Terms, Conditions & Privacy Policy
Please read the following document. You will be logged and deemed as having read and agreed to these conditions on the portal before you first login.
COMMUNICATION
General Messages: Wherever possible, please message us through the 'Messages' page on your portal. If you have added the portal your Home Screen following the instructions above, you will get push notifications when you get a message
Cancellations & Itinerary change requests: Please send a WhatsApp as soon as you know - these will be picked up between 9-6pm so if you send one after 6pm it will be counted from the following day * please note cancellation charges may apply
Service Report Replies: Your service reports come by email after our visit each day - if you wish to reply to these or your sitter has requested information you can reply directly to your service report email and this will go straight to the sitter on your booking. We will usually reply to a messages via your service report the next day unless there's a need to, in which case we will send you a message
Booking Confirmations: These will be emailed to you when your booking has been confirmed and scheduled, if there are any dates we cannot do that are not marked as unavailable already, we will send you a message on your portal so you can arrange someone else to pop in if you would like.
Urgent emergencies: Please send a WhatsApp to 07939046220
CANCELLATION POLICY
To request cancellation please message us. We will ask for any information including new itinerary if your dates or times have changed. Please provide this where applicable as it means a smooth confirmation. The policy is as follows:
Visits cancelled in the 5 working days before your start date - 50% of invoice due
Visits cancelled on your start date or during booking - full invoice due
A working day is 9-6, so if you send a cancellation request after 6pm it will be confirmed and counted from the following day. This policy stands regardless of situation.
KEYS
Where possible we ask people install a key safe for us to use. This makes team logistics so much easier, and means you don't need to drop a key to us before your dates. If this is not possible we can also hold your key, although key safes are always preferred. If you do not have a key safe and we do not hold your key, you will be required to drop your key through my door before your dates (before 4pm the day before we start, although earlier is preferred). If this is the case, closer to your dates you will receive an email with my address for key drop, please make sure they are either in an envelope marked with ONLY your surname (no addresses for security please!), or on a tag with only your surname so I know who it is! I’m sorry but after initial meeting/booking we do not do subsequent key collections.
We return keys after completing the last visit to your booking through your letterbox/mail box unless you’ve asked to key hold or have a key safe. This is why it’s important to have an emergency contact with a key for this reason, or to install a key safe as this means a key is always available incase of delays. If we hold your key please note that we only carry these when on a booking with your cat. With that in mind, we may not be around for you to collect them at short notice. Please let us know if you'd like to collect your key after your booking, or want your key back and you will be advised when and where to collect from. Keys are kept in a locked safe whilst not on a booking for you.
For houses with doors other than the door we will have keys to, please leave your other keys in an obvious place or let me know where they are. We don’t need all keys dropped to us other than the ones we will be using to get in but will need other door keys to hand when inside just incase of emergency.
INVOICING AND PAYMENT
Invoices are sent to your provided email address in the couple of weeks run up to your start date. Payment is to be received via bank transfer (internet/telephone or over the counter in branch) 24 hours before the day we start. I'm sorry but we don't accept cash, cheques or Paypal. Please check the dates on the invoice incase there are changes or mistakes so these can be rectified early and message us on your portal if anything is incorrect!!! There is no need to reply to say when you’ve paid an invoice, we do banking manually so will know you’ve paid when we check the account. If your payment has left your account and you are getting payment reminders please ignore them, if there are any issues I will contact you personally. If you cannot pay before the due date for any reason please let me know. You can log into your portal account at any time to view past invoices and payments.
RATES
Current visit rates can be found on our website. These are generally revised every 6-12 months depending on market conditions & competitors with the exception of the below dates.
