I may have to shoot off back to the UK for a funeral date as yet unknown possibly end of March early April and need to put our two Old English Sheepdogs into kennels for a couple of days.We are in the Tarn close to the border of the Aude any recommendations please happy to travel reasonable distance for good care
Hello John. Sorry,I can’t help you with kennels but just to let you know , if your dogs have never been to kennels before, that the kennels will want sight of up to date annual vaccinations and also the kennel cough vaccine. This has to be administered by the vet and entered into their health records at least 3 days before they go into kennels.
If the kennels say they don’t require the kennel cough vaccine, don’t use them !!!
Thanks Jane i am aware of the regulations we used to kennel our 4 in the UK while we were travelling to and fro then decided it was cheaper to bring them with us now we only have 2 this will have to be a last minute decision and are all up to date with their passport i may end up driving and taking them back with me
Hi John
If you are on Facebook you might want to try this group. It’s called House and Pet Sitting in France. Lots of people seem to be using it.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/pet47/
all depends if you like people pet sitting in your own home and having to do the legal paperwork, pay cotisations accordingly - there is a sliding scale of how much you have to pay for them. It also takes about 4 months to fill in the dossier of all the relevant paperwork the volunteer has to supply - birth certs, passports etc
Can work out more expensive too. Also most of them do not hold the legal paperwork, certificat de capacity to look after animals. (another legal requirement here in France.)
Lots of people doing it for free on this group. I understand that this may not appeal to some homeowners but it may be worth considering.
yes and its down to the home owners to pay cotisations and do relevant paperwork to boot. its quite regulated in France.
Blimey Harry now I’m confused!! If someone comes to stay in your house to look after your dogs and they do it for free why are cotisations payable and how are they calculated??
Im not entirely sure how its calculated through social charges, i think allot is down to your providing accommodation, and basics (or even a full fridge) which in France is seen as payment as people often house sit as a way to save money to visit other countries, hence why they also ask for copies of passports birth certificates etc. you’d need to make the enquiries as to how its done as people from certian countries are not allowed to actually work here without a visa such as
"A Schengen visa allows the holder to travel freely within the Schengen countries for a maximum stay of up to 90 days in a 6 month period. However, the Schengen visa is NOT a work permit. You can travel on a Schengen visa to go on holiday or on a business trip. It does not allow you to work in the Schengen countries"
house sitting is classed as work. One example.
Hence why relevant paperwork should be completed to ensure we as well as the persons are not breaking the laws. Also even as a free pet sitter here in france you are still required to hold within your group a valid “Certificat de capacity” http://draaf.occitanie.agriculture.gouv.fr/Certificat-de-capacite-Animaux
This includes pet sitters be they free or not.
Have nothing against them. a friend of our holds a certificat and pet sits for free in France during her holidays.
OK. So if people are doing this informally without the right paperwork etc then they are breaking several laws including tax laws?! I had no idea that this was the case and I’ve never seen anyone mention it on the group so it’s possible people don’t know about it.
I think I’ve seen you to post to this group so maybe you should mention it. I’m sure people would find it helpful.
mostly because people do not mention it and often people who are from other countries, even from France are not aware that they should hold a certificat but as you can probably read from the DRAAF website it covers any form of looking after animals.
this does not mean you cannot ask a neighbour to look after your cat or dog or a friend etc but if you take someone into your home such as a pet sitter its then required so a bit of a grey area.
The other thing you have to look at too is does your home insurance cover you for house sitters as they are still classed as tenants as they are given accommodation for work.
Was trying to find the story of the German family who had a fire and insurance would not pay out here in France because the house sitter had no insurance. (i believe gites need something similar)
All in all its a nightmare to get your head around.
French people have liability insurance with their home insurance, so not a problem for gîtes. Our problem comes with English clients, who don’t. In theory they should take out insurance for staying in a gîte in case they burn it down as Harry’s anecdote, and this is written into our contract. However we don’t ask to see it…but then we have only ever had one English family.
I don’t know what people who have mainly English clients do?
We have gites and nowhere in our insurance policy paperwork does it say that non-french clients need to have cover for our property. Even French clients may not have adequate cover. I had an argument with my broker over this and I get the feeling it is a “cop out” by French insurance companies. We would have to insist that each and every client brings their insurance policy paperwork with them when they come on holiday and we would have to go through it before they are allowed in the gite - Don’t think so!
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our friends have an insurance policy through their own agent that people can sign up to. which is just a few euros a week.
Peace of mind
Well we did have one french client who turned up with her attestation! It’s a grey area that I don’t feel that I’ve completely resolved and does occupy some attention on one french gîte owners forum.
I have to admit to not having read our insurance contract recently, but I recall that somewhere it does make mention of clients having their own civil responsibility. If your gîte clients burn your gîte down who would be responsible and whose insurance company would pay?
our friends are here for lunch and just said to them who would be responsible. They also said its very unclear as to who would pay out and its dependant on the reason, ie if the fire started through say an electrical fault or something out of the guests control, or if the fire started from something like a stove left on or a fire left untended. What is clear to them is the insurance is needed and they wont take guests without it.
Back on subject though the 2 things pet sitters need is insurance and more importantly the certificat allowing them to care for animals. more and more kennels and pet sitters coming to light where the animals such as dogs taken into the care of the Fourier until owners return, especially with the law change saying each dog much have at least 5 mtr square of space so 3 dogs would need 15 mtr square and so forth which most old places do not comply with and everyone was given 2 years to comply which expires in may this year when it becomes compulsory.
Didn’t mean to high jack this doggy thread! But it is something that interests me for obvious reasons.