Polices and Operation

Terms & Conditions
Due to the extreme unpredictability of animals, Always Home Pet Care cannot be held responsible for any unusual mishaps. Examples include: pet’s refusal to take medication, escaping from the yard, biting, eating or destroying household items, damage to inside/outside of home, or personal injury/accidental death. If the client requests pet(s) to have outside access, the client releases Always Home Pet Care from all liability for loss, injury or death to pet(s). The client is liable for injury or damage to any third parties.
Always Home Pet Care reserves the right to terminate this agreement at any time before or during its term if the pet nanny determines that the client’s pet poses a danger to the health or safety of herself/himself or others. If concerns prohibit the pet nanny from caring for pet, the client authorizes pet to be placed in a kennel with all charges to be charged to the client.
Visit times are approximate and subject to change based on the needs of all pets under our pet nannies care. Pet nannies are entrusted to use best judgment in caring for pet(s) and home in the event of an emergency situation, inclement weather or natural disaster. However, Always Home Pet Care will be held harmless for consequences related to such decisions.
It is the clients’ responsibility to have their personal information, emergency contact information, pet feeding/caring and veterinary information up to date.
Always Home Pet Care and its nannies agree to provide the services stated in this agreement in a reliable, caring and trustworthy manner. In consideration of these services, the client expressly waives and relinquishes any and all claims against Always Home Pet Care except those arising from negligence or willful misconduct on the part of Always Home Pet Care or its pet nannies.
The client authorizes Always Home Pet Care to take photos of client’s pet for their file and for business website. Please let us know if this is not preferred.

Polices and Operation

Polices and procedures for Always Home Pet Care

Consultations: In order to provide personalized care for your pets, an introductory meeting is required of all new clients. The meeting is free and takes place at the client's residence. During the consultation we will set up your confidential online Always Home Pet Care profile, review below policies and procedures, and obtain home entry. Due to the needs of our other clients and furry friends, consultations may not run longer than 40 minutes.

Payment Policy: Payments for services are to be paid in full before or on the first day that service begins. If payment is not received at these times, a $25.00 late fee may be added to your invoice. Clients may pay via Paypal or buy leaving cash or check. Please clearly address your payment to AHPC and leave it in an obvious location.

Reservations: Please book your reservations as early as possible! When booking early, your reservations are more likely to be accepted. With new clients, reservations will not be accepted without a prior in-person consultation. Once a reservation is accepted, a confirmation email will be sent to the email address provided. It is the client's responsibility to check that their confirmation has gone through.

Visit time requests:Always Home Pet Care will do its best to work with our clients on time requests. At most, pets on our 3 visit schedule will wait no longer than 6 hours between visits. Pets on a 4 visit schedule will wait no longer than 4 hours. If a client prefers a certain time for their pets during these visits, we will do our best to accommodate, but cannot guarantee their preferred time.
Visit Minimums: Every pet is different. We have a minimum requirement of 2 visits per day for dogs every 24 hours. A minimum visit of one visit every two days for cats. This is subject to change depending on needs and emotional comfort of pets in our care. Client will be notified if additional visits need to be added.

Cancellations and Early Returns: Non Holiday: For cancellation of service before a client has left, a full 24-hour notice is required. Late late notice (less than 24 hours) may result in a fine of $18.
When a client has already left but returns early, the day of client's return will still be charged in full, but remaining visits (or value) of the next day of reservation will be credited towards future visits only.
Anything past one full day after client's early return date can be fully refunded.
This also applies to reservation add-ons such as paid neighborhood walks, driving distance fees, additional pet fees, taxi services, etc.
For example. Bob leaves on Friday, and schedules 4 visits for Rover on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. He ends up returning Saturday morning. Bob will be charged for all visits on Saturday. Sunday's visits (or cash value of those visits) will be applied to his next reservation, and Monday will be fully refunded. Bob can take the four visits credited to him and apply them to a different date, (none holiday) or he can use it's $55 value towards whatever he books on his next reservation.

House Keys and home entry: Typical entry into client's home is usually by key. Our clients may leave AHPC a spare key to keep on file, a temporary key to be returned on final visit, garage entry, or a door codes. When not in use, keys and other home entry items will be kept secured in AHPC's office, inside of a lock box.

Confidentiality: ALL information given to AHPC is confidential. This includes email, contents of home, phone number, reservations booked, billing, social media, etc. Pictures of our client's pets may be used on AHPC's social media pages, but addresses or personal pictures will not be viewable in the background.

