Help Centre

These checklists are intended to be used by busy home owners as they prepare to hand over the care of their property and animals to their house sitter. Who would remember to update their dog's registration  tag contact details, to leave a copy of their shed key for their house sitter or to suspend their organic vegetable delivery without this list of friendly reminders? Home owners should quickly run through these lists with their house sitter so they'll know where everything is and be fully prepared to assume their responsibilities toward the property and animals after the home owner leaves. You can find these checklists in our Advice centre at the following URL: http://www.mindmyhouse.com/help

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If that doesn't resolve the issue, please get back to us here at support.

To add your own testimonial/review for a home owner or house sitter, following the steps below:

• Make sure you are logged in to the site
• Go the 'My testimonials > Write testimonial' section from your dashboard and find them via the search form
• Fill out the form and click the 'Add testimonial' button to submit it

An email will go to the person, notifying them that you have written a testimonial for them, which they have to approve.

When two perfect strangers meet and arrange to take care of each other's house sitting requirements, it's a good idea that they both go into the situation equipped with a copy of our house sitting agreement. We've tried to cover all the bases with this plain-English document but as you go through it together you may think of further amendments, clauses and deletions you'd like to make to suit your particular situation.

For more information, and to download our agreement, please visit our house sitting agreement page.

To request a testimonial/review from another member, following the steps below:

• Make sure you are logged in to the site
• Go the 'My testimonials > Request testimonial' section from your dashboard and enter the persons' first and last names into the search form
• Click the 'Request testimonial' button to send your request

An email will go to the home owner/house sitter, notifying them that you have requested a testimonial from them. You will be emailed back when they write it. If you haven't heard back from them after a few days, it may be that they have ignored your request.

Are you a member of another house sitting website, such as Trusted House Sitters (THS), House Sitters America, Nomador etc? We are happy to import your reviews/endorsements/testimonials, as well as add your 'total assignments completed' count to your MindMyHouse listing, and update the date you started house sitting.

You wil need to be a member of MindMyHouse, and we will also need a link to your public listing on other website.

To get started, go to the 'Bring my reputation' page and go from there.

If the assignment was arranged via MindMyHouse instead (but not recognised by us), use the links below:

• House sitters – please use this form
• Home owners – please use this form

Upon arriving in your home your house sitter may feel like a stranger in a strange land (indeed, they may have traveled from another country to house sit for you) and thus the more information you can provide to help them get orientated the better. You could sit down and write a long list of instructions about your quirky appliances and pampered pet's likes and dislikes but you don't need to 'reinvent the wheel' every time you have a house sitter stay in your home.

It's a really good idea to put together an information pack in A4 plastic envelopes in a sturdy folder for your future house sitters' easy access. With a little bit of updating this folder's contents can be used by your house sitters for years to come. Your signed house sitting agreement should form the cornerstone of your information pack. For suggestions as to what this information pack could contain, see the following documents in our Help Centre (these are also downloadable if you'd like to print them out) at the following URL:

Before you go! Checklist for home owners
Before you go! Checklist for pet owners
House sitting agreement

That's great news that you have found a house sitting assignment! The next step is to send them a message to confirm.

Please also find below a link to our house sitting agreement. Generally, our advice is that you should meet with the home owner first before agreeing to the assignment.

https://www.mindmyhouse.com/advice/advice_legal

During this meeting, you should go through the house sitting agreement with them, so that your (and their) expectations are met and agreed upon.

If you are coming from overseas and is unable to meet with them, you can arrange to meet online (eg. Skype) although this may be a bit harder.

Also, don't forget to have a Plan B in place, in case the home owner has to cancel at the last minute!

Need to cancel?

If you need to cancel this house sitting assignment, go to your 'My Assignments' page and click the 'cancel this assignment' link. Don't leave it too late!

And lastly, don't forget, do not send any money to a home owner (for travel, or the deposit) before you arrive. That's just some helpful security advice we give out to everyone :)

To give home owners extra reassurance that you're not a member of the criminal fraternity, it's a good idea to commission a copy of your very own police check, or in other words, a statement from a government authority that proves your "lack of a criminal record". Having this available shows home owners that you're serious about presenting yourself as responsible and trustworthy and may put you ahead of the competition.

The process of commissioning a police check (known variously as a 'criminal record check' in Canada and a 'police certificate' in New Zealand) varies but is a fairly straightforward and inexpensive process.

• In Australia visit the Australian Federal Police website at www.afp.gov.au
• In Canada look at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police website at www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca
• In Germany try the Federal Office Justice at www.bundesjustizamt.de
• In the UK, you can try the www.acro.police.uk or the www.gov.uk website
• In the US, obtaining a criminal record check is less common, but you can try the travel.state.gov website which has some useful suggestions
• In France, go to the Ministère de la Justice website at www.cjn.justice.gouv.fr
• In New Zealand, go to the www.police.govt.nz website
• In Spain, go to theSpanish Ministry of Justice website at www.mjusticia.gob.es
• In Sweden, try the polisen.se website

Your criminal record check should be current (preferably less than one year old).

Please be assured that your messages are being sent. Every time you contact a home owner or house sitter through our contact form system a copy of the message should be listed in your 'Sent' folder in your Message Centre.

