Do House Sitters Need Insurance? The Honest 2026 Answer

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You do not legally need insurance to house sit. But going into a sit without any coverage at all is a risk most experienced sitters would not take. The honest answer is that the worst case scenarios are rare, and in most sits nothing goes wrong. Insurance exists for the sits where something does. The key is knowing what you actually have before you need it.

Caro and I have done 20 house sits across 12 countries and have never had to make a claim on any policy. We have broken a glass in Switzerland, snapped a knife handle in the Netherlands, and dealt with a jammed coffee machine worth €1,500. In none of those cases did insurance come into it. We photographed everything, told the homeowners immediately, and in every single case they told us not to worry about it. Trust, transparency, and communication resolved all of it before it became a financial question.

But our first sit in Bochum taught us something important before any of that. The cat's foot swelled up unexpectedly. It was stressful, and it made us realise very quickly the value of having someone to call.

That experience is part of why we have stayed on a premium membership with TrustedHouseSitters ever since. If you are not yet a member, a 25% discount is available here.

What Insurance Caro and I Actually Carry

Between the two of us, we have layered coverage from several different sources, and none of it was designed specifically for house sitting.

Caro holds a personal liability and health policy she took out as a German teacher, purchased for a three-year term. It covers third party liability and health requirements while travelling. It was not bought with house sitting in mind but it applies to her regardless of where she is and what she is doing.

I have coverage through my card provider. Many bank cards, particularly travel-oriented ones, include personal liability and medical cover as part of the package. Most cardholders never read the terms carefully enough to know what they actually have.

I did, and I also contacted the provider directly to ask specific questions. One thing I discovered: my cover does not extend to drone flying, which I do occasionally. I now carry separate insurance for that. The point is that reading the fine print revealed gaps I would not have known about otherwise.

On top of our personal policies, we are on the THS Premium plan, which includes sitter liability protection and access to the vet helpline. These are not insurance policies in the regulated sense. They are discretionary protection schemes, which is a meaningful distinction that the THS and Nomador sales pages do not make obvious.

What THS Cover Actually Is — And What It Is Not

This is the part that catches people out. The TrustedHouseSitters cover that comes with Standard and Premium memberships sounds reassuring on the membership page. In practice, it has conditions, exclusions, and requirements that can make it difficult to actually claim on.

For homeowners, the Home and Contents Protection is a secondary layer. The homeowner must claim on their own home insurance first. THS steps in only if that insurer denies the claim or the cost falls within the homeowner's excess. For sitters, the liability protection covers legal liability for accidents or damage to third parties or the homeowner's property, but excludes intentional acts and is subject to a deductible.

Nomador's Home Protection works similarly. It is discretionary goodwill coverage, not a regulated insurance product. The Nomador pricing article covers what each plan actually includes.

None of this means the cover is worthless. It means you should not treat it as a substitute for your own insurance. Think of it as an additional layer on top of what you already carry, not as the foundation of your coverage. We personally do not expect much from the platform cover because of how many conditions attach to a valid claim. What we do value is the vet helpline, which is immediate, practical, and available at 3am when a pet is behaving strangely and the homeowner is unreachable.

The THS Basic Plan and the Coverage Gap

Sitters on the Basic plan have no sitter liability protection and no vet helpline access through THS. That is a genuine gap, and it is worth being clear about.

In the majority of sits, it will never matter. Most sits end without incident, and the Basic plan gives you full access to listings at the lowest annual cost. People choose Basic knowing what it includes and what it does not, and for many sitters that trade-off makes sense.

The upgrade that Caro and I would prioritise above everything else is the vet helpline rather than the liability cover. The liability scenario, where you cause serious damage to a property and face a claim, is rare. The scenario where a pet does something unexpected at an inconvenient hour and you have no one to call is much more common.

The Bochum cat with the swollen foot was our first sit. Having someone available to call in that moment is worth more than the price difference between Basic and Standard. Our TrustedHouseSitters pricing article has the current plan comparison in full.

We are currently on Premium, partly because of the additional coverage and partly because we have accumulated enough referral credits that the membership costs us nothing for the foreseeable future.

The Practical Reality of Breakages and Damage

In three years of sitting, the closest we have come to a damage claim was a jammed coffee machine in Switzerland. The owner drove over, cleaned it with a vacuum and compressed air, and it worked for the rest of the sit. We photographed everything and sent it straight to the owner as soon as it happened. The glass we broke in Switzerland, we offered to replace. The knife handle that snapped in the Netherlands, same offer. In every case the homeowner said not to worry about it.

The reason none of those situations escalated is not that we were lucky. It is that we communicated immediately, documented what happened, and offered to make it right. The homeowners appreciated the transparency and chose not to pursue it. That dynamic, treating every home with more care than your own and being honest when something goes wrong, is the most effective risk management available to a house sitter. It costs nothing and it works.

