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?

@Sophsky

you can like your cats perfectly well without allowing them to scratch your sofa to be bits! Some people just don’t want to live in a shit hole, even if they to have have pets and or kids. And they shouldn’t have to!

Thank you!

Cleaner wouldnt have a business if people didn;t want their homes to be nice

or is damage ok but dirt not? is it a race to the bottom, shall I let the cats scratch everything, shall I also not bother cleaning up shit or vomit? what standards are ok?

apparently not wanting a ripped sofa means I have / want a show home

ridiculous

@mumsnet I wonder if we can have a "Batshit Crazy" section.

This week has been a bonanza of the weird and wonderful world of Mumsnet.

I agree with you but I think you mean me!

Whereas I think everyone telling me I should accept the scratches or shutting doors is wrong or I dont pay enough or the cats dont have enough space are the weird ones

I’m kind of curious now. @slithytoveisascientist are you waiting for cleaner to slip up (Freudian slip there!) again or is everything ok now?

Having reflected. Yes I do slightly think cleaner was not being careful enough closing doors but I think it didn’t cross her mind or thought it didn’t matter but had no idea of what damage cats can cause. For what it’s worth before I got my velvet and fabric sofas the cats scratched the leather ones, not hugely but scratched. My DM has also had to come to terms with her cat scratching her leather sofa. Not hugely again, but..

All our cats have scratching posts but seem to love the forbidden items to scratch!

I actually think you’re not unreasonable not having cats in other rooms, though this can be hard to put into place. When DM had 2 cats a few years ago she used to shut them in the living room (kitchen etc. next to it) every night. Now the whole house is open to the cat… and she sleeps on her bed!

Must inform my spoilt rotten cat who sleeps in my daughter's bed every night that we dislike her because she's not allowed into my office. There's some next level batshit going on here.

I agree with you, cats should be allowed to go anywhere in their home. Why not? It’s their home too.

we had a talk and she was apologetic and it was like a lightbulb went off when she realised it was left open

given its two weeks in a row this has happened she has said no they can't remember to keep door closed.

(I will say I made it very clear last week of the damage they can cause, hence the importance of my request. I didn't quite show her a pic of my old bed but it was wrecked. She knew it mattered.)

I've said I'll keep them shut in with me when she is cleaning and she is happy with that. I dont want to take the risk, I know people think i'm crazy but i'd be so gutted if my bed was scratched.

I'm going to assume all is ok, we will see! Hopefully she will be happy to shift the schedule when I can't be home, will cross that bridge when we come to it.

clearly you are crazy and a cat hater and should never have got her and she doesn't have enough space and you are just the WORST PERSON IVE EVER HEARD OF

I think you’ve come to the best solution.

Animals dont equal people, thats why

sometimes animals need separating from each other

sometimes there are allergies

sometimes there is furniture

sometimes six rooms and a garden and a garage is enough space

sometimes you just DONT LIKE THEM! my friends child doesn't like their cat. they didn't rehome the cat, the cat just doesn't go in his room! Everyone happy.

I love my cats, and kids, and home, and we have a very happy medium and everyone has space and nice things and trashed things!

if they started chewing cables they'd not be allowed in a few more places!

When animals get old, sometimes they can't be allowed down / up stairs alone, as they can't navigate the stairs!

It was thanks to PP on this thread, I literally was not seeing the wood for the trees.

Also suggested is locking those doors so I can still have a clean when I'm not here, which is something to think about. Not sure about installing locks any time soon and I can't do it myself (wait for the pile on for me for not being able to use a screwdriver!)

plus that would mean the ensuite isn't cleaned and its the worst room in the house usually

If the cleaner says she's sure she definitely closed the door then you won't have a leg to stand on - unless you have cctv evidence 🤷‍♀️

she didn't say that, she remembered she hadn't. its moot though really now

I would say it’s 100% your responsibility to keep the cats out of her way when she’s working. Did it not occur to you after the first time to perhaps put your cats in the garage during her working hours.

You’d never get her insurance company to cough up for your own cat scratching your own sofa.

I don’t think you can claim on her insurance. What would you be claiming for? The cost of repairing your sofa or the cost of replacing your sofa? Did she sign anything to say she understood what was being asked of her and that she would be liable for any damage caused if she didn’t abide by the “rules”? I don’t think they’d pay out in the slightest. And you would probably lose your cleaner. I’m sure it was a simple mistake, and I’m sure she feels bad but that’s as far as you can go. I have five house cats as they are foster cats. My leather armchair is a mess. It has a throw on now to cover up the scratch marks. It’s totally my fault for buying a leather chair. But I still enjoy sitting on it and cuddling up with the cats.

OP, I think your first post wasn't worded well and got people's backs up. Your posts since then are reasonable and sane but now the masses have spoken and they cannot go back.

There's nothing wrong with having a few cat-free rooms or a "nice" room for guests and adults and there is certainly nothing wrong with expecting someone who is paid to do a service for you to follow some simple rules like closing a door.

My dog is not allowed upstairs because he is stupid and thinks the cats want to be his friend when they growl and hiss at him so we keep the door closed. If anyone left the door open actual living hell would descend upon my home and I highly suspect that the black cat would literally murder the dog.

People have always managed to close the door without being reminded. If I employed a cleaner who forgot I would have to let her go.

Our cat if we tried to keep him out of one of the rooms in the house

That's my cat on a good day. She was born feral and adopted as a kitten. Anyone who has taken a kitten from a feral knows they are not normal pet cats. They are still semi-feral.

Mine is not allowed anywhere near the kitchen because she counter-surfs worse than any dog I have ever known and I've previously had labradors and greyhounds. She is not allowed to be left unsupervised with all but one of the three dogs because she regularly makes attempts on their lives and she is not allowed in my room overnight because that is the other cat's "safe space" and she also makes regular attempts on her life.

Thus we close fucking doors. It's really not hard and it's kinda essential to keeping feral cat alive and out of the kitchen cabinets. I'd be really pissed off with any adult who was not able to follow that one simple instruction and let the feral cat downstairs unsupervised or the dog upstairs.

I have a house cat, and a cleaner who comes when I'm at work. My cat is allowed in every room of my flat, but there are really important instructions for my cleaner to follow with regards my cat. Not opening the sash windows at the bottom so she can't climb out, for example (she's got three legs so can't get out the top of the windows!). And not letting her out into the communal hallway, as she's an indoor cat, so doesn't go outside. These are really important to me, perhaps even more so than your instructions, because they're to keep my precious cat safe. However, I think there's a general principle at play which is that anyone working in your house needs to be able to be mindful of the rules of your house. And it would worry me if someone couldn't remember those rules and follow them. Not just once but multiple times. (My cleaner is amazing at it, thankfully.)

Personally, I wouldn't ask her to pay for the damage, but I'd get a different cleaner that I could trust to follow instructions.

To all those saying it's cruel to have house cats - there are different views on this: in some cultures /places it's considered wrong to let cats outside! Some cats like mine are disabled, some have FIV... That's a whole separate issue and I don't think it's helpful to bring that up here.

Mmmm your choice might be get rid of the cleaner or the cats, or the sofa or.... live with it.

I agree, reading it back I wasn't at all clear. I was so upset! I really didn't expect the other things I should have included either 😂

I have to live with the damaged sofa sadly, my cleaners inability to shut doors or be honest about that ability has ensured that.

We've actually had a little issue tonight so I'm going to try and find a new cleaner. I thought things were ok after we spoke about the door and agreed I would lock cats away, but clearly not.

Why have you even got cats if they are not allowed in any of your rooms?