Also, there is a feature that allows you to see if the person has read your message. You can do this by going to your Message Centre, Sent folder, then you will see the text 'Read by sitter/owner'.

That's great news that you have found a house sitting assignment!

Please find below a link to our house sitting agreement. Generally, our advice is that you should meet with the home owner first before agreeing to the assignment. During this meeting, you should go through the house sitting agreement with them, so that your (and their) expectations are met and agreed upon.

https://www.mindmyhouse.com/advice/advice_legal

If you are coming from overseas and is unable to meet with them, you can arrange to meet online (eg. Skype) although this may be a bit harder.

Firstly, try to contact them again to get confirmation (via your MindMyHouse Message Centre). It may that they are delayed, or unable to access the internet. It has been known to happen!

If you want to cancel your house sitter and choose another one, first you need to 'unselect' your sitter. See this FAQ for detailed instructions on how to do this. Once you've unselected them, you can then go about choosing another house sitter. You can also contact us at the helpesk, in case we can assist in trying to contact your house sitter.

House sitter memberships expire after twelve months if you choose to not renew your account. We do not keep your credit card details and would never presume to automatically renew your annual membership.

Instead, we sent you an email reminder one month before your account expires, with an invitation to renew your membership. If you go ahead, you will then have to re-enter your credit/debit card details again.

If you wish to cancel your account immediately, select the 'Cancel account' link from the bottom of your 'My account' page, which is available on your Dashboard. You can also email help@mindmyhouse.com to arrange the removal of your membership account from the site.

If you need to change your mind about your chosen house sitter, because they can't come, or didn't confirm with you, go to the 'Manage my sitters' page and click on the 'Choose a different sitter' link. The house sitter will then be notified via email (you can customise this message). Next, it's just a matter of choosing another house sitter (by clicking on the blue 'Confirm' button) from the same page. Please note, however, that if you wish to choose a different house sitter for other reasons, please first consider the date. ie don't cancel if the house sitter has already left and is on route to your property! Please provide as much notice as you can.

You should endeavor to spend as much time at your house sitting assignment as possible. If you're going to spend many nights away from the property then you've defeated the purpose of house sitting. The house needs to have its usual occupied appearance in order to deter criminals. This means that you need to be there to make sure that junkmail is collected on a daily basis, that pets are walked and fed regularly so that they're not lonely and bored, that lawns and gardens are watered, that the answerphone is cleared regularly and messages are passed on, that utility bills are paid so that services remain connected. Above all, remain contactable while you're in the property so that the home owner can enjoy peace of mind while they're away. A written update on the pets and the property emailed to the home owner on a regular basis can do wonders to reassure absent home owners that all is well.

The advantages of having someone you don't know house sit for you rather than asking a friend or family member to help you out are numerous.

Many an informal agreement between friends or family members has led to the damage or destruction of previously good relationships. If you do require a house sitter it makes much more sense to engage the services of a stranger rather than jeopardize a close relationship.

Essentially, with a house sitter, you can conduct the whole arrangement in a very business-like fashion, asking them for all the usual reassurances that they're trustworthy and responsible. Both you and your house sitter will undoubtedly be keen to go through a house sitting agreement together to spell out exactly what your obligations and expectations are of each other. While the relationship is still one based on trust (as with a friend or family member) you should feel no apprehension in asking your house sitter for a security deposit.

With a friend or family member you'll most likely feel that you need to simply 'go on trust' in arranging the terms of the house sitting agreement which often means not discussing the terms of the agreement at all. One home owner's kind-spirited offer to his friend and house sitter to 'help herself' to his wine collection ended in dismay when he returned home to discover she'd helped herself to two dozen of his prized reds. With a house sitter, he could have guiltlessly locked his wine in the cellar, adding a caveat in the house sitting agreement that it was not to be touched.

Crucial to the distinction between engaging a house sitter online and a friend or family member is one of personal motivation. If your friend or family member is, in essence, doing you a favour rather than agreeing to house sit for their own reasons there's every chance they'll let you down. That's human nature. Here at MindMyHouse we're trying to work with human nature in providing a forum for people to meet to satisfy their own needs while meeting another's house sitting requirements at the same time.

It's best that house sitters are totally upfront and honest with the home owner or their nominated contact person when they're on a house sitting assignment. Everyone understands that accidents do happen. If the house sitter reports any breakages or damages to the home owner in an honest and open kind of way then reparations can usually be cheerfully negotiated. There is a section near the end of the house sitting agreement that can be used to tally up and sort out any monies owing to either party at the end of the assignment. The house sitter can list any damages they've caused to the property in that section.

Home owners are advised to put all valuables and precious items out of harm's way while they're away from their property. For a comprehensive list of what home owners may need to do before they go see the Checklist for home owners and Checklist for pet owners in our Advice Centre.

Leaving your property empty for any length of time is tantamount to asking for trouble. Not only is your vacant house far more likely to be vandalized and burgled but your home and contents insurance becomes null and void after your home is empty for 30 (or sometimes 60) consecutive days. In the words of every home security, police authority and insurance advisor: 'Don't do it!' It may seem easier to lock your house up and simply walk (or drive) away rather than go through the process of finding a house sitter but your home is probably your most valuable asset and as such, deserves the protection that a house sitter can offer.

