To feel annoyed I have to pay?

You're forgetting her overheads as a business. She doesn't get paid holidays nor paid sick time. So she won't be earning 20 hours per week for 52 weeks per year! She won't be earning on travel time between jobs. 20 hours per week actually earning is probably very close to full time actually working when you factor in the non chargeable time on admin, travel, buying supplies, etc.

Nail on the head. You have the right not to pay her. But she has the right to walk away and leave you looking for a new cleaner. Why not compromise and offer to pay half as a goodwill gesture. She WILL have done things, like dusting etc as dust still settles even in an empty house.

You’re paying £35 per hour? Or have I misread?

Another way around it - given she says "We can always cancel another one of your cleans to make up for it".......

Take that at face value (that she is offering you a deal to make up for it).

Pay her on Thursday, saying "Hi Laura, I've just transferred the money. Regarding your solution of cancelling another clean to make up for this, I assume for cashflow reasons you mean I should nominally 'cancel' a clean at some point, but you will actually still do the clean. It makes zero difference to me (since you will actually be doing the clean!) so just let me know which date works best for you and I'll withhold payment that day."

Whatever she comes back with, the ball is then back in your court in terms of pointing out the fairness of this solution. Hopefully though she will have reflected on the situation and rather than have to reply and argue that you should pay for her mistake (literally), she'll just pretend this solution was what she meant all along.

Even if she only cleans for 20 hours a week, that's equivalent to £36,400pa, which is more than a lot of people earn, including myself.

I'm gobsmacked that she charges £35ph.

OP, would you feel comfortable writing back using

'On reflection....'
'I've been thinking again about...'
'Having thought more about....'
'The more I think about it, the more I feel that...'

Your cleaner is so clearly in the wrong

1. by making the scheduling mistake
2. by not apologising for her mistake
3. by saying you need to pay for her mistake
4. by intending (had you not contacted her) to defraud you by at least 1 hour's pay.

I don't think you should let this go. (Though I appreciate that's easy for me to say, not having the relationship with her)

I would simply say ‘I think you’ll agree that its fair that I don’t pay you for this given I had given you ample notice of cancellation and the house was already perfectly clean’

Easy OP - don’t let her get the better off you.

£35?? Madness.

I provide an at-home service (not cleaning) and I would never, ever write "the house wasn’t too bad". It's super rude and in her case, a judgement of her own quality of work.

That is extortionate!! No way should you be paying that!!

You missed my point.

You don’t reward someone else’s fuck-up!

Cancel the next fortnight one to save money and you should be even stevens then

I think I'd be inclined to look at the bigger picture.
You've clearly had a major operation if you have been in hospital for a few weeks. I'd be concentrating on stress-free rest and recovery.
You've stated that the cleaner is lovely and you value her greatly. In the greater scheme of things I personally don't think it's worth getting het up about. Pay her, move on and be firmer and clearer with your wishes in the future.

I'd do this too. If it was already clean and tidy then I'd only be paying her if she'd done something extra like the windows or ironing or whatever.

You don't owe her anything, she made the mistake not you, it's not chargeable! She's in the wrong asking for payment for a cancelled clean she mistaken did anyway, that's unfair of her and is not what her t&cs are about.

Who would agree that they still pay when they've cancelled a clean well in advance, she got enough notice to book in other work if she wanted to, I could understand it being a breach if you tried to cancel two days before the clean or something but you didn't.

If it was your mistake, you pay, but it's her mistake, so she pays (with the free clean). That's just being a fair service.

The more I read about cleaners the less inclined i am to want one. People treat it like employing a cleaner is some sort of charitable act rather than a business relationship.

She’s pulling a fast one but is only 75% confident she’ll succeed as she is only charging for three hours.
If you pay without question she’ll up it to 4 hours, her chances of success 100%.
The Oops imo confirms her cheek. She knew the house didn’t need cleaning.
Point out finances are tight which causes a delay in payment. It’ll give her the message she can’t take advantage of your situation.

It didn’t take as long so you only owe for 3 hours not 4 as the house wasn’t too bad!

She's just given herself a bad review there, hasn't she? There's no way she stayed 3 hours if she'd previously cleaned the house well and you hadn't been there in the meantime.

I would not pay her. If she had something to clean, it suggests she did a poor job the first time round. If she did a good job, it suggests she did not have 3 hours work to do the second time and is therefore lying. Either way she doesn’t sound like a good cleaner.

I'd be tempted to email her again, even though you have already made a mistake in agreeing to pay her. "Hi Laura. On reflection, I am still confused about your visit on x date which I had cancelled on y date. Can you confirm what cleaning you did, for 3 hours, as the house surely was spotless from your previous clean? Sally"

If you normally keep your house like a show home it may not have been obvious that you hadn't been there since her last visit, though. She's probably used to mopping clean floors, no dust or cobwebs etc in your home.

Obviously you don't pay her as she said she knew not to come. But then 'forgot' not to?! So she acknowledged it's her mistake. If you ask what she did she'd have to say 'nothing' if she was being truthful. And your house is like a show home.

I remember once booking the cleaner for a certain day, but she turned up two days early and obviously nobody was there to let her in. She got paid as the rest of my family didn't believe me that she came on the wrong day as they were on holiday and told me off for 'messing her around'? Not the same but just reminded me of it a bit!

I think this is a politic way forward. Trouble is you probably need her more than usual next time while you are recovering.

It's a bit complicated but you could also say ok I'll take 3 hours' worth of next week as my cancellation so if you could just do the one hour I will pay you for both visits then. If she says no, because she doesn't do one hour visits you say I understand that's the general rule but we had the cancellation in writing. I bet she stayed nowhere near 3 hours last week and asking for 2 hours not 1 would be fair, but maybe best to let that go.

So you think anyone paid lower than average (I mean cleaners around here charge £20-25 an hour which I think is pretty good. I’m self employed on £34 an hour and went to university for 3 years which cost a bomb to earn that plus I need to pay fees yearly to continue to do my job) should just get paid regardless of any other circumstances? So let’s say a hospital porter on minimum wage should be able to turn up whenever they want and just do some work and get paid for it? Regardless if it’s their working hours or not? I mean they did some work so they need paying! Even if they come in at midnight and no one needs porting at that time. Maybe they could just take Mrs Smith to xray and back even though she doesn’t need it. Then they should get paid for it. What about the Saturday girl who sweeps the floor and makes the tea at the hairdresser? She could go in at 11pm and sweep the clean floor and make some tea that no one will drink. I guess she should get paid for it. These people shouldn’t be squeezed either right??