Have I paid for previous smoke breaks???

[onemoreforgoodmeasure]

I've not posted here before but I don't know where else to put this and am basically looking for your thoughts as I've not been in this situation before.

My OH moved in a while back and added to the mess of the house many times over and I was getting really put out by it every week and he agreed to go halves on a cleaner. £14.50 per hour, at 2 hours a week, plus tax. My house is not huge, two bedrooms, one bathroom. All she has to do is the surfaces and floors, I make sure there are no dishes to be washed or put away and that surfaces are available to her.

Now, it has to be said, as much as I want the help I am not entirely comfortable with having someone in the house. I am house proud and have high standards. But since we've had the cleaner I no longer get grumpy with OH so it's good for our relationship and that matters a lot. It also has to be said that I gave up smoking only 2 weeks ago.

Now, here's the problem. I don't think the standar is very high, it's fine, I'd be really glad if my OH had done it. I even once cleaned 1/3 of the house myself so that she could focus on the remaining 2/3 and her standard didn't improve. Today she arrived late, clearly wasn't expecting me to be there, popped a mint in her mouth pdq, and spoke loudly to herself the whole time, mostly about what she was doing like "this is a nightnurse box" (I was home because I have a cold btw) but wtf? I was wondering how she was going to manage the 2 hour commitment as they don't work past 5. WELL, at nearly 5 pm I smelled smoke and went to investigate and found her half in / half out the back door having a cigarette!!!!! Now, the floors were not spotless, by far, one looked only partially hoovered.

She comes to us via a company so I've written to them to say what happened and that we need to talk and that I don't want her to come back. She's nice, but aibu to think a smoke break is out of the question?

We are in London. We pay £8.50 per hour for our cleaner. She spends 2 1/2 hours on a 3 bed end of terrace. It is spotless. She does not do the same tasks each time. Some times she does the oven, other times polish windows, etc.
She always change all the beds. (1 king size and a bunk bed)

Oh the old "your house isn't in great shape, but we'll bring it up to our standard and then maintain it" line. Generally means you get one or two decent cleans, and then they start cutting corners. Companies generally pay their cleaners crap wages, and consequently they aren't motivated to work very hard. Much better to get someone by recommendation.

I have 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and a couple of living areas.

My cleaner has them sparkling in 3 hours a week, she doesn't tidy, just clean.

YANBU phone the company and tell them you don't want her back. Or tell her yourself. £14 sounds extortionate especially when carers get minimum wage

Not acceptable! She is far far too expensive for a start. £14.5+tax phr??! £10ish an hour is going rate.

And no smoking on the job especially when she is only there for two hours.

I have a cleaner and I know she smokes but not while she is working. She gets £10phr and house really is very clean once she is done. And she tidies too which is a god send as I have two under 3 and it gets out of hand really quickly around here.

I know she smokes on her walk here from the station and she lights up again after she leaves. I know for a fact she doesn't smoke while she is here. We have CCTV coverage for the whole of the outside of house so she would have been seen on there.

I would just get someone else. To be honest she has failed on all fronts. She is late, takes smoking breaks but worst of all she doesn't actually clean your house.

If she was at yours for a long day (say you lived in Beckingham Palace) then a break obviously isn't unreasonable but for a two hour job?

The fag break isn't an issue IMO as long as its on her time not yours. Ie if she takes 10 mins, she works 10 mins longer.
If you are not happy with the standard of cleaning or the rate you are paying, tell the agency you don't need her any more and find your own independent cleaner, it will be a lot cheaper. You can interview and ask for references until you find someone you are comfortable with.

Get someone else - go to the agency and ask for your keys back, tell them you won't be using them again. Ask around, you'll probably get a recommendation.

So the agency have responded saying they won't charge me for yesterday's clean, which I hadn't asked for but makes sense as a goodwill gesture. They've offered a new cleaner to be linked with the head of the company. I've asked for details of what this means. If the head was cleaning my house well, I've met her and would be tempted to give this a try. But what you're all saying is that I'm paying way to much. I live in a city, not london but not far off, and to hear that none of you is paying this much surprises me. I'm so naiive! I'm going to spend the weekend checking out my options.

What would be best would be to have a recommendation from someone. Don't you know anyone who has a cleaner who's happy with their work?

£14.40 per hour?

That's absolutely outrageous for a cleaner, especially as her work is unsatisfactory.

I am looking for an assistant (architect or architectural technician) to do about 20hrs a week and I have had several ring up almost begging me to take them on for £10!