If you’re here you most likely have two questions:

Who are these people? And, why should I let them into my home?

So, let us fill you in a little:

Who are we?

daveWelcome to our About Us page. I’m Dave Price and in May 2013 co-founded House and Home Sitters with my late wife, Linda (who sadly and suddenly died from aggressive brain cancer in January 2014).

I previously lived in London near my eldest son and two lovely grandchildren, though I have lived in Portsmouth for over seven years now. Luca is 12 and Gabriella is 10.

British by birth (my family is originally from Essex and Bristol), I spent most of my life in South Africa where my career included being a corporate solicitor for a Film Studio at the Waterfront in Cape Town. My late wife and I loved to travel and returned permanently to the UK mainly, for this reason, being so central for travelling the world. In South Africa, we owner-managed two B&Bs for five years which was a fun experience. At one stage we took in two dogs from friends who emigrated to Australia, bringing our total number of dogs to five! Plus a cat, rabbits, goldfish and pet birds.

I built homes and a shopping centre, have vast experience in property ownership, letting and leasing (including my own estate agency which became the third largest in our city), property maintenance, refurbishing, and all things property-related

Why should you allow us in your home?

The idea of people in your home when you are away can be a concerning thought. Ask me, as we opened our home to B&B guests, in South Africa… believe me, I understand. Our house and pet sitting business in the UK has grown slowly but steadily as our clients have learned they can rely on us to take special care of their home and pet(s) while away. Quietly the word has spread and we have organically climbed Google’s search rankings. Our reviews published on our website are by actual homeowner clients of House and Home Sitters. As are the various reviews on Trustpilot and our Facebook page. We have worked hard to earn the trust of our homeowner clients and put their minds at ease. They’ve been able to relax and enjoy their time away knowing their home and pet(s) have been in our good hands – with pets in their own familiar environment – until their return. From a lifetime of business experience, I know the importance of providing dependable top-class service and we have carried this primary value with us into the Home and Pet Sitting industry.

Our friendly, reliable, punctual, professional house sitters are ID-checked, carefully vetted and background-checked, their references contacted – and undergo a comprehensive personal interview with me – and are appointed only if they are a good fit to our high standards. We have rejected a number of candidates, even some experienced house sitters, more especially those who do not grasp the importance of politeness and honouring a commitment at all costs. We now have hundreds of registered house sitters across the UK, ready to assist you. According to our guidelines, our house sitter is asked not to leave your home for more than four hours during the day, or more than two hours after sunset, which means the sitter will quite likely spend more time ‘at home’ than you do.

We are insured (including pet cover) for up to £1m. We are happy to provide a copy of our certificate of insurance upon request. Terms of Service apply. And of course, having us in your home also ensures your own insurance cover remains effectively in place.

Sure, your friend or neighbour can keep an eye on your house while you’re away, but you’ve possibly heard some horror stories from doing so. We certainly have. One homeowner couple we know had a neighbour watching their home while they were out of the country and ended up with a flooded basement and thousands of £s of damage. Another lady client (who was about to employ us, but at the last minute changed her mind) returned from a three-week trip to China to find there had been a power failure and the entire contents of two chest freezers had not only defrosted but become putrid; she had to call in professional cleaners as she could not cope with the stench – and she vowed never to go away again without calling us in.

During each home sitting assignment, our house sitters do a daily email or WhatsApp report to you (unless, of course, you don’t want this as often or at all) including photos/videos. As much telecommunication as you wish too. Every sitter has to do a daily report to me, and we provide 24/7 head office backup to our sitters.

Values imbued in our team include:

  • Always being friendly and having a helpful disposition;
  • Always being reliable, punctual, professional, considerate and competent;
  • Always looking out for our client’s best interest, highly respecting their privacy, property and treating their home and pets as if they were our own;
  • Always seeking to improve existing industry standards;
  • Always thinking twice before speaking about competitors;
  • Always applying integrity in our business dealings and daily lives.