How to become a cat sitter in the UK
Cat sitting needs no licence. Sort your insurance, register as self-employed, and you can start earning £12 to £25 a visit dropping in on cats near home. On Petme you set your own rate and keep up to 90% of every booking.
Petme is live across UK cities. Build a profile, get verified, and take visit requests near you.
What a cat sitter actually does
A cat sitter looks after cats in their own home while the owner is away, usually through drop-in visits once or twice a day. On each visit you feed the cat, refresh water, clean the litter tray, give any medication, spend a bit of time playing or settling a nervous one, and check the home is secure. You send a photo and a short note so the owner can relax. Because cats do best on their own turf, the whole job runs around the owner's house rather than yours, which is why there is no boarding licence to worry about. The steady work is holiday and weekend cover: owners going away still need someone reliable calling in daily, and a sitter who handles a small round of nearby homes builds a book of regulars who rebook every trip.
Care in the cat's home
Feeding, litter, medication, and company on the cat's own turf. No overnight stay, so no boarding licence needed.
Build a local round
A handful of nearby homes you visit daily lets you fit several bookings into one loop without wasting time in traffic.
Holiday cover pays
Owners going away need daily visits every day they are gone. That week or two of cover is where the earnings stack up.
Do you need a cat sitting licence?
For ordinary cat sitting, no. Drop-in visits to feed and check on a cat in the owner's home do not need a licence anywhere in the UK. The animal licensing rules, the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) Regulations 2018 in England and their devolved equivalents in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, apply to home boarding, where you keep animals overnight in your own property. Cats are almost always cared for at home, so the vast majority of cat sitters never touch the licensing regime at all. The exception would be if you ran a cattery or boarded cats overnight in your home; that does need a council licence. Beyond licensing, what owners actually look for is reliability, careful handling of house keys, and confidence with cats that may be shy, elderly, or on medication. None of that requires a qualification, but it is worth being honest on your profile about the kinds of cats you are comfortable with.
The cover cat sitters carry
Two types of cover are standard. Public liability insurance protects you if you cause injury or damage to a third party while working, for example accidental damage in a client's home. Care, custody and control cover sits alongside it and protects the cat itself, for example if it is hurt, lost, or causes harm while in your charge, which a public liability policy usually excludes. Because cat sitting means holding client keys, a good policy also includes a lost-key or key-cover clause so a replacement lock or lost bunch of keys is covered. Pet-professional insurers bundle all of this, and it is worth arranging before your first paid visit rather than after. On top of your own policy, every booking through Petme carries £20,000 of vet protection, so a serious vet bill during a booking does not fall on you or the owner alone.
Public liability and key cover
Covers third-party injury or damage, plus lost keys, since you hold owners' house keys between visits.
Care, custody and control
Covers a cat hurt, lost, or causing harm while in your charge. A public liability policy alone will not.
Registering with HMRC as a sitter
Cat sitters work as self-employed sole traders, so you are responsible for your own tax rather than on anyone's payroll. Register with HMRC by 5 October after the tax year in which you start earning, then file a Self Assessment return by 31 January online each year. The £1,000 trading allowance means very small earnings need no return at all; once you go past it you pay income tax on your profit, not your turnover. Keep simple records of every visit and expense: you can deduct 45p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles you drive between homes, plus phone use, insurance, and any gear. Making Tax Digital for Income Tax starts phasing in from April 2026 for people with income over £50,000, so a sitter with a large book will move to digital quarterly updates. These are the general rules; check gov.uk or speak to an accountant for anything specific to your situation.
Register by 5 October
Tell HMRC you are self-employed by 5 October after your first earning tax year, then file Self Assessment by 31 January.
Claim your costs
45p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles between homes, plus phone, insurance, and gear. The £1,000 trading allowance covers the smallest earnings.
What you can realistically earn
Cat sitting drop-in visits on Petme run roughly £12 to £25 each depending on where you are. London sits at the top of the band, with most regional metros around £12 to £20 a visit. What lifts a weekly total is holiday cover: when an owner goes away for two weeks, that is often two visits a day for fourteen days from a single booking, and a sitter juggling a few homes across the school holidays quickly builds real income. You set your own rate, and because you keep up to 90% of every booking with sitter cashback, more of each visit stays with you than on a platform that takes a bigger cut. Every booking also carries £20,000 of vet protection, and owners pay 0% booking fees, which keeps your rates competitive and your regulars rebooking every time they travel.
For a city-by-city view of visit rates and demand, open the UK cat sitting hub below and see the real bands where you live.
Start cat sitting on Petme in four steps
1. Build your profile
Download Petme, add photos, a short bio, and the areas you cover. A clear profile turns a local search into a booking.
2. Sort insurance and HMRC
Arrange public liability, care, custody and control, and key cover, then register as self-employed. No boarding licence is needed for drop-in visits.
3. Verify your ID
Complete identity verification so owners can trust you with their keys and their cat before they book.
4. Set your rate and visit
Set your rate, choose your hours, and accept visit requests near you. Owners pay in the app and your earnings land in your bank after the visit.
Becoming a cat sitter in the UK, answered
The questions new cat sitters ask most about licences, insurance, tax, and earnings.
How do I become a cat sitter in the UK?
Cat sitting is mostly drop-in visits to the owner's home to feed, clean, and check on the cat while they are away. Arrange public liability and care, custody and control insurance, register as self-employed with HMRC, and you can start. On Petme you build a profile, pass ID verification, set your own rate, and accept visit requests near you. No qualification is legally required.
Do I need a licence to be a cat sitter in the UK?
No. Cat sitting through drop-in visits to the owner's home does not need a licence anywhere in the UK. The licensing rules under the Animal Welfare Regulations 2018 and their devolved equivalents apply to home boarding, where animals stay overnight in your property. Because cats are cared for in their own home, cat sitters usually avoid the licence entirely.
What insurance does a cat sitter need?
Public liability insurance plus care, custody and control cover is the norm. Public liability covers damage or injury to third parties, while care, custody and control covers a cat that is hurt, lost, or causes harm in your charge, plus a lost-key clause since you often hold house keys. Arrange cover before your first paid visit.
Am I self-employed as a cat sitter, and how does tax work?
Yes. Cat sitters are self-employed sole traders and register with HMRC by 5 October after the tax year you start earning, then file Self Assessment by 31 January online. The £1,000 trading allowance covers very small earnings; above it you pay income tax on profit. You can claim 45p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles, plus gear. Check gov.uk or an accountant.
How much do cat sitters earn in the UK?
Cat sitting drop-in visits on Petme typically run £12 to £25 per visit depending on the city, with London at the top and most regional metros around £12 to £20. Holiday cover, where you handle several homes a day for a week or two, is where the money stacks up. You set your own rate, keep up to 90% of every booking with sitter cashback, and each visit carries £20,000 of vet protection.
Do I need experience to start cat sitting?
No formal experience is required. Owners care most about reliability, careful key handling, and clear photo updates so they can relax while they are away. Confidence around cats, including nervous or elderly ones that need medication, matters more than a CV. Many sitters build a round of nearby homes they visit once or twice a day.
How do I get my first cat sitting clients?
Most first bookings come from owners near you who search locally, so list every area you cover and add a clear profile photo and short bio. Holiday and weekend cover is the steadiest recurring demand, since cats left at home still need daily visits. On Petme, owners pay in the app when they book and your earnings are released to your bank after the visit.
Start cat sitting in the UK
Set your own rate. £20,000 vet protection on every booking, cashback that keeps your clients rebooking, and fast payouts to your bank.