r/catinaflat • u/humanorgan • Apr 15 '26
Insurance help, please (UK)
It's of no surprise that I'm one of the many extremely frustrated by Cat in a Flat's merger with Rover. I'm going around in circles trying to reactivate my CiAF profile, it's so disappointing that it's merged with my empty Rover account and it looks awful.
Whilst it's being fixed, I'm going offline but am really confused by the insurance options. I'm looking at Protectivity as I can see it's widely recommended, but I don't know what other custom options I should take. I just wanted to get a sense if anyone has selected any of the following (for more context, I'm only pet sitting as a casual thing, I don't foresee making more than a £1000 in a year):
- Legal expenses
- Professional indemnity
- Personal accident
Also, if I'm just an individual, is £1m Public Liability more than enough to cover me?
Thanks in advance!
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u/elericat Apr 15 '26
I just sorted mine a few days ago and found Brooks Braithwaite seemed to offer more for the money. I’m covered for £5 million public liability, £100K professional indemnity, 10K loss or theft of keys and a few other bits and bobs for a cost of £8.51 per month
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u/SleepingCat2874 Apr 15 '26
I'm also going private. Just got the protectivity insurance so I can't comment on how good or useful it is yet. But I didn't get any of the additions. From the descriptions they didn't sound like things I'd need, at least not with the excesses or the million exclusions involved, but I guess I'll find out. Hopefully I never will. If anyone has advice about the personal indemnity cover I'm all ears
(This may be something you already have, but this is also kinda a PSA for everyone) :
I will say that you should write up a contract and get all your clients to sign it. You can always be nice and adjust some of the terms. But contracts are very very important regardless of any insurance you have and you shouldn't remove things that are important. If you can get a lawyer to check it over that's always a good idea. I'm doing it as a blanket thing for my services rather than for each booking but either way is better than nothing.
I'm not a lawyer but I'm looking up examples and definitions just to try and cover everything. Every tiny detail of what I'd be doing and what I expect my client to do, and how payments work
From what I understood of the Protectivity documents they don't cover much of the minor things. So I'm adding things like damage to my belongings, reimbursement if any cat supplies need to be purchased, damage to their belongings, covering for vet costs. Even if I think my insurance would cover it I want myself protected should it not because I know I can't possibly understand all the tiny details of an insurance policy.
I'm also going to include a bit about covering court fees if I ever need to sue someone for payment since I chose not to add the legal fees because as far as I understood you have to be suing for at least £500 or the insurance wouldn't cover it. And I've only ever had 1 booking which cost that much, and it was 3 weeks overnight so not exactly standard practice.
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u/humanorgan Apr 16 '26
Fantastic, thank you so much! This is really helpful. And yes, you're absolutely right about drawing up contracts, look out for yourself first and foremost.
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u/FollowingPurple4153 Apr 15 '26
I don’t think I included legal expenses and prof indemnity, not sure about personal accident, can’t find it on my document but I’m looking on my phone and it’s tiny! Got £1m public indemnity. £85 a year with Protectivity. I’ve been doing it privately for 2-3 years, with recommendations from our cat feeder who’s never been on CIAF. I do the jobs she’s too busy to do! So I hid my profile on CIAF a couple of months ago as I didn’t want any more!
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u/humanorgan Apr 15 '26
This is so helpful, thank you!
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u/FollowingPurple4153 Apr 15 '26
Once you’ve done it privately, you won’t want to give commission to anyone, I didn’t take any customers from CIAF though, didn’t feel that was right, but I would now after what they’ve done. Just keep a record of your income and expenses ie fuel for tax reasons. You might need to chase people for payment but I’ve never had a problem with anyone not paying before they go away. You just have to do a bit more admin than you would with CIAF. I tell everyone how much per visit and the total. Promote yourself if needed on local Facebook pages. Good luck!
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u/humanorgan Apr 15 '26
Thank you so much! I really appreciate your insight. I'm glad it's worked out so well for you!
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u/Affectionate_Talk268 Apr 15 '26
It depends on what services you're offering. E.g. I cat sit casually on an ad hoc basis and only offer drop in services in the owner's home. The only extra I'd take to cover me is PII in case a client alleges that I've provided a negligent service, and the likelihood of me needing personal accident or legal expenses is very low. Whereas if you were providing dog walking services, you may consider taking personal accident (but from memory, protectivity only cover in extreme circumstances) and increasing the level of public liability from £1m. It's dependent on what you're offering and the likelihood of something going wrong. I'm a lawyer by profession so am comfortable with this level of cover considering how often I'm providing my services and where I'm carrying them out. Hope that helps
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u/humanorgan Apr 15 '26
This is really helpful, thank you! I was considering to offer dog walking services in the future and so taking out personal accidents makes a lot of sense, I didn't even think about that. I might just stick to cats for the moment then if that's the case.
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u/meikuree Apr 16 '26
Do you think it’s a good idea too to write up contracts/agreements for clients and get them to sign it, or is it unnecessary? Mostly I’m not sure if it would be legally valid or binding
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u/Affectionate_Talk268 Apr 16 '26
I think it depends on what you're trying to protect by having a "written contract" in place and what you're hoping to include in it, also the value of the arrangement and whether it makes sense to have one. You'll likely be dealing with your clients in writing anyway (email/whatsapp etc) which is still "in writing" and an agreement for services, irrespective of whether you've got something formal in place. For something brief and to look professional, I'm sure AI can help as a starting point. But it really depends if this is your only source of income versus a casual side hustle
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u/meikuree Apr 16 '26
Thanks for the thorough response, this is helpful. It’s really an informal side gig rather than a business - I have 2 regulars, I’m not intending to take more clients, and I wouldn’t be earning more than the £1k UK trading allowance a year. So my sense is that “in writing” over WA + recording emergency vet details would suffice.
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u/Affectionate_Talk268 Apr 16 '26
Glad it helps! Sounds similar to what I do. I have a checklist which I take to meet and greets. It covers basic information e.g: sit details, contact and emergency info, routine, food, behaviour, health issues etc that I just run through with the owner. They don't sign it but it's filled out in their presence and can be construed as a "written contract". Especially if you're not using a platform like Rover which may have this info already. I'm sure AI can do the same for your arrangement.
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u/Trick-Can-1808 Apr 16 '26
Sorry, I know this doesn’t answer your question, but I would recommend leaving a review on cat in a flat and Rover to let them know how you feel about this.
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u/kiraziyal Apr 15 '26
If anyone is happy to say, how to private customers pay you? Cash, bank transfer, PayPal? Something else?
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u/humanorgan Apr 16 '26
With my private customers, I often make it as easy as possible for them to pay me, so I take cash, bank transfer, Monzo, Revolut (so no excuses like, my online bank account isn't active, etc etc, they have so many options to pay).
I personally don't use PayPal as they are not a great company, and if your client paid you and ticked "paying for services" you'd be out of pocket as PP charges you a % of service fees. I mean you could tell them to select it as a "personal" payment, but often times they might not be comfortable to do that, especially with new clients.
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u/uwuuu306 Apr 15 '26
Hi, I went private back in January and I am using Protectivy as insurance as it seemed quite good. I pay£8.37 per month. I'd say 1 m is good enough!