This does not mean insurance is unnecessary. It means that for everyday mishaps involving items of modest value, communication and goodwill resolve the situation almost every time. Insurance becomes relevant for the scenarios that goodwill cannot fix: serious property damage, a pet that injures a third party, a medical emergency. Those situations are rare but they are not impossible, and having nothing in place when one occurs is an avoidable problem. Our full guide on handling property damage during a sit covers the steps to take if something serious does happen.

What to Actually Check Before Your First Sit

The most important step is reading what you already have before deciding what else you need.

Start with your bank card. Cards with travel benefits frequently include personal liability cover that extends to damage you cause while staying in third party properties. Contact your card provider and ask directly: am I covered for accidental damage to property I am staying in while abroad? Ask specifically, because the answer to a vague question is always vague.

Check your existing home or renters insurance if you have one. Some policies extend personal liability cover to the policyholder regardless of location. Others do not. Read the terms rather than assuming.

If you are a full-time traveller without a home base, a travel insurance policy with a strong personal liability section is worth the cost. Read the terms carefully. Policies vary widely in what they exclude. Contact the provider directly if anything is unclear, as Caro and I have done with our own policies. Vague terms rarely resolve in the claimant's favour.

For the vet helpline specifically, that is a THS membership decision rather than an insurance question. It is one of the most genuinely useful things the platform offers for sitters who are not confident with animals or who are early in their sitting career. We cover handling pet emergencies and giving pet medication in separate articles if those are live concerns.

Conclusion

Do house sitters need insurance? Technically no. Practically, yes, in the same way that any sensible traveller carries some form of coverage before leaving home. You go into every sit expecting the best outcome, and in most cases that is exactly what happens. Insurance exists for the sits where it does not.

The most important thing Caro and I can tell you is to read what you already have before spending anything. Check your card. Check your existing policies. Contact providers directly and ask specific questions rather than assuming the answer. The THS and Nomador cover schemes are useful additional layers, not foundations.

The vet helpline is the most immediately practical benefit either platform offers for sitters. And whatever coverage you carry, know what it actually includes before you need to use it.

Caro and I have completed 20 house sits across 12 countries, driven 19,000km across Europe in our 1998 VW T4, and saved over $26,500 in accommodation costs.

If you have a question about insurance for house sitting, send us a message on Instagram — we read every DM.

Frequently Asked Questions

• What does TrustedHouseSitters insurance actually cover for sitters?

  Standard and Premium memberships include sitter liability protection, which covers legal liability for accidental damage or injury to third parties during a sit. It does not cover intentional acts and is subject to a deductible. It is also a discretionary protection scheme, not a regulated insurance product, which means it has conditions and exclusions that can make claiming difficult. Think of it as an additional layer on top of your own coverage, not a substitute for it.

• Is the THS Basic plan enough, or do I need a higher tier?

  Basic gives you full access to listings but no sitter liability protection and no vet helpline. For most sits, that gap never becomes relevant. The upgrade Caro and I would prioritise is the vet helpline rather than the liability cover. Having someone to call when a pet behaves unexpectedly is the most immediately useful benefit of a higher tier, and it is available at any hour. The TrustedHouseSitters pricing page has the full plan comparison.

• Does travel insurance cover house sitters for property damage?

  Some travel insurance policies include personal liability sections that cover accidental damage to third party property, which would include a homeowner's property during a sit. But the terms vary significantly between providers and policies. Read the fine print and contact your insurer directly to ask specifically whether you are covered for damage caused while staying in someone else's home. Do not assume the answer.

• What is the most underrated insurance source for house sitters?

  Your bank card. Many travel-oriented card products include personal liability and medical cover as part of the package. Most cardholders never read the terms carefully enough to know what they have. Contact your card provider and ask specific questions about what is and is not covered. Caro and I discovered through this process that my policy excludes drone flying, which I would not have known without asking directly.

• Are THS and Nomador cover plans real insurance?

  No. They are discretionary protection schemes, not regulated insurance products. The THS Home and Contents Protection for homeowners requires the homeowner to claim on their own home insurance first. The sitter liability protection has conditions and exclusions that can be difficult to satisfy. Nomador's Home Protection is described as goodwill coverage. Both are useful as additional layers but should not be treated as your primary or only coverage.

• What should a first-time house sitter do about insurance before their first sit?

  Check what you already have first. Read your bank card terms, check any existing home or travel insurance, and contact providers directly to ask specific questions. If you have nothing that covers personal liability while travelling, a travel insurance policy with a strong liability section is worth considering. On the THS side, the vet helpline access that comes with Standard and Premium is genuinely valuable for new sitters who have limited experience with animals.

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