Cleaner has cost me £1600

It doesn't make sense that in the cleaner's mind it's low risk for her to work in someone's house alone and there's no to low chance of her having a seizure where no one would see.

vs. it apparently being super high risk her being in the porch with windows for 1 hour waiting for a locksmith.

I understand the stress element but she's just traded one stress for another tbh. The stress of being in a confined space for an hour while she knew someone was on their way to help, was immediately replaced by the stress of knowing she's caused thousands of pounds of damage to someone's home / spoilt their holiday / lost a client.

I'd say the first option was less stressful than the second.

It's dishonest to tell someone you're insured if in reality you've let it lapse once you start working for them. If it was a tradesperson / beautician / any other service people would not be impressed by that at all.

What about the cleaner's actions don't add up? It can be true that the cleaner hadn't had a seizure in a year but is still at risk of a seizure if trapped in a confined space. Maybe she was insured but it lapsed, that's not strictly dishonest. She's paid the OP towards the locksmith even though an insurance company wouldn't have so she's acted in good faith there.

The OP has admitted to panicking herself so I think while it might have been fine to wait for the locksmith, OP (rightly I think) just dealt with it. If anything has happened during the wait then she'd have to live with it and it's not worth it.

All in all it was a crap situation for both parties but the OP is the one who has most to learn from it.

I have a friend a bit like this. She once asked to stay in my flat for 3 weeks while I was abroad and I was panicking wondering at what mishap might befall her and my flat. Thankfully she ended up opting to stay with her sister.

This! What a headache!

If she has claustrophobia it’s easy to see why that and epilepsy might cause stress and need to get out

I am ok in small spaces IF i know I can get out. Once I know I am locked in I completely panic.
For example I could be in a large sports hall. totally fine. but if I knew all the doors and windows were locked and I could not get out (eg unlock them from the inside) I would start having a panic attack. It probably is not a logical response but I dont have any control. I then have to concentrate really really hard to calm down.

That's absolutely correct. You (general you) should not be leasing a house , permanent or holiday, where it is possible to accidentally lock yourself in.

The cleaner wouldn't be allowed to drive if her epilepsy was uncontrolled and she'd had a seizure in the last 12 months.

There's a lot about the cleaner's actions that don't seem to add up so I feel for the OP.

I don't know why everyone is so eager to jump to her defence, she has proven herself to be dishonest by lying about being insured.

Presumably her epilepsy is so well managed and low risk that she can clean in people's houses alone and drive, in which case surely being in the porch for an hour while a locksmith came wasn't as huge an emergency that the door needed to be broken down, as she made out.

And I say this as someone who has two family members with different forms of epilepsy which mean they can't drive currently.

@TheWonderhorse “but I do think that she was more vulnerable to a couple of days in a porch than most.”

The op said that she had called a locksmith (who took 35 minutes to arrive), so it was never going to be a couple of days. Whilst waiting for the locksmith to arrive, the neighbour unsuccessfully tried to free the cleaner but damaged a door in the process. The locksmith then arrived and drilled the lock to release the cleaner from the locked porch.

Of course, it sounds a dangerous situation in case of fire etc. Thankfully nobody got hurt. So, in a way, and despite the cost, it highlighted potential safety issues in the house.

I have a furnished holiday let - rules for those is that all doors must be able to open using a thumb turn lock becuase anyone unfamiliar with the locks would find it difficult to exit in event of fire. They are really very simple to fit and prevent situations like this ever occuring. All my locks at home are now thumb turn so no one can ever get locked in.

Just two posts up from mine, someone said stress increases the likelihood of someone having a fit.

Mind you, maybe op and cleaner live in a lovely bucolic country area. Or less intensive driving environment at any rate.

What point are you making?

The cleaner must have driven there if she was going out to bring in her vacuum cleaner. I know there are certain conditions whereby someone suffering from epilepsy can drive. Some of my most stressful moments have been driving on London roads. Well, the way everyone is a little more aggressive than normal because of the heavy traffic.

I'm not just talking about fits, she could have been in there for 48 hours with no food or water and nowhere to pee.

I think most people with epilepsy are able to recover themselves. But it's obviously not ideal to go without medication and be under stress. So I don't think the cleaner was unreasonable to go to work under those conditions, but I do think that she was more vulnerable to a couple of days in a porch than most. Of course, nobody should be trapped in a porch for that long regardless though.

Yes, she may have fitted whilst lone working and that is something she needs to consider, but the issue with the porch was that the high stress she was under made it MORE likely

Yes, it could have been worse. She could have had a fit whilst in an internal room (and not in any state to be able to call for help), with nobody home for a few days. Goodness knows what dreadful situation the op could have come home to.

Thankfully she didn’t fit (even in the porch). I doubt if it is wise for that cleaner to work in an empty house. Certainly one where a situation could arise where she could fit without warning, be unable to call for help, and nobody would find her for a few days afterwards. She also needs to be honest and alert any potential clients if she let her insurance lapse if she had told them she was covered beforehand.

Why? The OP was away, so the woman was only able to call for help because she had her phone with her.

It could have been really bad.

Agree, there are a lot of nasty twatful comments on here at someone who mixed up a set of keys with the OP being the poor innocent who can do no wrong party. Disgusting.

You claim on your home insurance. This isn't her fault. It's yours ....

Yeah but what would she claim on the insurance - my cleaner locked herself in my porch (causing no damage) but my neighbour broke my door….im sure they’d paid out for that, no questions asked!! 🤣

I’ve never lived in a house with a porch but my sister does and the porch part they always leave open, so if I was staying at her house I’d have locked her front door without opening the porch - as would assume it was open like it always is - can definitely imagine being neg in that situation and as I said, really shocked by the amount of rude comments - if it was a nurse doing a home visit, who got locked in - would people be saying the same things? Doubt it

If she had any doubts she could do that she shouldn’t have been pushing to clean with you not at home.

I agree with this. I’m ND and I have issues with keys etc tbh so I feel this could’ve been me but I’m more self-aware so I wouldn’t have put myself in that situation to begin with. I’d also have been so embarrassed to create a fuss that I’d have waited for the locksmith.

I suspect she’s going to continue creating calamity for others but just seeing herself as the victim.

Well yes we’d need to imagine it as it’s not something that would happen is it?

i think you’re getting an unfairly hard time on here about how simple or complicated you made it for the cleaner.

if you had been insistent she clean when you were away that would be one thing but you weren’t at all. She was the one pushing to clean while you were abroad presumably to still get paid.

Most cleaners would appreciate that doing the job while you were on holiday would mean it’s less simple than usual. She would need to follow instructions to let herself in and out and make sure she locked up securely. You were already away so couldn’t show her in person.

If she had any doubts she could do that she shouldn’t have been pushing to clean with you not at home.

And she shouldn’t have been doing it at all without insurance.

Imagine if she had locked up incorrectly from not following your instructions and you’d been burgled. You could have been a lot worse than £1600 off.