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Cleaner broke something

33 replies

LassieLady · 18/06/2025 12:20

Came home yesterday to a smashed Cafetière and a ‘sorry’ note from our cleaner.
It cost more than £20 and I feel quite annoyed that she didn’t offer to replace it or compensate us - in which case I would have said ‘no worries, accidents happen’.

Should I just let it go?

OP posts:
Poopeepoopee · 18/06/2025 12:35

Should I just let it go?

No fucking way! Hound her for it!

caringcarer · 18/06/2025 12:36

Of course let it go. Do you think she broke it on purpose?

FragrantJasmine · 18/06/2025 12:38

Of course you let it go! I can’t believe you’re even raising it on here, tbh.

Navigatinglife100 · 18/06/2025 12:39

If she's an employee then just suck it up. If she's self employed then, in theory, she should have insurance (although she probably wouldn't claim due to the excess).

But it's £20. And that's new...not a used value.

And she may have an argument that it was left in an unsafe place that contributed to the accident.

All for £20? And the chance you'll lose a - I assume in all other ways, reliable and good, cleaner.

Yes. Let it go.

LassieLady · 18/06/2025 12:45

Yes, just £20. Guess it just grated that she didn’t offer to replace - I absolutely would have said no worries.
It’s not the first thing she’s broken but she’s a good cleaner.
OK, I’m letting it go!

OP posts:
Holdonforsummer · 18/06/2025 12:48

At least your cleaner fessed up! A precious souvenir of mine (precious in a sentimental way) was badly chipped a few weeks ago and it was sitting high up on a shelf. I really don’t see how or why anyone except my cleaner could have done it. She didn’t say a word so I’ve just had to leave it but I am upset.

Comefromaway · 18/06/2025 12:49

Assuming she is self employed then she should pay.

Navigatinglife100 · 18/06/2025 12:53

Comefromaway · 18/06/2025 12:49

Assuming she is self employed then she should pay.

And very likely walk.

That's the risk.that, for £20, most people wouldn't want to take.

Good point made about her being trustworthy too in letting you know.

Comefromaway · 18/06/2025 13:00

If she was gong to break my possessions without offering to pay then I would want her to walk. Even my student son has insurance in case he breaks/damages anything in a client's premises.

PhilippaGeorgiou · 18/06/2025 13:02

I have broken more than a few myself. They break easily. I wouldn't dream of expecting the cleaner to pay for it.

the80sweregreat · 18/06/2025 13:07

She said sorry, but maybe she is now waiting for you to ask her for the money or to see what you might say about it ? I’d offer to pay, but things happen and get broken by accident. At least it wasn’t anything too valuable.
If you really want some compensation, you should ask her to replace it. It’s up to you now to broach the subject.

PearlsPearl · 18/06/2025 14:17

Wow, this is so crazy to me. Do you realise how fortunate you are? To have a cleaner, and a cafetière?! They work long, physically demanding hours for shitty pay. Would YOU want to be a cleaner full time scrubbing other peoples toilets?

For gods sake let it go. Accidents happen.

Anotherscrubber · 18/06/2025 22:15

LassieLady · 18/06/2025 12:20

Came home yesterday to a smashed Cafetière and a ‘sorry’ note from our cleaner.
It cost more than £20 and I feel quite annoyed that she didn’t offer to replace it or compensate us - in which case I would have said ‘no worries, accidents happen’.

Should I just let it go?

Should I just let it go?

Depends how much you value your cleaner, but if she's good then she'll have no trouble replacing you. It will be much cheaper and easier for any decent cleaner to replace a client than it will be anything they break.

Granted, if this breakage took place despite you telling her never to touch the cafetierre, or to enter the room it was in, then yeah, you'd be within your rights to be very annoyed. Aside from that, you've chosen to invite someone into your home to move your stuff around, well things are going to get broken.

For what it's worth, I have only ever offered to replace anything I broke whilst cleaning, and that was a window. I accidentally bashed it whilst vacuuming, and the whole lot just smashed straight out. I told the client that I was claiming off my insurance (I wasn't, as the excess was greater than the cost of the repair) because I knew she wouldn't have wanted me to be out of pocket, but really, damaging a building is different from damaging "things" which are left lying around.