Saturday, Sundays & Mondays of Bank Holiday Weekends, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Christmas Eve & New Years Eve, & extra bank holidays that may appear are charged at a normal Visit plus A half charge
Boxing Day – double usual rate per visit
If you have more than 4 cats, any extra cats will be charged at £1 per extra cat to compensate for the extra work involved, and we reserve the right to charge extra if there is more tasks involved with small animals such as rabbits or guinea pigs
TEAM
We (Kylie & Faith) work as self employed individual cat sitters. We also have our sub contractor team consisting of Anna, Rebecca, Becky, Emma, Kaitlin & Gavin who support us across the week for visits. Our schedules are done each evening due to last minute requests as we route depending on logical location. It won’t be possible for our sub-contractors to meet everyone but rest assured they are GPS tracked, insured & DBS checked individually, and working under our reputation and name. They all follow the exact same procedures on visits and use the information that you provide on the portal - for this reason it is vital you update anything that changes. There is no need to leave a note as we all go by the information on the system.
If your cats have had any behavioural complaints with any gender in the past please add this to the portal so that we always schedule a sitter that fits for them. Our sub contractors all follow the same guidance on visits and use the information that you provide on the portal - for this reason it is vital you update anything that changes. There is no need to leave a note as we go by the information on the system, any changes should be saved there.
INITIAL MEETINGS & CHANGES OF INFO
Please note that, if offered, initial meetings are charged at £5 added onto your first invoice to cover fuel and car costs for the trip, but if you cancel all of the dates you have booked in and we have done a meeting, it will be chargeable at the visit rate for your postcode to also cover time and key return. We do not do subsequent key collections after your initial meeting and require you to drop your keys through my letterbox before your start date (see above). This also applies if you move house or get a new cat, as we get to know the cats on our visits rather than the initial meeting, so if you get a new cat we kindly ask you log into your account and add them to your record so that we have their information. If you move house please pop us a message on the portal to see if we cover first.
AVAILABILITY
We require at least 3 days notice for bookings to ensure staff availability and cover- please be prepared for us to have no space if you book with less than 3 days to spare before the date you leave and especially in peak times where we are full further in advance. Otherwise please don’t book until you know your plans, or before checking if family/friends are likely to step in, as we would much rather a short notice booking than for it to be cancelled when we are expecting the work, which is very disheartening as a small business. The portal will show any dates that are unavailable to book - we cannot hold dates so please check the portal for unavailable dates
The set days in a year we are not open are as follows: Christmas Day and New Years Day . If you have a booking which falls over any day that we are closed or unavailable, we are perfectly happy for you to ask a friend or family member to visit that day, just please let us know as we will usually leave extra food and water out otherwise, and so that we are aware for insurance reasons.
VISIT TIMES
Our main service is a standard flexible timed once daily visit. A 'flexible time visit' means you cannot request a time or time frame. We only visit on a day that no one is home between 9-4pm, so if you’re leaving after 9 we will start the day after and if you’re back before 4pm we will finish the day before. This is because visits can fall anywhere in the working day and where in this time period depends on our schedule as we have to work to a route.
Twice daily visits are offered in NR1/2/3/4 & 7 only and in the time slots of 9-12pm and 2-6pm. Otherwise we don't offer set time slots.
For most cats we find once daily visits sufficient - and we find that giving any wet food when we visit and leaving dry food down to graze works best for most cats, but we can also leave a timer bowl down for pm/am feeds if you think your cat will benefit and you have one. We cannot accommodate 'just-incase' visits, instead if you are worried about being delayed I can hold your key (if you have no other key holders or key safe) and work out extra visits should we need to. This also prevents extra expense for you as any visits that I don’t end up doing will be chargeable in full.
VISIT LENGTH
We do not offer a set visit length for our standard visits (this includes twice daily visits). Visits are tailored to your cats personality, and our schedule. This may vary considerably depending on if your cat is already outside (or goes out during the visit), is shy or nervous of strangers, in which case we would judge how long we stay for the good of their wellbeing and stress levels. However if your cat is willing and likes a cuddle or play, we will often stay longer. Please remember that your cat will usually act differently with you to how they would with someone else, and they can sometimes take a little while to get used to us (or may be complete opposite!) At peak times, visit times may also be shorter due to volume.
