the bill so far
To date (31 January 2010) the total amount that the house sitter has cost us is nearly $8,000. And this total does NOT include three weeks' lost earnings for my wife and myself.
Nor does it include the replacement cost for the two dead fruit trees, the lost fruit production, and the dozens of plants dead in our gardens. In fairness to the house sitter, we probably could not have expected her to do this, but if we had been home we would simply have pumped water from the bottom dam to keep the irrigation system going. We have a fire fighting pump and two hundred metres of 2 inch lay flat hose which we would have used for this purpose. The house sitter had this explained to her before we left.
Much of the money has already been spent, but many of the missing/damaged items will not be replaced for some time (and some not at all) because we simply can't afford it.
We will shortly be lodging claims with our insurance companies, for the missing/damaged items and will attempt to recover the balance from the house sitter through legal action.
Given that so far she has refused to provide us with contact details for her legal representative, and is using a care of Post Office mail address, this is going to be difficult.
| Item of Expenditure | Amount |
|---|
Change locks on house & replace padlock on front gate. Necessary because sitter did not return one set of keys |
$462 |
Professionally clean leather lounge chairs and ottoman |
$200 |
Professionally clean lounge room & hallway carpets |
$75 |
Extra water purchased |
$190 |
Extra Animal Food purchased |
$485 |
Extra gas purchased |
$150 |
LPG gas connection fee |
$8 |
STD Phone calls |
$90 |
Excess electricity usage |
$215 |
Hotel internet connections |
$75 |
Legal Fees |
$500 |
| Vet Fees | $260 |
| Four (4) laying hens | $60 |
| Contents of pantry and freezer | $300 |
| Missing Items (click here for detail) | $1,537 |
| Damaged Items (click here for detail) | $3,396 |
| TOTAL | $7,903 |