![\"Alessia](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/SEI_231124423-e1732726606657.jpg\")
\n\t\tAlessia has been living in London rent-free for the last nine months (Picture: Alessia Armenise)<\/p>\n
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\n\t\tAlessia has been living in London rent-free for the last nine months (Picture: Alessia Armenise)<\/p>\n
Waking up in a plush bed in a spacious bedroom on the second floor of a London<\/a> house, I felt the most relaxed I had in ages.<\/p>\n There were windows overlooking a verdant garden, I could hear birds singing and a fluffy labradoodle soon rushed up the stairs to bid me good morning.<\/p>\n Yes, this comfy abode had a lot to do with my renewed sense of zen.\u00a0<\/p>\n But the best part? This house didn\u2019t come with a mortgage<\/a>, rent or bills attached.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the catch though: This three-floor detached house with a huge garden and a spacious kitchen in the heart of London, was not actually mine. In fact, it belonged to a perfect stranger.<\/p>\n No, I wasn\u2019t squatting or breaking and entering. I\u2019ve actually been living in London rent-free for the last nine months and it\u2019s all thanks to an app.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\tReady to start your homebuying journey?\t\t\t<\/p>\n You can access completely fee-free mortgage advice with London & Country (L&C) Mortgages, a partner of Metro. Customers benefit from:<\/p>\n \u2013 Award winning service from the UK\u2019s leading mortgage broker<\/p>\n \u2013 Expert advisors on hand 7 days a week<\/p>\n \u2013 Access to 1000s of mortgage deals from across the market<\/p>\n Unlike many mortgage brokers, L&C won\u2019t charge you a fee for their advice.<\/p>\n Find out how much you could borrow online<\/a><\/p>\n Mortgage service provided by London & Country Mortgages (L&C), which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (registered number: 143002). The FCA does not regulate most Buy to Let mortgages. Your home or property may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.<\/p>\n My husband and I moved to Paris in 2020, but we had to travel to London once a month when we had work here.\u00a0<\/p>\n Unsurprisingly, we quickly tired of relying on expensive hotels and Airbnbs<\/a> for accommodation. And that\u2019s when we found \u2018Trusted House Sitters\u2019.<\/p>\n When one of my friends first told me about the app, I was skeptical: The idea of staying in a stranger\u2019s home felt weird. Then I remembered that renting an Airbnb is not that different, so I figured I\u2019d give it a look.<\/p>\n \t\t The app was free to download and while there was <\/strong>no acceptance or heavy application process there was a \u00a399 fee to pay to join \u2013 this is mainly to help the app to stay afloat and also act as a deterrent for people who don\u2019t plan to use the service appropriately.\u00a0<\/p>\n As an annual fee I didn\u2019t think that was too bad, so I decided to sign up.\u00a0<\/p>\n I filled in a profile with information and photos and then began my search for our first homesit and found it works much like AirBnB or Booking.com: You look for the location you are interested in, select your available dates, and scroll through the options until you find an offer that you like the look of.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, as the service is review-based \u2013 Trusted House Sitters says 79,212 pets\/houses were added to the app in 2023 and they currently have over 200,000 members in more than 140 countries \u2013 I was warned it might be hard to find our first sit.<\/p>\n Generally, you have to send a request to the owners selling yourself as a great house\/pet-sitter and it\u2019s important to bear in mind that some homeowners have specific requirements or preferences.<\/p>\n For example, I\u2019ve seen listings where owners have stated that they prefer couples over those travelling alone or even sitters who speak the local language or who have experience with farm animals. It all depends on what kind of adventure you are looking for.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t Luckily, I managed to find a pet sit in a remote part of France, only accessible by car, which I had. This meant that the competition was thin, and the chances of me getting the sit were pretty high.\u00a0<\/p>\n After having a chat with the owners, we made our way to the Bordeaux region where we spent a week looking after two extremely well-behaved terriers in a lovely countryside villa, with a huge pool and a pizza oven in the garden that we put to very good use. We had so much fun that, from that moment on, most of our holidays or weekends away involved looking after someone\u2019s pet.\u00a0<\/p>\n From there, we made sure to do a few pet sits that were easy for us to do (but not popular) all so we could get our first reviews.