Your house sitter is working for you
Even though the relationship between home owner and house sitter is not based on money but on trust and the free exchange of services (house and pet sitting) for goods (accommodation), your house sitter is, in essence, working for you. It is a house sitter's job to ensure that the needs of your animals and property are met in all the ways that you specify. The relationship between home owner and house sitter is most often a mutually agreeable and productive one with good lines of communication established early on. Your house sitter will expect to be asked to perform a whole range of tasks to maintain your land and house in the same condition as when you left it. When negotiating the terms of the house sitting assignment, your house sitter will also agree to care for your pets to maintain their good health and happiness.

Your pets will thank you for it
The single most compelling reason for engaging the services of a live-in house sitter rather than letting your house fend for itself (and your pets pine for you from their cages) is the enormous cost of outside care for your animals. Animal psychologists and vets agree that boarding your animals for any length of time can place a huge strain on their physical and emotional health. Even taking your pets on holiday with you can be a far less pleasant experience for them than it is for you (think of cargo holds, vaccinations and sedatives, time spent in quarantine, time spent in a travel container, motion sickness, unfamiliar surroundings, hostile strange animals, unfamiliar food, heatstroke, having to sleep outside - the list goes on). A house sitter can go a long way toward meeting your pet's needs, providing companionship and love as well as keeping them fed, exercised, safe and healthy. If your animals are used to sleeping with you, you can even ask your house sitter if they would mind letting Fluffy in bed for a cuddle.

Keeping your life 'connected' while you're away
One of the less obvious benefits of having a house sitter is that they can keep your life back home 'connected' while you're away. By answering your phone and door to any visitors and forwarding your mail and messages to you, your house sitter provides the link between your old (usual) life and the life you're living while away. You can ask your house sitter to stay in regular contact with you to keep to you informed of any issues that may affect your animals or property. Of course, if you'd rather not know what's going on back home you can nominate someone else to be a contact person for your house sitter.

Insurance
Don't think that your insurance company will take up the slack and provide a safety net for your poor neglected home and its contents while you're away. It won't. Every home and contents policy contains a 'vacancy clause' which kicks in after your home has been empty for 30 (or sometimes 60) days and nullifies all of your cover. It is possible to buy cover for an empty house but the cost of the premium rapidly rises the longer your house is empty and quickly becomes sky-high.

Repairs and maintenance
Your house sitter is always on hand to organise repairs in the event of a minor or major emergency in your home during your absence. If there's a power outage you won't be smelling the contents of your freezer two blocks before you arrive home. A house sitter can keep the frog spawn and algae out of your pool and arrange to have a broken roof tile replaced before the situation deteriorates so far that you've got a damp wall and soggy ceiling to replace upon your return. One broken window can make your house enormously attractive to those who would take pleasure from breaking the rest, but not if your house sitter is on the job and quickly arranges for a replacement.

You won't have to prepare your house for vacancy
The amount of work required to prepare your home for your absence can be a daunting prospect. Concerns about how high you should set your heating to prevent the pipes from freezing, how to find your sump pump and exterior hose bibs, how to properly seal drains and keep the ants out of your dishwasher while you're away are voiced on bulletin boards by anxious home owners the world over. If you don't want to have to drain or seal anything or install random-light-switch machines into your living spaces then consider engaging the services of a nice human being to keep your property humming along in its usual smooth way while you're away.

'Keeping an eye out' is never enough
Many home owners rely on neighbours, friends or relatives to 'keep an eye out' for them or 'pop in' to their empty property. Unfortunately this kind of piecemeal solution never quite works out as the power outage defrosts your freezer (unnoticed by Aunty Dot) and your lonely dog howls all day and night (annoying the neighbour but not enough to do anything about it). And without a resident house sitter happily going about their business in your house, the un-mown lawn and collection of rain-soaked junk mail is only going to encourage the wrong kind of visitor to your home. You have been warned.

That's great news that you have found a house sitter in time for your departure!

Please find below a link to our house sitting agreement. Generally, our advice is that you should meet with your house sitter first before agreeing to the assignment. During this meeting, you should go through the house sitting agreement with them, so that your (and their) expectations are met and agreed upon.

https://www.mindmyhouse.com/advice/advice_legal

If your house sitter is coming from overseas and is unable to meet with you, you can arrange to meet online (eg. Skype) although this may be a bit harder.

In addition, we also have a checklist for home owners, which you may find useful:

https://www.mindmyhouse.com/advice/checklist_home_owners

We hope this helps.

Our site has been set up to receive payment of your membership fee by either your debit or credit card. We're paying a hefty percentage of our gross income to Stripe, a third party merchant services provider, to securely process your payments for us while guaranteeing the security of your financial information. If you don't have your own debit or credit card consider asking to use a friend or relative's card as the card's billing address does not have to match your home address for the payment to go through.

Stripe accepts the following credit and/or debit cards: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, JCB and China UnionPay.

Please note that we do not automatically renew your house sitter memberships after your account lapses (after twelve months). Home owner memberships are lifetime (we only charge once). Also, unfortunately we do not accept cheques or money transfers, sorry.