We also offer longer Premium Visits too, which are our normal service with a set length of 45-60 minutes. These are offered Monday to Friday, and not on your travel days, and can be mixed and matched with Standard Visits.
VISIT UPDATES
Service reports will be sent via email on each visit, so please check your junk mail if you don't see them coming through and mark them to go to your inbox. You don't need to reply to updates but if you do or we've requested and info please just reply to your service report email - this ensures it goes to the sitter on your booking. We will generally reply to any communications from you between visits when we next send your update unless it’s an emergency. We will take photos of your cats to send you as and when we can, but due to the nature of some cats this is not possible for every visit. Reports can be sent anytime up to 6pm, so please don't text if you haven't heard anything as it's likely that we just haven’t visited yet. Photos will sometimes be used on our Facebook & Instagram pages, Norwich Cat Sitting Services and The Cat Lady Norwich. Obviously no address details or owner details are given, just lovely photos focused on your cat!!! If you would rather we did not use photos of your cat(s), please add this to the portal.
ADDITIONAL SUPPLIES
Prices quoted are for our time and travel to care for your cat. All food, treats, litter and any other requirements for the wellbeing of your cat should be provided by you before going away. Please try to leave more than enough for your booking as well as new batteries for timer bowls if they have not recently been changed, as we won’t to be able to stop to get extra supplies, but in the unlikely event we have to, an extra visit charge plus the total of goods will be invoiced to you. If you run out of anything during a booking you will be asked to order a delivery on Amazon for leaving in a safe place. Please note this only includes pet supplies. We can also feed fish & small animals such as hamsters/gerbils/bearded dragons etc, but cannot clean out cages or hutches so please make sure these are done before you leave. Please add additional pets to your account as one entity and fill out the information for them at the bottom of the record as a whole.
I’m sorry but we no longer water gardens or large batches of plants, as this takes away from the time with your cat. Due to weight, we don't generally put out waste bins for collection, and ask if you need this doing they are put out before you leave as not all of our contractors can handle heavy loads.
INOCULATIONS
Unlike a cattery, we do not require your pets to be up to date with vaccinations. However, please ensure that your animals are up to date with veterinary recommended flea treatment such as stronghold, Advantage or Advocate, and worm treatment if needed, before you go away whether they are indoor or outdoor animals. This protects your pets from unwanted visitors and in turn protects my other clients too as it is not fair for us to be going into an untreated house when other people have done theirs.
OUTDOOR CATS
Although it is safer to keep your cats inside when you’re away, I understand that this does not work everyone, and a big appeal of cat sitting is that they can have their home comforts. Please be aware that we cannot be held accountable for cats that wander or go missing while having access to a cat flap/being allowed outdoors, or if you have another person coming into your home while you’re away (eg neighbour/cleaner/workman) who may leave windows or doors open and let your cat out by accident. You will be deemed as accepting this when you acknowledge this document. For this reason alone, I always recommend we are the only ones entering your home to save any confusion, and we also need to know of other visitors for insurance purposes. Please note that as I cannot guarantee cats who are let in and out manually (by a window/door) will be around for our visits, and may need to stay out in this instance, we recommend cats like this are kept in with a litter tray while you’re away for their own safety as they may be outside for long periods and more likely to stray if they do not want to come back in when we visit. If you have microchip cat flaps please ensure there are fresh batteries or they are relatively new in before going away for long periods of time
EMERGENCY CONTACT
Please provide an emergency contact name and number for someone for us to contact incase of delays or emergency with your cat, house or us. You should always have someone else with a key nearby, or install a key safe, as we have had instances where we have walked in to burst pipes, electrical faults, alarms going off etc so the emergency contact must be as local as possible and able to take over in these situations. As well as this it is important if you are booking in months prone to bad weather incase snow prevents us from travelling to visits and someone else needs to pop in, so please make your emergency contact someone local with a key or able to get to one where possible.
