Thanks Rod. Home owners using a sitting or house swap service will be notified through the Ts and Cs of the site that the people who are registered sitters are vetted but not official security personnel. If someone wants a formal security officer on their property, they would use a security service rather than a house sitting one.

I completely agree with you. Nice though some sits are some are truly having a joke! We agreed to one sit a couple of years ago, one dog two cats and some chickens. We arrived and there were two cats, one “occasionally” had epileptic fits, well they should have said “frequently”. The dog needed to be walked for one hour in the morning and one at night -minimum! Then the chickens, there were about 25 chickens of which two were broody and they had to be lifted out every morning and evening, plus the coup had to be scrupulously scrubbed every morning with disinfectant. There was a vegetable garden which had to be cared for, a very large garden, it was exhausting. Once they explained everything to us, we both felt we should leave, but obviously didn’t! Oh we all had to be the delivery person for the eggs, some had to be dropped off at one house every other day and some more at another house every day! We really were working for these people whilst they went off and enjoyed a cruise. No it’s certainly no way to earn money, we’ve done it for 18 years now and have NEVER even been offered money, some don’t even leave you with a kitty for the inevitable odd expenses you have to make on their behalf.
Having said this the majority of home/pet sit are delightful and thoroughly enjoyable, if it wasn’t we wouldn’t do it.