If you are having any trouble paying for your membership, please contact us at support. We are always here to help!

The house sitting assignment should end in the same spirit that it began: with an exchange of clearly expressed needs and plenty of good will. Don't surprise your house sitter by arriving home at any time other than the one you've told them about. They may have left a lot of the necessary preparation for your return to the last minute or they may have arranged their transport out of town very soon after your purported return (potentially leaving your animals in the lurch).

If your house sitter has paid you a security deposit they may be keen to finalise the financial aspect of the assignment before they leave. This is a fair enough request, even if all you want to do is lie on your own sofa again and enjoy the quiet peace of returning home (bliss!).

Be prepared to go through some of the details of the assignment with your house sitter to work out who owes who for what. Have the security deposit refund available by cash or checque. Above all, before you get home, tell your house sitter how you'd like to see the assignment end (you may not want them in the house when you return). They're used to being flexible and meeting your needs.

If you have been lucky to receive an email from MindMyHouse saying that you were successfully chosen for an upcoming house sitting assignment, the next step is to send the home owner a message, indicaating your acceptance. You can do this via your Message centre, or via your 'My assignments' page.

Also, we have the following FAQ to help you finalise the details of your house sitting assignment.

https://www.mindmyhouse.com/support/faq/41

Please also find below a link to our house sitting agreement. Generally, our advice is that you should meet with the home owner first before agreeing to the assignment. During this meeting, you should go through the house sitting agreement with them, so that your (and their) expectations are met and agreed upon.

https://www.mindmyhouse.com/advice/advice_legal

If you are coming from overseas and is unable to meet with them, you can arrange to meet online (eg. Skype) although this may be a bit harder.

If you don't need income from the sale of your property to fund your adventures it often makes more sense to choose a house sitter to mind your house while you're away rather than let your house to a paying tenant. The benefits of having a house sitter to care  for your animals in your absence are obvious. But even if you've only the welfare of a few pot plants to consider, the advantages of having a house sitter over a tenant are many.

Your pets will thank you for it
Animal psychologists and vets agree that boarding your animals for any length of time can place a huge strain on their physical and emotional health. Even taking your pets on holiday with you can be a far less pleasant experience for them than it is for you (think of cargo holds, vaccinations and sedatives, time spent in quarantine, time spent in a travel container, motion sickness, unfamiliar surroundings, hostile strange animals, unfamiliar food, heatstroke, having to sleep outside - the list goes on). A house sitter can go a long way toward meeting your pet's needs, providing companionship and love as well as keeping them fed, exercised, safe and healthy. If your animals are used to sleeping with you, you can even ask your house sitter if they would mind letting Fluffy in bed for a cuddle.

Your house sitter is working for you
Where the landlord-tenant relationship is based on a tenancy agreement and the exchange of money and nothing more, a house sitter is, in essence, working for you. It is a house sitter's job to ensure that the needs of your animals and property are met in all the ways that you specify. The relationship between home owner and house sitter is most often a mutually agreeable and productive one with good lines of communication established early on. Your house sitter will expect to be asked to perform a whole range of tasks to maintain your land and house in the same condition as when you left it as well as care for any number of pets to maintain their good health and happiness. And in the event of a minor or major emergency your house sitter is always on hand to organise repairs in your absence. (Trying getting an estate agent on the phone at 3am).

Saving money
Although it may sound illogical, it can actually make good financial sense to choose a house sitter over a paying tenant. If you're leaving one or more pets behind then the cost of outside care for your animals will most likely far outweigh any rental income you can expect from your property. And with a house sitter you don't have to put your furniture and lifetime's possessions into storage (this can be very expensive!)  You also won't need to pay to have your vehicles stored in a secure parking facility. You'll also most likely save on the costs of redecorating and making minor repairs that needs to be done every time your tenants move out. As a general rule, a house sitter will take much better care of your home than a tenant as they are keenly aware that the responsibility for its upkeep resides squarely with them.

Keeping your life 'connected' while you're away
One of the less obvious benefits of having a house sitter is that they can keep your life back home 'connected' while you're away. By answering your phone and door to any visitors and forwarding your mail and messages to you, your house sitter provides the link between your old (usual) life and the life you're living while away. You can ask your house sitter to stay in regular contact with you to keep to you informed of any issues that may affect your animals or property. Of course, if you'd rather not know what's going on back home you can nominate someone else to be a contact person for your house sitter.

Increased security
Everyone agrees that an occupied home is far more secure than an empty one. A house sitter will provide far better security for your home than a tenant. This is because a house sitter will have signed a document stating that they will be in your home most nights (or every night if they have your animals in their care). A tenant, however, is not obliged to be 'at home' at all. Indeed, your home could be left empty for months on end if your tenants choose to go on an extended holiday. There's also a risk that your home could remain empty for some time between tenancies or due to a slack rental market.

Your home remains in your control
When you engage the services of a house sitter, your property effectively remains in your control, however, with a tenant you've temporarily sold the right to call your house a home to someone else. The nature of the contract between house sitter and home owner means that your home is there for you when you need it. Should you need to return early or sporadically during your travels, your house sitter should be flexible enough to allow this to happen.

