Hiring a cleaner means giving someone access to your home, often when you are not there. That deserves a proper process, and the whole thing takes about an hour spread over two weeks.
The process below is deliberately ordinary. There is no clever trick to it, and the people who have good experiences with cleaners are almost always the people who did these unremarkable things at the start.
Where to look
Personal recommendation is still the strongest signal, because the person recommending has already run a live trial for months or years. Ask neighbours, a local community group, or a street WhatsApp group. Ask specifically how long they have used them and whether anything has gone wrong.
Established local companies are the next best. Look for a real address, a business phone number, a website that describes the actual service rather than generic copy, and reviews spread over time rather than clustered in one week.
Trade platforms such as Checkatrade and similar directories carry some vetting, though the depth varies by platform. Read the negative reviews specifically, and look at how the company responded to them, which tells you more than the positive ones.
App-based platforms are convenient and often cheaper, but the model usually connects you to a self-employed individual rather than employing them, which changes who is responsible for insurance and vetting.
Local Facebook groups can work but carry the least vetting of any route. Treat recommendations there as leads to check rather than endorsements.
What to check before you book
Ask for these. How readily they are provided tells you as much as the answers themselves.
Public liability insurance, with a certificate and an expiry date. Commonly £1m to £5m. This covers damage to your property. Ask about the excess, and ask specifically whether damage to items being worked on is covered, since standard policies often exclude it.
Employers liability insurance, if the company has employees. It is a legal requirement for almost all UK employers.
Vetting. References, identity and right to work checks, and DBS checks where appropriate. Ask what level of DBS, because most domestic cleaning roles are only eligible for a Basic check.
Employed or subcontracted. If subcontracted, ask who vets and insures the person actually attending. This is the single most useful question you can ask.
Consistency. Will it be the same cleaner each visit, and what happens when they are on holiday or ill.
References from current customers, ideally someone with a similar property who has used them for more than six months. Actually call one. Most people do not, and it takes five minutes.
The questions worth asking
- What exactly is included, and what is not?
- How many hours will the visit be?
- Do you bring products and equipment, or do I supply them?
- What is your cancellation policy, both ways?
- What happens if I am not happy with a visit?
- How do you handle keys?
- Is the quoted rate inclusive of VAT?
- How do payments work, and will I get an invoice?
- How often do prices change, and how much notice do you give?
- Who do I contact if there is a problem?
- What happens if my regular cleaner leaves?
That last one matters more than it looks, because staff turnover is the most common reason a good arrangement quietly degrades.
The trial
Do not commit to a long arrangement on day one.
Be present for the first visit. Walk them round for five minutes: priorities, anything fragile, anything off limits, where things are kept, how the heating works. Then leave them to it, but stay in the house.
Book three or four visits before deciding. The first is always slower, because they are learning the property. Judge on the third.
Give specific feedback after the first two. "The shower screen still has water marks" is useful and gets fixed permanently. Silence followed by cancellation helps nobody.
Move to keys once you are comfortable, not before. A key safe is usually the better arrangement.
Any decent company will be entirely comfortable with this. One that pushes for keys and a long commitment immediately is telling you something.
Setting it up properly
Agree the scope in writing, even informally by email. Most disappointment with cleaners is a scope misunderstanding rather than a quality problem, because people assume the oven and inside the fridge are included when they are not.
Agree the hours, not just the price.
Start with a deep clean if the house has a backlog. Asking a maintenance visit to absorb a year of accumulated work sets everyone up to fail.
Sort out access, alarm codes and parking before the first visit.
Agree what happens with breakages. Accidents happen in every long-running arrangement. What matters is that they are reported rather than hidden, and a company that proactively tells you about a chipped mug is a company that will tell you about something serious.
Set a review point, informally, at about three months.
If you hire someone directly
Hiring an independent cleaner is a perfectly good option and it is what a lot of households do. A few practical points people often miss:
- Confirm they hold their own public liability insurance, and see the certificate
- Ask about their employment status. Most independent cleaners work as self-employed across multiple households. If you are engaging someone for set hours under your direction, using your equipment, employment status is worth checking against HMRC guidance, because the answer affects tax, national insurance and employment rights
- Check your home contents insurance regarding non-family members holding keys
- Agree holiday and sickness arrangements in advance, because there is no cover
- Keep a simple record of payments
- Agree notice on both sides, so neither of you is left stranded
Warning signs at the enquiry stage
- Insurance certificates promised but never sent
- A quote given without any questions about the property
- Vagueness about who will actually attend
- Pressure to commit immediately, or a discount that expires today
- No written scope
- A price far below every other quote
- No named contact
Building a good arrangement
The households that keep the same cleaner for years tend to do the same things: they tidy before visits, they give feedback early and specifically, they pay on time, they are flexible when something unavoidable comes up, and they treat the arrangement as a working relationship rather than a transaction.
Good cleaners have more work available than they can take. Being straightforward to work with is genuinely how you keep one.
Frequently asked questions
How long should I trial someone? Three or four visits. The first is not representative.
Should I be home? For the first visit or two, ideally. After that, most people are not.
What if I do not get on with the cleaner? With a company, ask for someone else. It is a normal request and a good company will handle it without awkwardness.
How much notice should I give to cancel? Whatever the agreement says, commonly one to four weeks for regular cleaning. Be reasonable, since it is someone's income.
Should I ask for references? Yes, and call one. It takes five minutes and almost nobody does it.
What if they cancel on me repeatedly? Raise it once. If it continues, it is a resourcing problem at their end and it will not improve.
