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 could have closed it when she wasn't carrying the hoover

Or before she left house

Or got her colleague to

The cats didn't slip anywhere

They don't appear when cleaners are here they hide and are scared

The door was open for cat to meander in at his leisure

Are they lions? Do you sleep on a waterBED?

Jesus - let go of the hyperbole. You sound far too uptight to own actual living, breathing animals, that may have their own ideas.

@MiniBossFromAus
They destroyed the last one
Leather base they scratched to fuck until the padding hung out and wood showed

It's not hyperbole

So when we bought this bed we decided no cats

Husband also prefers the no cat hair on bed

Really doesn't make us uptight

It's two fucking rooms

i think we need a photo of how much damage the cats did tbh 👀

God, you’re still going.
You are deeply unreasonable because you still believe it’s entirely your cleaner’s fault that your cats scratched your sofa.
While you’ve accepted you cannot claim on her insurance you still believe she is responsible for thousands of dollars worth of damage because she accidentally left an interior door open.
Yes, you asked her to shut them and she got it wrong. That’s such a minor error. It doesn’t make her responsible for the precarious situation you put her in by expecting her to prevent your indoor cats from entering a room in your house and damaging your expensive sofa. You cannot expect other people visiting or working in your home to remember to protect your beloved sofa with the same level of energy that you do. It’s not a matter of not respecting you or your property. It’s a mental load matter. You remember to close the door because you spent time thinking about the sofa, choosing the sofa, earning the money to pay for the sofa! You also spend time with your cats, you’ve seen them destroy other things, you have memories of that. All of that is helping you to remember to shut the door. On top of that motivation, you live in this house, you open and shut that door every day multiple times. It’s become automatic. You don’t have to think about it.
Your cleaner does have to think about it. You are responsible for creating a system that is foolproof or close to it. Your cleaners need permanent visual reminders that that door must be keep shut. Like every door that need shutting in every public building ever. Plus written instructions of the clean for the day need to include top and bottom, ´please close Living room door before leaving to prevent cats entering’.
And even with all that, if they forget one day and the cats get in again it’s still not their fault you have cats and expensive furniture which you expect to be kept apart in the same house.

You will get no sympathy here Op.

cats can destroy your entire house and furnishings and you’re supposed to just smile indulgently and give cat treats as a “cat lover”.

some of us have to work really hard for what we buy for our house - stuff like sofas- we need to look after them as we can’t just replace them quickly cos a cats used it as a scratching post.

I'd hate to be your cleaner. Or your cats.

OP - you are clearly not getting message.

You cannot take your shit with you when you die. It's your stuff, if it is that important either don't have cats, or a cleaner. Or, for your sake, the cleaner's sake and our sake, install one of these on each forbidden door.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/385841988389

I think some of these comments are horrid.

I think you need a new cleaner she clearly isn’t following instructions set by you as their employer, yh the cats could easily slip through the door but they should be checking the room and closing the door as instructed.

dnt think you’ll get any insurance from them though unless you have the rules all written down in a contract but then it’s also proving it.

Then don’t get cats! They’re not essential, no one made the op have them. She just seems to be a cake-and-eat it sort of person. Has pets and kids but also wants a show home. They don’t mix, eventually there will be a mess or scratching or something that’s simple part of the parcel when you have creatures in your home that don’t care for the ‘grown up spaces’.

I expected her to shut the door she said she would shut.

She said it before accepting me as a client and last week when reminded.

If she couldn't manage it I think she should have said. She was certainly able to tell me "no we don't clean hobs" when I asked if it was part of a standard clean.

And it's you saying "thousands of dollars" (no idea where you got that from since I'm in the UK and I suspect repair would be a couple hundred pounds)

I'm still going because guess what, people are still replying and where relevant I'm relying to them. Or should I ghost the thread?

I KNOW I'm not unreasonable about asking her to shut the door or owning cats or having cat free rooms or having a leather sofa or paying her her rate or all the other shit that's been mentioned.

I accept that it would be unreasonable to ask to claim on her business insurance. And that was my original question.

She could always fire me? Or tell me (which she has now done) she can't remember to close the door and then I can make decisions based on that.

Instead of blithely saying yes we can close that door no problem and again last week oh sorry we forgot of course we will

Oh dear you've clearly not read thread, I said I would install those and I was criticised for it!

I think I CAN have cats AND a cleaner if the cleaner is honest about her ability to shut a door.

@Gerrataere how is one room a show home?

There is a huge spectrum between showhome and damaged furniture.

I don't want damaged furniture. So I've worked over the years to replace carpet with wood and rugs, fabric with wood, (we are lucky the cats are fine with wood), etc.

When we got a new bed and new sofa we wanted them damage free: I think that's ok!

Why have cats if you keep them out of rooms? Poor things. Mine are allowed to go where they want. My naughty tortie has scratched my door frame bad. So that’s nothing. Not the cleaners fault at all!

@Gerrataere and the cats came first. It's ok to want nicer things over the course of 13/14 years. I don't need to own or tolerated damaged things because I have cats. Or kids.

And my kids don't damage things luckily. At least, not furniture and fixings.

And a floor plan of the house

1: Got cats first

2: when we moved here we kept one room cat free as they went outside a lot and we had babies so wanted their main floor space for crawling to be mouse / mud / dirty feet free

3: as kids grew up we kept that room cat free as were in the habit of it and also in laws had a dog which we wanted to keep out of the cat spaces when he visited

4: they have six other rooms plus garden plus big garage to be in

I’ve said before there’s nothing wrong with wanting nicer things. But when you have pets and kids sometimes you simply have to compromise, sometimes for years. Because you simply cannot fully control the situation and even the nicest items are at risk of damage no matter how many ‘rules’ you put in place. It’s simply one of those things that you have to accept, it’s not the cleaners fault that you have unreasonable expectations within your home.

I have tried to read the thread but honestly it is so long, that's a big ask.

You are not coming across well. If you had posted - my shithead cat scratched my sofa and I am pissed off. Do you think I can claim on insurance?

You would have none of the vitriol. You are making your (quite odd) problems, the problem of a person who is there to do a job. Then you steadfastly refused to even acknowledge you might be unreasonable (for 20 long pages).

Look at this with a different perspective and take responsibility for your animals and doors shut policy.

Kids have accidents, they don’t mean to but it’s part of grown up. I know you won’t accept this, but you are causing stress by expecting young kids to always close the living room door and keep it at show home/grown up quality. It’s their home as well and you are removing a comfort factor. They’ll be seeing and hearing you be angry about the cleaner and it’s not healthy. This isn’t a great mentality to be putting on them in the longterm.

@Gerrataere

Maybe they should have told me it was unreasonable to expect them to close that door when I asked instead of assuring me it was fine

And the kitchen is old and shabby

The den furniture is old and damaged

My study is all second hand, not damaged as I have a cover on my chair but the cats would otherwise go for it as it's leather

There are scratching posts. cat beds and toys all over the place

And books

It's not a show home. It's my home just as much as every one else's and the catas

I HAVE compromised

It's two rooms. That's it. Two rooms

My bed is still undamaged and I want to keep it that way

You aren't going to convince me I'm unreasonable for 1 asking the cleaners to shut door and 2 taking them at their word

I don't think your cleaner's insurers would pay out as it would be near-impossible to prove when and how the scratches happened.

I acknowledged my actual question was unreasonable on first page

Everyone else is piling in for other stuff

Rub it with some leather wax polish and get over yourself.