Your house sitter can be bound by all the usual safeguards
And finally, your house sitter can be subject to all the usual legal precautionary requirements that a tenant is bound by. In fact, a responsible house sitter is usually prepared to offer home owners many more reassurances that they are trustworthy than is required of a tenant. These can include a recent police record check, references, a security deposit (of no more than the equivalent of a month's rent for a similar property in the same area) as well as a signed legally binding agreement. We recommend that home owners interview house sitters before choosing someone for the assignment. Once you've made an offer to a house sitter and it's been accepted you both need to go through our house sitting agreement together to negotiate the terms of the deal.

Once you've joined MindMyHouse.com as a house sitter member you are entitled to create and update your listing as many times as you like over the course of a year. You may choose to hide your listing from view for a good portion of that time.

Once you've joined and you have used your account, we consider your membership fee to have been spent (if it's been more than 30 days and if you have sent messages to home owners).

Please also note that your membership is transferable, so you don't cancel it, you can give it to someone who can use it! To transfer your account to someone else you will have to login to your account area and replace all of your information with theirs. Have fun with it!

Please see our Terms and Conditions for more details.

Also, please be assured that we do not keep your credit card details and would never presume to automatically renew your annual membership. Instead, we sent you an email reminder one month before your account expires, with an invitation to renew your membership. If you go ahead, you will then have to re-enter your credit/debit card details again.

That's great news that you have found a house sitter in time for your departure.

You don't need to email the house sitters who applied, as we will have done it for you, as long as you selected your house sitter via the 'Manage my  sitters' page. If you didn't use this page to select your house sitter, you can do so now.

Please also find below a link to our house sitting agreement. Generally, our advice is that you should meet with your house sitter first before agreeing to the assignment. During this meeting, you should go through the house sitting agreement with them, so that your (and their) expectations are met and agreed upon.

https://www.mindmyhouse.com/advice/advice_legal

If your house sitter is coming from overseas and is unable to meet with you, you can arrange to meet online (eg. Skype) although this may be a bit harder.

In addition, we also have a checklist for home owners, which you may find useful:

https://www.mindmyhouse.com/advice/checklist_home_owners

We pride ourselves on having a completely transparent business model. To this end: anyone can see all of our listings at any time. We also provide a very good overview of what a membership entails. For these reasons we believe that our members should have everything they need to confidently take out a membership with us before they hand over their small annual membership fee. For this reason, we don't routinely offer a refund on the small price of the joining fee with us. However, if you do have a valid reason for requesting a refund, and it is within 30 days of purchase, and you haven't used your account (ie. haven't sent messages to home owners), we are happy to issue a full refund (within 30 days of purchase).

Lastly, please be assured that we do not keep your credit card details and would never presume to automatically renew your membership.

For house sitters, we sent you an email reminder one month before your account expires, with an invitation to renew your membership. If you go ahead, you will then have to re-enter your credit/debit card details again.

Home owners don't need to renew, as your membership is lifetime (ie. once off payment).

The Reply reliability rating is a rating that MindMyHouse gives to each member, to see how reliably they reply to new messages sent to them.

MindMyHouse will calculate this simply as a percentage, from messages received versus messages sent. Please note that it’s only an approximate figure – we will convert the percentage into something like ‘always’, or ’often’,  ‘sometimes’ or ‘rarely’, using the list below. Hopefully there won’t be any of that last one!

• 90-100% always
• 80% very frequently
• 60-70% frequently
• 50% often
• 20-40% usually
• 10% infrequently

For those curious types, we only look for replies to the last 30 new messages received. That way, if you rating is low, you can get it back up again relatively quickly. Also, we have a 7 day delay before we assess your rating, to give you time to reply to new messages sent to you recently.

To instantly get your score back up to 100%, just go into your MindMyHouse Message Centre and reply to all of messages marked 'NEW'  (you only need to reply to the last 30 received).

Here at MindMyHouse.com we've crafted a plain-English house sitting agreement for you to refer to and sign prior to the beginning of the assignment. By having the document in front of you during the negotiation process, both the home owner and house sitter can discuss in detail what your expectations are of each other and what each person's responsibilities will be during the assignment. We've tried to cover all the bases but you may be able to think of your own amendments and clauses to add to the document. If there's anything in the agreement that you don't consider relevant simply cross it out (these amendments need to be initialled by all parties to the agreement). Your house sitting agreement can be used by the house sitter as a 'one-stop-shop' while the home owner is away for any information they will need to keep at hand: emergency contact numbers, recycling and rubbish days, security alarm codes, the day of the home owner's expected return!

Simply go to our house sitting agreement page in the Help section and download the house sitting agreement to your computer. It's a PDF file which means that you will need to have a copy of the free Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. If this sounds like too much techno babble, we've also included a Word formatted version and a Rich text format (RTF) version of the agreement which you can download to your desktop and send straight to your printer. Although we recommend using the PDF file as it has been laid out by our web designer and is easier to understand than the Word version.

If your Reply reliability rating is too low, or if you want to improve it, simply make sure that you reply to all members who contact you. That's it. Even if it's just a quick, polite note to say "Sorry, we are unavailable".

