Should You Let Your House Sitter Use Your Garage?

When you hire a house sitter, you want them to treat your home with care and respect. At the same time, you want them to feel comfortable. After all, that is the best way to attract house sitters who are committed to doing an excellent job at taking care of your property!

It’s common for homeowners to invite house sitters to enjoy snacks from the refrigerator, use the Wi-Fi, and enjoy other amenities. Should you allow them to use your garage as well?

That depends. You certainly aren’t obligated to offer access to a garage, but in some cases, you could create goodwill by doing so. Before you say yes or no, here are some things to consider.

What Do You Keep in Your Garage?

You might request that your house sitter not enter certain rooms. Many people do this to protect items that are valuable or have personal significance.

Your garage is no different. If you have expensive tools, a vehicle, or even something that could be potentially harmful to someone, instruct your house sitter not to enter.

Feel free to restrict access to prevent anyone from being injured by clutter in your garage as well.

If you do restrict access, it’s imperative to be direct and clear in your instructions. If you don’t mention your garage in your service agreement, the house sitter may assume they’re allowed to use it.

Do You Have Other Parking Options?

It isn’t really fair to deny your house sitter access to the garage if it happens to be their only option for parking. If you don’t want them parking in your garage or using it for any other purpose, provide some alternative instructions.

For example, let them know that it’s okay to park on the street or on a parking pad in front of your home. If the only option is paid parking, you should cover that cost, as well.

What About Security?

You may have valid security concerns about giving access to your garage. In order to allow them to access your garage, you may need to provide your house sitter with a security code or your garage door opener.

It’s possible that they could allow someone else to have access, lose your garage door opener, or even inadvertently provide access to someone with ill intentions.

If you plan to allow access, set very clear ground rules about how your garage can be used. Specify that only the house sitter can use the garage and that all security systems must be activated. If possible, hire house sitters from a company that conducts thorough background checks.

Maintenance Concerns

We can’t tell you whether you should allow your house sitter to use your garage or not. What we can do is make sure your garage door is in good shape so that you don’t have to worry about your house sitter having to deal with a broken garage door or opener!

Want to make sure your garage door is in great working order? Contact the team at Larry Myers for any garage door maintenance needs!