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?

@slithytoveisascientist the signs are horrible but we need them as DH v forgetful
CLOSE DOORS! PUT OUT LIGHTS!

Shock horror, I also have a (mostly) indoor cat (her choice) its a nicer life than living in kennels (where we got her).

Believe it or not I have issues with any sort of confrontation and was cringing when I first asked her to close the doors, and nearly died inside when I had to remind her last week. am DREADING asking her again. though maybe I dont have to if I lock the cats away.

@slithytoveisascientist - in relation to your response to my post:
"You're correct, I didn't. After the situation last week and the reminder I didn't think it would be a problem. I was wrong and should have checked.
It is a shame though as I would have liked to develop that trust as I really want to be able to have the clean when I'm not here."

You could still have the cleaner there to clean when you're not there but you would have to keep the cats elsewhere. Then when you get home/back from wherever you are, you do a final check of the doors to the rooms that the cats are not allowed in to, and then you let the cats out.

I don't think this is exactly rocket science, but maybe that's just me.

Door closing mechanisms won't work, from experience. They shut doors quite slowly and cats are lightning-quick when they decide they want to go in or out of a door.

My experience: I was staying with a friend whose cat had been hit by a car on the road outside and had a broken pelvis. Vet advice was keep cat indoors for 2 weeks and bones will mend themselves. No problem for us, we kept the cat in and he mostly slept in his basket, recovering, though increasingly he grew antsy and irritable. After 12 days he had clearly had enough of 'bed rest' and when I opened the back door just enough to get myself out (and I moved fast), a streak of black and white flew past me and before I new it, cat was out in the garden and then far away.

He was fine, by the way, if a bit wobbly for a while, and made a full recovery. But I agree with the PP who said cats are Houdini-like. No one can be sure to keep them confined in or out of a room, especially when carrying cleaning equipment.

YABU for blaming your cleaner. If I was her and you claimed on her insurance, I wouldn't be coming back to clean for you.

Is she a cleaner or a cat wrangler?

You do realise there are sprays you can buy to repel cats from furniture?
Also, you can train them to a certain point by negative reinforcement - spray water on them if they sink their claws into the couch or hop onto a bed.

We have a pet sitter when we are away they don't go elsewhere. She visits twice a day. And when it's work meeting etc that's quite a lot of hassle for the sake of them closing two doors.

@mathanxiety a cleaner who I wanted to close a door.

No cat interactions

Cute black cats! You sound like you love your pets and want one adult room to relax in which is perfectly understandable. What about putting a handle that locks on your bedroom and lounge door and lock them when you go on holiday. I can’t imagine either room would get that in need of a clean if you’re away. That way you’ll know for sure your furniture won’t get damaged and will also reinforce to your cleaner that the doors are meant to be kept close.
My concern is that the cleaner might accidentally leave your front door ajar whilst bringing in equipment and the cats might go near the busy road. I would address this by leaving a very friendly note “ thanks so much for cleaning while we are away. As you can imagine the safety of our cats is our priority so please can you ensure they don’t sneak out the front door.No need to do our bedroom or lounge this week, many thanks the Slithy family

The door was left open they didn't Houdini in

I think it's negligent of you to expect someone else to faff around with your cats. She's not the cat-sitter, she's the cleaner.

Yes this could work! My brain isn't braining at all to not have though of this

Ok

Solutions
Yay

I don’t think it looks passive aggressive at all. It would perhaps be passive aggressive to have a note saying remember to lock the front door’ for a clean where you were always absent. But that’s a totally obvious and ubiquitous task. But keeping your living room door closed is specific to your house and not obvious because different households, with or without pets and with or without leather sofas, will have different preferences and assign different levels of importance to this.
I write tests sometimes (I teach). It’s always better to state the obvious in the instructions rather than assume it’s obvious what students should do. No one has ever told me my test instructions were passive aggressive. If they are ever not 100% clear though, I’m almost guaranteed to have someone complain they didn’t understand what I was asking them to do.

Tbf they don't really go near front door I'm not concerned they would dash out on cleaner entry or exit. They aren't dashers any more

Just changers

*chancers

"auto-closers"? Like fire doors? Have you thought of the damage that could happen if they shut on a cat? Some fire doors are really aggressive

You come across as really entitled - won't clean your own house and then complain when someone else is doing it and your cats scratch your sofa

If she left while you were on a work call, you have no way of knowing whether they got in while you were the only person in the house.

If I were her insurance company's bean counter I would suggest you were the responsible party here.

@slithytoveisascientist Yes but my point is that even if she hadn't actually left the door open, the same result could have happened by her just opening the door to let herself in or out. I can't imagine that any cleaner would have the courage to try to catch a determined cat that wasn't my own and put him/her out of the room again. I certainly would not try it.

@slithytoveisascientist this is what I did (re discreet locks) as although the self closing door is a great idea, my children were forever getting their fingers trapped. I was also worried that the door might shut on my cat half way in or half way out…. Ouch!

If you do put a sign on the door you’ll need one on both sides. Otherwise it’ll be invisible when it’s open.

And actually, as her hypothetical insurance company writer of cheques, I would ask for proof that the damage happened on the day you said it did, at the time you said it did.

You would risk coming across as a scammer if you couldn't provide proof. It's very easy to blame the lowly cleaner.

If you're not happy with the service this cleaner is providing, give her notice and find someone else.

@PollyPut plenty of people suggested the closers

And I do plenty of cleaning but need the weekly help for kitchen bathrooms and dusting

How do you mean?

They either got in when cleaner was there which I doubt as they are scared of hoover

Or in the hour after they left

Cat entered after she had left

They aren't dashers

They are old

They are scared of hoover and hide while cleaner is here

They come out after

She left door open

I asked her not to

Cat went in

I caught cat

Plenty of people may have suggested the closers.

You will still need to check that they won't squash the cats. In the same way that a parent would check they wouldn't squash a child's fingers.

I think the insurance thing has really been done and dusted 300 posts in