To instantly get your score back up to 100%, just go into your MindMyHouse Message Centre and reply to all of messages marked 'NEW'  (you only need to reply to the last 30 received).

To calculate this rating, we simply look at the most recent 30 new messages sent to you from other members, and then we look to see if you replied at some point. If you didn't reply, your score will be lower. When you do reply, your score will increase.

For those curious types, we basically divide the number of new emails received by the number of your replies, to calculate your rating. If your rating is low, you can get it back up again relatively quickly, as we only look at 30 of your most recent messages received. Also, we have a 7 day delay before we assess your rating, to give you time to reply to new messages sent to you recently.

If you still feel that your rating is too low after reading this, please contact support at help@mindmyhouse.com and we can check for you :)

Lastly, if you were sent messages, but never received them at your personal email inbox, it may be that they were caught in your spam folder – therefore check your spam folder in case they are being caught by your spam filter. You can also read this FAQ about this problem.

Please be assured that your messages are being sent to home owners.

Competition for the longer house sitting assignments is so keen that home owners can often feel deluged by responses. That is no excuse for them not showing you the courtesy of acknowledging your application or politely turning your offer down.

We have written two short articles on home owner etiquette in different editions of MindMyHouse News that you can see at the following URLs:

http://www.mindmyhouse.com/community/blog/news/mindmyhouse-news-09-feburary-2014/

http://www.mindmyhouse.com/community/blog/news/mindmyhouse-news-22-july-2006/

We realise how important it is for house sitter members to hear back from home owners regarding their applications. We currently have several mechanisms in place to encourage our home owner members to acknowledge every message they receive through our site, including email templates. We send out regular email reminders to all home owners asking them if they have found a sitter. We also automatically hide their listing at the beginning of their sitter assignment dates (if they only have one current set to dates).

To encourage home owners to reply to your messages to them it's a good idea to create your own sitter available listing complete with three nice photos of your choosing. Until you create your own listing, home owners can't add you to their favourite house sitter candidates. Having a listing on our site will show home owners that you are a real person who deserves a reply!

Also, we have a feature that allows you to see if the home owner have read your application. This was released in May 2017, so it doesn't apply to messages sent before then. You can do this by going to your Message Centre, sent folder and check the 'Read by owner' column in your email list:

https://www.mindmyhouse.com/sitters/messages/sent

The message centre is a place where copies of all emails you have sent or received from other MindMyHouse members through our contact form system are stored. Whenever you contact a home owner or house sitter via the MindMyHouse contact form system, a copy of the email will go into your message centre as well as to the personal email address you use with your MindMyHouse account.

Please note that if a home owner or house sitter knows your email address it is most likely that they will have contacted you directly (via your external Google/Hotmail/Yahoo email account) and thus there will be no record of this message in your message centre!

Your message centre is a good place to find those old emails you sent or received through our system but can't find in your own email account. However please note that we can only store these messages for about three years. Any mail older than that will need to be deleted due to server space (we can't store them all!).

Please note that's it's a very good idea to make use of your favourites - when you reply to a home owner or sitter listing, adding them to your favourites will make them automatically appear in your message centre as well. It makes it much easier to send them subsequent messages and to identify messages coming from them as well.

Also, we have a feature that allows you to see if the member have read your application. You can do this by going to your Message Centre, sent folder and check the 'Read by owner' column in your email list. Please note that this feature was only released in May 2017, so it doesn't apply to any messages sent before then.

Viewing your mail
To view all emails that you have sent or received through our contact form system, simply click on the Sitter or Owner tab from the main menu (you need to be logged in of course) and you will see your most recent messages from your inbox. You can then click on the 'Message centre' title (or on a message) to access your messages. Once in your Message centre, click on the 'Sent messages' folder to view your mail to other MindMyHouse members. Click on the 'Inbox' folder to view all incoming mail from fellow members who contacted you through our system. To read the full version of an email, simply click on the message subject line and the email will be visible.

Replying to your mail
Replying to an email in your inbox is simply a matter of selecting a message and then clicking on the 'Reply' button in the button bar. A new email form will appear, where you can type in your new message. You can either send it straight away by clicking on 'Send' or save it to your drafts folder by clicking on the 'Save to drafts' button. Once you have sent your message, you will see a copy of the email in the 'Sent messages' folder, as well as another copy in your own personal email address.

To send a new message
Clicking on the 'New message' button in the button bar will load a new message form where you can type in a new message. Messages can be sent straight away or saved to your drafts folder (via the 'Save as draft' button). You can either type in the recipients email address directly (if you know it) or type in part of their name to display a popup list of matching members in your favourites. Note that you can only send messages to MindMyHouse members. 

About templates
If you have a message that you use over and over again, you can save it as a template so that you can use it again at a later date. To save a message as a template, create a new message, add your message and click the 'Save as template' button. This will save the message in the templates folder. You can also move an existing message that you've already sent from your sent folder to the template folder - just select the message and click the 'Move' button in the button bar and choose 'Templates' from the drop down menu. Home owners: we have also added a basic template for you as well to help you reply to house sitters who apply for your assignments! To use one of your templates, just click the 'Edit message' button after selecting the template message.