The best you will get from me in a note is a gushing apology for what's happened, and at a push a line which says "please let me know if there is anything you'd like me to do about it". However, the minute you outsource your cleaning, you have to accept the pitfalls which come with the benefits of not doing something yourself. Indeed, in one of the Kim & Aggie books, Aggie Mackenzie claimed to have a set of drinking glasses which she refused to allow anyone (friends or family) to wash, say that she washed them so that if one got broken it was "my [her] deal".

Anotherscrubber · 18/06/2025 22:15

Comefromaway · 18/06/2025 13:00

If she was gong to break my possessions without offering to pay then I would want her to walk. Even my student son has insurance in case he breaks/damages anything in a client's premises.

I hope you never hire a cleaner.

Nothankyov · 18/06/2025 22:17

@LassieLady I assume you have insurance. That’s one of the things that insurance is supposed to cover. But having said that for £20 I obviously wouldn’t claim on the insurance. Accidents happen and that’s just how it goes specially if you have someone to come and clean your home.

Comefromaway · 18/06/2025 22:36

Anotherscrubber · 18/06/2025 22:15

I hope you never hire a cleaner.

I hope I don’t if it means I have to put up with someone being careless with my possessions.

Anotherscrubber · 18/06/2025 22:41

Comefromaway · 18/06/2025 22:36

I hope I don’t if it means I have to put up with someone being careless with my possessions.

That's exactly what it means, if you have a careless cleaner. I am not one of them, and I have still broken all sorts of things, although I have been in the job for a very long time. Accidents happen, and even more so people leave things in the strangest of places. Also, and I don't expect a client to remember to tell me this (unless it's on their radar), a lot of things I pick up to clean look like they are in one piece. And then I find out they're not. It catches me out every time on a new clean, does that.

yakkity · 18/06/2025 22:56

Comefromaway · 18/06/2025 22:36

I hope I don’t if it means I have to put up with someone being careless with my possessions.

So you have never broken anything?
the idea that the only time anything gets broken is when someone is wilfully careless is quite ridiculous.

There is a saying: the person washing the dishes will break the most dishes. In other words if you were going everything you would occasionally break something. Because you are human. Like the cleaner. Although woke people don’t think cleaners are human?

thatsthatsaidthemayor · 18/06/2025 22:59

Q is. Can you afford to lose her?

Comefromaway · 18/06/2025 23:00

If I broke something that belonged to someone else I’d pay. If I break something that belongs to me, I take the consequence.

Anotherscrubber · 18/06/2025 23:01

Comefromaway · 18/06/2025 23:00

If I broke something that belonged to someone else I’d pay. If I break something that belongs to me, I take the consequence.

Edited

Do you work as a cleaner?

Spirallingdownwards · 18/06/2025 23:04

My cleaner broke one of a pair of my lovely glass candlesticks. She "kindly" bought me some yukky dark red ones to replace it! I would rather she hadn't as I felt I had to leave them out on display where the broken one had been!

But she was a fab cleaner and lovely person so I left them out for as long as I could before putting something entirely different out for a change!

Handownduggies · 18/06/2025 23:04

Things break, plates get chipped. She left a note which is a really nice thing to do. It could have been you if you instead of her had you been cleaning. Just buy another. It is not something to get annoyed about.

LoafofSellotape · 18/06/2025 23:07

Anyone who spends a lot of time in a house is likely to break something at some point. Maybe she was worried about offering to replace it in case she couldn't afford to?

Missj25 · 18/06/2025 23:07

LassieLady · 18/06/2025 12:20

Came home yesterday to a smashed Cafetière and a ‘sorry’ note from our cleaner.
It cost more than £20 and I feel quite annoyed that she didn’t offer to replace it or compensate us - in which case I would have said ‘no worries, accidents happen’.

Should I just let it go?

Let it go of course ..
It was an accident & she apologised…