VET CARE
In most instances, if your cat urgently needs to be seen by a vet (eg wounded from fighting, breathlessness, trauma or car accident) we will take them ourselves. However please try to have an emergency contact who is available and has a key on hand just incase, especially for cats with existing conditions. If for any reason your cat needs emergency medical treatment while you’re away, we will do our best to contact you first to explain the situation. If for any reason we cannot get hold of you or your emergency contact we will use our own judgment in the situation. Please be aware that although we are not vets we do have extensive knowledge on feline conditions and symptoms that require veterinary intervention (including many qualifications listed on the website), so if we advise that a vet trip is needed with the symptoms presented in front of us it’s important you take this on board. We are quite often fully booked and an added vet trip does hinder us getting round our other visits so if we suggest one it isn’t a decision made without good reason, as the welfare of your cat(s) is my priority. If the emergency is outside normal hours we will take your cat to whichever vet can accommodate them. If we can’t get hold of you we will pay the bill and add it to your invoice, if the vets aren’t okay with leaving an invoice with us for you to settle when you return. Please make sure your vet details are correct on your account. Vet trips will be charged based on an hour and a half initial slot at your normal visit rate (this includes the travel to and from the vet as well as the appointment) and then in half hour intervals thereafter.
LITTER TRAYS & MESS
We scoop litter trays daily as standard and as we are there in real time we change or top up litter as we see fit which may mean more regularly depending on the litter used. Please always leave more than enough litter for your booking duration and make sure the trays are fully changed if required on the day you leave. If your cat usually goes out you may not know how much litter is needed so always get more than enough. Your cats’ areas will be left as found on our first visit. All visible cat mess (vomit, urine, faeces & 'kill' remains) will be cleared up to the best of our ability during each visit, however I cannot be held responsible for mess made anywhere hidden in the house, or after we have left on our final visit. As we are not cleaners, we will always do my best to clear up safely if there is mess made (eg we don’t want to ruin your carpets so if there is faeces, urine or sick on them we will clean up the best we can with the safest products you have but it is likely you’ll need to wash areas when you get back if this has happened)
EXTRA VISITORS AND TRADESPEOPLE
As our service is usually for once a day visits, if you wish someone else to visit your cats for extra company or suchlike please note we will not be covered by our insurance. If you acknowledge this and still want them to visit, we ask other visitors only visit before 9am or after 6pm as otherwise this defeats the object of extra fusses! This does not include workmen or cleaners (see below)
Please note that if anyone else is staying at the house we will not visit. Please let me know if this is going to happen ASAP as if you are inside the cancellation policy period it will be classed as a cancellation and the charges will still apply
If you have other tradespeople in while you’re away eg cleaners/workmen PLEASE let us know which dates & times they will be in on the portal so we can work out logistics early as cats are usually more on edge if there are people working in their houses. We leave doors as we normally would find them, so if we aren’t aware other people only have one key for example they may get locked in/out if we don’t know any differently. If someone turns up when we are visiting who you have not told us about and asks to be let in, without a key or knowing the key safe code, we will never let them gain access due to safety reasons, so please let us know if this is likely to happen!
PRIVACY POLICY
Your personal details and any information collected on the client portal are stored securely and only used by myself or my other staff members when on a booking for you. Your keys are kept securely in a locked passcoded safe, and only taken out when on a booking with your cat. They are clearly identifiable to me, but no one else. When dropping your keys to us please only write your cats' name or your surname on the envelope/key tag, NO ADDRESSES. Please do not attach any AirTags or Tile trackers to your key, as this is a security breach for the other houses we are visiting on the same route. If you do, these will be left in our safe and dropped through your door separately before or after your booking. Your emergency contact details are only used if we have no other option and are not passed on without yours and their consent
Thank you for trusting us with your cats and home. If you are happy with the service we would really appreciate a Google review after our booking, as they go a long way with helping us get new clients and keeping relevant in searches. Please click here to leave a review.
Best Wishes
Kylie - Norwich Cat Sitting Services oct 2026