Moving messages to another folder
To move one or several messages to another folder, place a tick inside the checkbox (in the left message column) of each message you want to move. Then click on the 'Move' button in the button bar and select the folder you want to move the message to from the drop down menu.

Deleting messages
To delete a message, simply put a tick inside the checkbox (in the left message column) of each message you want to delete and choose the 'Delete' button in the button bar. To empty the trash, click on the trash folder on the left and then click the 'Empty trash' button in the button bar. 

Searching for lost mail
If you can't find an email in your message centre that you know you sent or received through our contact form system please report the problem to us and we'll see if we can find it. Note that if the message is over three years old it will have been deleted.

Receiving a suspicious message
As ever, if you receive a message that is suspicious in any way please contact us and we will investigate it. There is also a spam button in the button bar - just select the message to view it and click 'Spam'.

Tracking your sent mail
If you haven't had a prompt reply from those people you wrote to through our internal contact form system please be assured that the messages will have been sent! You can also check the 'Read by owner' column in your email list (in your sent folder). Please note that this feature was only released in May 2017, so it doesn't apply to any messages sent before then.

If emails you were expecting from MindMyHouse haven't arrived in your inbox, it may be caused by one of the following issues:

You accidently entered in the wrong email address when you registered (it happens)
If you think this has happened to you, contact us at help@mindmyhouse.com and we can help.

Your messages are in your spam folder
Check your email spam folder and see if they are in there. It has been known to happen!

What's the solution?
You will need to ensure that any emails from support@mindmyhouse, help@mindmyhouse.com, do-not-reply@mindmyhouse.com and info@mindmyhouse.com are allowed to bypass your SPAM filter. Usually it's a simple matter of adding these addresses into your email contacts list, or whitelist to allow them to be received.

Maybe your email account provider may be blocking our emails to you.
Yes spam is a scourge - but emails from MindMyHouse (while they are often automatically generated) aren't! In an effort to combat spam many email accounts (especially those connected with work places and academic institutions) have very efficient spamblocking technology in place that may be inadvertently preventing you from receiving important emails from us.

Private free email service providers also offer various levels of spam filtering that may be doing the same damage. If anything in the following list seems to apply to you, your email account software or provider may be using spam blocking technology which is preventing our emails from reaching you:

• If you have subscribed to our mailing list but aren't receiving our newsletter, MindMyHouse News, in your inbox.
• If your requests for customer support seem to be going unanswered.
• If you haven't received a single email telling you that a new house sitting assignment (or house sitter) has become available in your preferred areas.
• If you registered with our service but the activation email never arrived.

Also, avoid using your work or academic email address with MindMyHouse as these accounts are most likely to have over-zealous spam filters. It's best to use a free public domain account such as those available with Yahoo Mail or GMail.

Please note that your email address can't actually be harvested from our website as all contact details are hidden behind a password-protected area. So as long as you don't write your email address in the body of your listing (and you don't publish that address anywhere else on the web) you're safe from receiving the endless Viagra listings (aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh) at that address.

Note that you don't need to re-register with our service to change your email address. Simply login to your member account area and choose 'Update my contact details'. Type your new email address into the relevant field and it's done!

Adding photos to your photo is now a snap! Sorry, bad pun. First, make sure you are logged in. Then click on the "Edit my listing" link from your Dashboard. If you haven't created your listing yet, it will be created for you.

On the edit listing page, you first need to go to 'Step 2 - Photos'. Once there, click the blue 'Upload' or 'Upload/edit photos' button. This will open our image editor. Then you can drop your pics anywhere to upload, or click the 'Select photos' button to choose images to upload. Works on mobile phones too!

Be patient – it may take a while to upload. When your done, select the 'Return to my listing' link and viola! 

Need more details?

You can choose which image to feature on the search results and as the main image in your listing. To do this, click the blue 'Upload/edit photos' button again from your listing, then click the 'star' icon on the thumbnail.

To delete an image, same as above, but click on the 'bin' or 'garbage can' icon instead.

You can also crop your image using the crop tool. Please also note that your image may appear differently, depending on whether it's viewed on a mobile device, tablet or desktop.

You can upload any image as long as it's a JPEG, PNG or GIF formatted image. For the technical minded, it needs to be less than 8Mb, or smaller than 4000 pixels across, and larger than 1000px across. Captions can be added when you upload an image, or click the 'edit' link under the thumbnail to bring up the caption edit screen.

If your having problems uploading a photo, please check the following in order to help resolve the problem:

1. Logout of MindMyHouse and login again.

2. Refresh your web browser by clicking on the 'Refresh' button in your web browser toolbar

3. Check that your image isn't too large

4. Check that your image has the correct format and filename (eg. jpg).

5. Ensure you have JavaScript enabled

6. If that doesn't work, try another web browser, or your phone (yes, we've tested this and it works nicely via your phone).

You are also welcome to send us your images as attachments to help@mindmyhouse.com. We can then try to upload your photos to your listing for you.

Lastly, if you are using an iPhone to take your pictures, it may be that your photos are in the HEIC image format, which we don't support. You will need to convert them (see isntructions below):

1. Open Picture in the iPhone 'Photos' app
2. Tap Share
3. Tap Copy Photo
4. Open Files-App in any writable folder
5. Tap on empty space and select "Paste"

The inserted file will be in jpeg format automatically.

