Cleaner let cats into living room

[slithytoveisascientist]

Last week she let them into bedroom and luckily I caught it before anything happened. I reminded her and she was very apologetic and promised to be more careful.

This week she has left the living room door open and the cats have gone in and scratched my leather sofa. It’s never had any damage before and I’m gutted.

AIBU to ask to claim on her insurance for a repair, and will I even have any success?

She's bringing her cats with her to work and they've damaged your home? Yes, she should claim on her insurance.

Are you serious? They’re your cats, your responsibility of they damage anything! Why have such pets if you’re worried about furniture being scratched? Where are the poor animals allowed to go in your house exactly? Ridiculously unreasonable.

Not allowed in bedroom. Fair enough. Don't want to sleep in cat hair

But also not allowed in living room

Where are they allowed ?

They are my cats
They go in study dining room garage and 3 bedrooms

Just 2 rooms they aren't allowed in

I feel like it's negligent for her to have allowed them in when she was specifically asked not to.

Why have cats? They're destructive creepy sneaky things and you're obvs not a cat person. I don't think this is the cleaners fault!

You cannot ask her to pay for damage caused by your own cat. Honestly what about shrugging, letting it go, and enjoying your cats company in the living room from now on?

Cats are mini Houdinis and it can be very difficult to keep them from coming through a door when you open it, especially if you are also carrying eg a hoover/bag of cleaning stuff and can’t nip through the door quickly.

tbh I think you need to accept that the cats were likely to get in at some point. Any insurer would laugh I suspect.

If she let them out the house due to leaving front door open (which she has been asked not to do) would that also be my fault for having house cats?

Put locks on the doors you don't want cats in. Could be your door catches are faulty and they pushed them open aswell etc

I adore my cats how am I not a cat person? I'd love to have them in my bedroom but they would destroy the bed plus my husband doesn't want the hair and that's his choice

They have loads of space

Herding cats is very difficult I hear.

@minipie they aren't around when cleaner is here due to hoover noise. She left door open and they went in after. I was on a work call when she left so didn't check it was closed, not that I'd have thought to given she was asked last week

Door catches aren't faulty

Locks on outside of living room door still requires cleaner to close and lock it

I think having house cats is cruel

They need to go out and run climb trees play smell etx

I wouldn’t have a clue what to do with / how to stop a cat. I did cat-sitting once for my cousin, and his cat hated me…

They didn't sneak in

Door was wide open

They aren't around when she is cleaning they hate the noise

Does no one think she should have kept the door shut when asked?

Honestly stop trying to pick fault. Why does everything have to end with someone being responsible? Your cat scratched your sofa. The world still turns.

Honestly, yes, assuming she had shut the door within a normal period of time (incl any time taken to bring in her cleaning stuff) but they had nipped out in the time it was open. If she’d left it wide open for 20 minutes you might have a reasonable cause for complaint.

I'm not unhinged that's a bit rude

Its a question and I asked it here for views not insults

Reading update, yes she should have closed the door.

They aren't outdoor cats they are house cats but they go in our (secured enclosed) garden

Have three scratching posts around the house

Plus a carpeted wall in garage

I'm not asking her to herd or stop the cats

I'm asking her to shut doors of a room after she has exited it