How we work together.

Who these terms are with

These terms cover house sitting, pet care and home check-in services provided by While You’re Away, operated out of Caulfeild, West Vancouver, British Columbia. They apply from the moment you request a booking.

Booking, and what an estimate means

The figure you see on our booking page is an estimate, not an invoice. It is worked out from the rates published on our site and the details you give us. We review every request and confirm the final price with you before anything is charged.

A booking is only confirmed once we have said so. Requesting one does not hold your dates.

Deposits and payment

Once your booking is confirmed, a 50% deposit secures your dates. The balance is due on the day your booking starts.

If your booking starts within 48 hours of being made, it is payable in full at the time of booking. Those dates are already inside the window where a deposit could not be refunded, so there is no deposit stage.

We accept Interac e-Transfer. Card payment is coming and will be handled by a payment provider on their own pages.

Cancellation

Your dates are held just for you, and we turn away other work to keep them free. On that basis:

• Cancel more than 48 hours before the start and your deposit is refunded in full.
• Cancel within 48 hours of the start and the deposit is not refunded.
• A booking made when the start is already less than 48 hours away is not refundable. The full amount is due when the booking is made and remains due.

One exception overrides all of the above. If your designated sitter has to cancel and we cannot provide a replacement to cover the booking, you are refunded in full, bookings paid in full included. You should never be out of pocket because we could not send someone.

If we cancel for any other reason, you also get back everything you have paid, and we will do what we can to help you find alternative care.

The meet-and-greet

Every new client gets a complimentary half-hour meet-and-greet at their home before the first visit. We walk through the property together so we understand your routines, your pets and anything specific about your home.

This is not optional. We do not take on a home we have not seen.

Getting into your home

You are responsible for making sure we can actually get in: working keys, a code that has not been changed, a lockbox that opens, an alarm we know how to disarm.

If we cannot get in and cannot reach you, we will do everything reasonable to sort it out, but we cannot be responsible for the consequences of being locked out of your home. A visit we cannot complete for this reason is still charged.

Please also tell us if anyone else will be in the home while we are looking after it. Cleaners, trades, family and neighbours are all fine, we just need to know.

Your pets

Our standard rates assume healthy adult animals. Puppies, senior animals, medication and special-needs care are available as add-ons and need to be agreed in advance.

Please be honest with us about behaviour. If an animal has bitten, or is reactive to strangers, we need to know before we walk through the door. We may decline a booking on that basis, and we would far rather do that than find out the hard way.

In an emergency we will get your pet to a vet. We will try to reach you and your emergency contact on the way, but we will not delay treatment while we do. No exceptions. Where your own practice is closed we will go to the nearest emergency clinic.

You are responsible for all veterinary costs. Please arrange payment terms with your vet in advance, so that treatment is never held up over the question of who is paying. This is the single most useful thing you can do before you go away.

Where care happens

All care takes place in your own home. We do not board animals, and we will not take your pet to our home for any part of a booking.

We have our own pets, and there is no way to know in advance how they and yours would get on. Introducing unfamiliar animals to each other is how avoidable injuries happen. Keeping every animal on its own territory is safer for your pet, safer for ours, and it is the arrangement you booked.

Overnight stays

Once your sitter has an overnight booked, their evening is yours from 7pm, with no second stay alongside it. Check-in for an overnight is from 7pm. Check-out times vary, so please ask.

Storms and unexpected visits

Existing clients can ask us to check in during a big storm or power outage for a $30 storm-response fee. We will make sure the home is secure and tell you if anything needs attention before doing anything beyond the basics. Urgent visits outside a scheduled booking are $75.

What we are responsible for

We take real care with your home, and we will tell you straight away if something goes wrong on our watch. If we damage something through our own carelessness, we will put it right.

We carry liability insurance for the work we do, and proof of coverage is available on request.

We are not responsible for problems that were already there when we arrived, for wear and tear, for the acts of other people with access to your home, or for events outside our control such as storms, power cuts or flooding. We are not responsible for illness or injury to a pet where we followed the care instructions you gave us.

Between scheduled visits

Our responsibility for your home begins when a sitter arrives for a scheduled visit and ends when that visit finishes. We cannot watch over a home we are not in. We are not responsible for anything that happens in the hours between visits, including damage, loss, intrusion, an appliance or plumbing failure, a power interruption, or anything a pet does while unattended.

Where we find a problem on arrival, we will tell you promptly and take reasonable steps to stop it getting worse.

This does not apply to an overnight stay, during which a sitter is present in your home for the whole booked period.

Your pet’s behaviour

You remain responsible for your pet’s behaviour at all times, whether or not a sitter is present. That includes damage your pet causes to your own home and its contents, and any injury or damage your pet causes to another person, animal or property. You agree to indemnify us against any claim brought by a third party arising from something your pet has done.

This does not cover our own negligence. If a sitter leaves a gate open, ignores the handling instructions you gave us, or is otherwise careless, that is ours to answer for and we will not hide behind this clause.

Nothing in these terms limits any rights you have under British Columbia consumer protection law.

Videos

We film a short walk-through at the start and end of every visit, so you can see the state of your home when we arrived and again when we left. Those videos are for you, and they are also our own record of what happened on each visit.

Your videos are uploaded to your member page, which only you can reach by signing in. They are visible to you and to the sitter assigned to your booking.

Videos stay there for two weeks after your sitter checks out of the final visit, then they are deleted. The two weeks start when the booking actually finishes rather than when each video was filmed, so a longer trip does not mean the early ones have gone by the time you are home.

You can download any of them at any point during those two weeks, and keep them wherever you like. We will email you three days before they are removed, so nothing disappears without warning.

A copy you have downloaded is yours to keep, and our deletion does not reach it. Removing a video after two weeks clears it from our storage, not from a phone or a computer it has already been saved to. Once a copy is on your own device, looking after it — and deciding who else ever sees it — is up to you.

We never publish photos or video of your home or your pets. Not on social media, not on our marketing website, not in advertising, not anywhere, ever. We do not share them with anyone else, with two exceptions: where the law requires us to hand something over, and where you ask us to share a video with your insurer or the police.

Changing these terms

If we change these terms we will update this page and the date at the top. The terms that apply to your booking are the ones in force when we confirmed it.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of British Columbia and of Canada.

Questions

If anything here is unclear, ask us before you book. Email loading… or use the contact form. See also our privacy policy.