Holidays: AHPC only charges an additional $5 per visit during:
The dates of December 20th through January 2nd.
Three days prior to and following Thanksgiving Day.

Holiday Cancellations: All holiday reservations require a 7-day notice for changes and cancellations or clients will be charged for the services reserved. No credits will be given for early returns during holiday periods. All holiday visits must be prepaid during Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s. Cancellations are non refundable.

Late Home Arrival: If, for any reason, you are unable to return at the expected time and/or day, we will schedule additional visits to make sure that your pets are looked after until you return. However, please understand that we carefully schedule our time to service you and our other clients. Therefore, you may be charged a late notice fee of $15. During holiday periods, we may not be able to accept late requests due to being booked.

Extended Visits: AHPC reserves the right to invoice/bill $15.00 per half hour or any portion thereof, for additional time spent over a 30-minute visit that is necessary for the care of our client’s pets or home. This includes service and time for the following, but not limited to: all veterinary trips, pet illness, excessive clean-up resulting from pet incontinence, accidents or frequent vomiting, complications administering medications, obtaining pet food/medication/supplies, wait time for emergency home repair, or search for pets that escaped confinement or leash.

Job Sharing: Always Home Pet Care does not recommend job sharing. Our insurance and bonding policies cover AHPC employees only. While we understand the financial benefit of having friends and family share the visits it is stressful to both the pets and to our pet nannies. Our pet nannies monitor pets under our care closely. When other people are caring for our client's pets, it is very difficult to track moods, bowel movements, and observe the pet's routine. Potential job sharing must be discussed with the owner of AHPC directly.

Home Damages: AHPC will not be held responsible for any home damages cause by pet. However, all attempts will be made to minimize potential future damages or pet temptations to the home. We conduct a home inspection each day, and upon arrival of first visit all doors are shut to prevent free roaming pet mischief. Despite all attempts, occasionally Fido may fancy snacking on a wall. We ask that clients leave a crate or kennel in the unlikely event that a pet may need to be crated.

Emergency Contacts: All client's are required to leave an emergency contact. A client's emergency contact should have working keys for entry. They may also be asked to make decisions with the client’s home and pet care in the client's absence. This includes choices at a veterinary in the event of an emergency.

Inclement Weather: All reasonable efforts will be made to provide the agreed upon services. The care we provide pets under our care and their safety is our first concern.

Our inclement weather plan will be as follows:

1) Every effort will be made to drive to our client's home.
2) The service schedule may be changed, interrupted, or altered due to circumstances
3) If it is not possible to drive safely to our client's home, their emergency contact will be notified
4) Clients will be notified that the above-mentioned contingency plan has been activated.

If a visit must be canceled as a result of inclement weather, those visits will be credited to our client's account for use toward future services. Credits must be used within six months of the cancellation date.

We ask that all clients provide us with an inclement weather emergency contact that can care for your pets in the event that we cannot access your home. This is most commonly a neighbor or relative.

AHPC's nannies are empowered to shorten exercise time during heavy rainfall and lightning and/or thunderstorms or extreme heat. In such cases, exercise time will be replaced with indoor playtime and TLC or added to a future visit.

Medical Emergencies: In the event of pet illness or other medical emergency and the client's specified vet is unavailable, pets will be taken to the closest vet or emergency animal hospital. All attempts will be made to contact our clients in case of emergency and if our clients are unreachable, their emergency contact will be called. Client's are asked to have a credit card on file with their veterinary and to make sure the emergency contact is aware they are able to make decisions with the client’s home and pet care in the client's absence. AHPC will put your pet 's health in front of your potential future business.

Medications / Vaccinations: AHPC will attempt to administer medications as directed but cannot be held responsible for complications that arise as a result. Excessively shy cats with medical problems can be a serious risk. If you have such an animal, this must be thoroughly discussed. Under no circumstances will AHPC care for any pet that has any form of contagious illness. This is for the safety of our other furry clients. AHPC requires that all pets have the necessary vaccinations and immunizations before service begins. If an AHPC nanny is bitten or exposed to any disease or aliment received from a client's pet, which has not been properly or currently vaccinated, the client will be responsible for all costs and damages that may incur.

Hiring Our Nannies: We have an extensive interview and background check process. All of our nannies must LOVE animals and have experience in owning them, pet sitting for others, volunteer work with animal rescue groups or have a vocation in pet care such as a vet technician. After a face to face interview, we obtain feedback from their references and/or previous employers as well as obtain a background check to ensure no criminal activity is in their past. Our sitters are professional, trustworthy, reliable and again, LOVE pets!