Nine questions to ask before you hire a cleaner

Before you hire a cleaner, ask about insurance, employment status, vetting, price, keys, breakages and notice periods. A good company answers all of them without hesitating. Hiring a cleaner means giving someone access to your home, often when you are not there, so it is worth ten minutes of questions before you commit.

1. Are you insured, and for how much?

Public liability insurance covers damage to your property. Ask for the figure and ask to see the certificate. A legitimate company will have it to hand.

If the answer is vague, stop there.

2. Are your cleaners employed or self-employed?

This determines who is responsible when something goes wrong. With employed staff, the company normally carries liability and handles vetting and sickness cover. With subcontractors, responsibility can be less clear, and you may find the insurance does not extend to the person actually in your home.

Neither model is automatically wrong. You should know which one you are buying.

3. What vetting do you do?

Ask what checks are made before someone works in your home. Reference checks and right-to-work checks are the usual minimum (the GOV.UK right to work guidance explains the employer's side). A DBS check is appropriate where the setting needs one, such as work around vulnerable people; see the GOV.UK DBS guidance.

"They are all lovely" is not a vetting process.

4. Will I get the same cleaner every time?

For regular domestic work this is one of the questions that matters most. A rotating cast never learns your home, so you re-explain things each visit and standards can drift. Some companies cannot offer consistency because of how they schedule. It is better to know now.

5. How is the price calculated, and is it fixed?

Per job or per hour? If per hour, how many hours do they estimate, and what happens if it takes longer? If per job, what exactly is included? Get the answer in writing. Our guide to what cleaning costs in Brighton explains what moves the price, and what a cleaner can do in 2 or 3 hours helps you judge an hourly quote.

6. What is not included?

Ask directly. Extras are often the inside of the oven, the fridge, interior windows, ironing, carpet cleaning and balconies. It is better to hear it now than to find it on an invoice.

7. How do you handle keys?

If you will not be home, ask how keys are stored. A sensible answer involves keys being logged, never labelled with your address, and returned on request. A key with your address on a fob in an unlocked drawer is a real risk.

8. What happens if something is damaged or missed?

Breakages can happen in any cleaning job, because it involves handling other people's possessions at speed. What matters is the process afterwards. A good answer covers reporting it to you, dealing with it through insurance, and putting it right. On quality, ask whether they will return and fix a missed area at no cost, and how quickly you need to tell them.

Any hesitation is itself the answer.

9. What notice do I need to give?

Ask about skipping a visit, cancelling a visit, and ending the arrangement entirely. Notice periods vary, but be cautious about long lock-ins on domestic cleaning.

Why is a very cheap quote a warning sign?

If one quote is far below the others, the difference is being paid for somewhere. That can mean pay below the legal minimum (see the National Minimum Wage rates), no insurance, no employment status, or a scope that will expand once you have committed.

Cleaning is labour. There is a floor below which the numbers cannot work lawfully, and a quote beneath it tells you something about how the business operates.

Ask us the same questions

We are happy to be asked all nine. Get a free quote or call us, and put them to us directly. You can see what each of our services covers on the pages for house cleaning and office cleaning.