Can you tell us how you took the photos? Were they via your phone? It may be that they are in the wrong format. Some mobile phones do save images in a different format, which we don't support (eg. HEIF or HEIC), and thus you may need to convert them to JPEG first.

Creating your own 'sitter wanted' listing is a great way of gathering offers from interested house sitters without having to do the hard work of searching MindMyHouse.com for a house sitter yourself. Consider these simple guidelines to writing a 'sitter wanted' listing that will provide potential house sitters with enough of the right type of information to know if they really should apply for your house sitting assignment.

1. Don't shortchange yourself. Less is not more when it comes to advertising your house sitting assignment. House sitters are busy people, but they are prepared to give you all the time that it takes to read your listing. So take more than a moment to craft an listing of around 150 words that adequately describes your house sitting assignment.
2. Your title is your banner. Your title functions as the banner for your listing and thus needs to sum up what your listing is all about in a memorable kind of way. This may be your only chance to tempt someone to click onto your listing to read your lovingly crafted text so make it a good one!
3. Two bases to cover. 'All the world is a stage' or so the saying goes. In your listing you need to cover two bases simultaneously. Your first challenge is to adequately describe what you are looking for and expect from a house sitter. Your second challenge is to adequately describe what your house sitting assignment can offer to a house sitter.
4. Give them enough to go on. Many 'sitter wanted' listings suffer from the same fault: lack of information. It is never enough to say 'contact me for more information'. Curious house sitters may be motivated to do this but you could end up repeating the same information endlessly to house sitters who quickly realize the assignment is unsuitable for them.
5. Answer these questions. Try and answer the following questions in your listing: Where is my property located? What type and size is my property? What and how many animals will require care? What kind of maintenance will my property need? What are the good features of my property? What are the good features of my location? Is there anything a house sitter should know before they apply for the assignment?
6. Punctuation, spelling, grammar. Yes, boring I know, but crucial in getting your message across. Style is just as important as content so please follow the conventions of good written English. Spell check your listing in Word before pasting it into the site. Only use complete sentences in your listing. Use commas and full stops where required. Don't use any slang or abbreviations.
7. How's your English? If English isn't your first language or if writing is not your strongest skill, then ask someone more skilled at writing in English to help you with your listing. As long as it's factual and correct, there's no such thing as cheating when composing your 'sitter wanted' listing.
8. Staying anonymous. MindMyHouse.com preserves your anonymity right up until the moment you respond to house sitters' emails. As your usual email address can give away all sorts of things about you such as your name and your place of work, you may want to retain your anonymity by creating a new email address to use on MindMyHouse.com.
9. Check out these samples. Lastly, check out our selection of sample 'house sitter wanted' listings. You may be inspired.

To add references to your listings, you first need to upload you reference  to a third party site first as a PDF document eg.Dropbox, OneDrive, CloudMe- all of these services are free :). 

 Once you have uploaded you reference/s:

1. Login to our account
2. Go to the 'Edit my listing' page
3. Scroll down to the 'References' section
4. Add the URL for your PDF

A 'URL' is the link to the document. You can get that from wherever you uploaded the document, usually via a 'Share' button or function. We also advise you convert any Word documents to the PDF format, as many people may not have the Microsoft Word application installed.

Also, please note that there is a limit of five URLs. If you reach this limit, you can try sharing a folder, instead of individual files. That way you only need to use one slot and share as many files as you like.

Dropbox

To share a document, or folder via Dropbox:

1. Login to Dropbox
2. Upload your file
3. Click on the 'Share' button to the right of your document
4. Click on the 'Create a link' text
5. Click the 'Copy link' text
6. Navigate back to your MindMyHouse account
7. In the References box, paste the URL you just copied into the References URL field.
8. Click the 'Plus' icon if you want to add more URLs
9. Save your listing

Microsoft OneDrive

To share a document, or folder via OneDrive:

1. Login to OneDrive
2. Upload your file
3. Click on the file to view the file
4. Click the 'Share' button (top left)
5. Click the 'Get a link' button
6. Click on the 'Copy' button to copy the URL
7. Navigate back to your MindMyHouse account
8. In the References box, paste the URL you just copied into the References URL field.
9. Click the 'Plus' icon if you want to add more URLs
10. Save your listing

CloudMe

To share a document, or folder via CloudMe:

1. Login to CloudMe
2. Upload your file
3. Click on the file to select the file
4. Click the 'Share' button
5. Click the 'Copy link' button
6. Navigate back to your MindMyHouse account
7. In the References box, paste the URL you just copied into the References URL field.
8. Click the 'Plus' icon if you want to add more URLs
9. Save your listing

Google Drive

To share a document, or folder via Google Drive:

1. Login to Google Drive
2. Upload your file
3. Double click on the file to view the file in Google Drive
4. Click the blue 'Share' button (top right)
5. Change the general access to 'Anyone with a link'
6. Click the 'Copy link' button
7. Navigate back to your MindMyHouse account
8. In the References box, paste the URL you just copied into the References URL field.
9. Click the 'Plus' icon if you want to add more URLs
10. Save your listing