.com.au, says there are two basic groups of sitters: retired couples, who are travelling; and professional people, who may be renovating their own home, saving for a deposit, or just wanting a change of scenery.
"I make myself at home," says data analyst Sue Nelson, who first sat 11 years ago after her relationship broke down, "but I am always respectful of the owner’s property."
"Owners ring me up to thank me when they get home. Often they leave the house in a bit of a mess and expect it to be the same when they get back, but I always clean the place before I leave."
Nelson, who has lived alternately with her parents and brother over the past 11 years, says house-sitting gives her a break from her family, and her family from her.
She is now in her seventh and last house-sit, before she migrates to Canada with her new husband. "This house is huge, and I mean huge. The owner took me from room to room and told me which ones I could and couldn't use, which is fine with me."
Michael Myers, of Happy House Sitters, says owners usually leave instructions on looking after pets, watering the garden and who to contact in case of emergencies, such as burst pipes.
Utility bills are usually paid by the sitter. However, there are exceptions. Sometimes, he says, the owner may want the heat left on to keep a pet comfortable, in which case they will pay part or all of the power bill.
"It's a win-win situation," Myers says. "The owner can go away safe in the knowledge that someone is looking after their home and pet's, and the sitter gets a few weeks of rent-free accommodation."