\u00a0<\/p>\n Gradually our reviews built up over time and before I knew it, three years of being on the app had passed.<\/p>\n In that time we\u2019ve spent weeks in Barcelona and Amsterdam with the only requirement being to look after some cute pets. We even spent a week in a gorgeous villa in Tuscany, working from the pool instead of our boiling-hot apartment.<\/p>\n \t\t But it was only last year that I unlocked the app\u2019s full potential.\u00a0<\/p>\n At the beginning of 2024, we decided we wanted to move back to London permanently. The only thing we hadn\u2019t anticipated was the nightmare that the rental market had become post-Covid.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Originally we\u2019d hoped to find a place similar to the one we\u2019d left behind for our Parisian adventure \u2013 a lovely two-bedroom flat in East London for roughly \u00a31300 \u2013 but it soon became apparent that we were living a pipe dream.<\/p>\n We spent months trying to find a place but were gradually having to compromise on more and more of our needs.<\/p>\n Even when we came to accept that we might have to spend \u00a31,600pm for 350sq ft, every single flat we saw was unlivable \u2013 complete with damp patches and a low ceiling \u2013 or fell through.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t By June we just thought that enough was enough.\u00a0<\/p>\n Throughout this time we had been pet-sitting for three months and we\u2019d actually loved it. So, I realised, why not continue doing that for a while?<\/p>\n For this specific moment in our lives, it seemed like a perfect solution.<\/p>\n We could use this time to really figure out if coming back to London was a good idea for us and if so, where we felt more at home in the city. And not having bills to pay would also allow us to save money and give us more freedom<\/a> in our work.\u00a0<\/p>\n Suddenly, I felt a lot less anxious and a whole lot freer.<\/p>\n Now, we\u2019ve stayed in flats all over London including the luxurious stay I mentioned earlier. And when I woke up in that plush king-sized bed, I was glad all those flats we saw fell through. I\u2019d never get to experience this otherwise.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t get me wrong, not every house is as incredible as this one: I\u2019ve had dogs with separation anxiety and owners messaging me constantly, but overall, the positive experiences outweigh the bad ones.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t And really, how can I complain when they\u2019re all free of charge?<\/p>\n Sometimes we stay for only a couple of days and others for months but doing this has allowed us to get to know the city in a way we never had before.\u00a0<\/p>\n Of course I know that this can\u2019t last forever. Not having a fixed address is not a long-term solution and securing one sit after the other can be stressful, but I have loved this experience and would recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone who can afford to be a bit nomadic.<\/p>\n If you work from home and have a flexible schedule, this app can allow you to live in different places while saving for a deposit or a big trip.\u00a0<\/p>\n For us, it\u2019s been a great way to test out life in London again, and I plan to use it in the future for both trips and longer stays.<\/p>\n At the end of the day we all want a place to call home, but for right now, I\u2019m okay with borrowing someone else\u2019s.<\/p>\n This article was originally published November 30, 2024<\/p>\n Do you have a story you\u2019d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Share your views in the comments below.<\/strong><\/p>\n Arrow Arrow![\"Alessia](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/SEI_231124441-8b92-e1732727019577.jpg\")
\n\t\tI looked into the Trusted House Sitters app after I remembered that renting an Airbnb is not that different (Picture: Alessia Armenise)<\/p>\n![\"Alessia](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/SEI_231124390-93cf-e1732726771645.jpg\")
\n\t\tMost of our holidays or weekends away involve looking after someone\u2019s pet
(Picture: Alessia Armenise)<\/p>\n![\"Alessia](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/SEI_231124405-76c0-e1732726855734.jpg\")
\n\t\tNow, we\u2019ve stayed in flats all over London (Picture: Alessia Armenise)<\/p>\n![\"Alessia](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/SEI_231124414-d974-e1732726959562.jpg\")
\n\t\tHow can I complain when all the homes are free of charge? (Picture: Alessia Armenise)<\/p>\n![\"Alessia](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/SEI_231125385-3b08-e1732727061104.jpg\")
\n\t\tFor us, it\u2019s been a great way to test out life in London again (Picture: Alessia Armenise)<\/p>\n
\nMORE: One of London\u2019s \u2018Trees of the Year\u2019 could be felled to build council housing<\/a><\/p>\n
\nMORE: Enjoy the warmth while you can \u2013 it\u2019s fizzling out just in time for the bank holiday<\/a><\/p>\n