To ask about your cleaner?

[thenewaveragebear1983]

If you have a cleaner do you mind if I ask a few questions please? I’m hoping to start a small cleaning business (staff of me!) in January/Feb

What’s your cleaner’s Hourly rate? (We are in the midlands)

What’s your agreement if you (the client) cancels a week?

What if the cleaner cancels?

Do you have a rolling ‘contract’ or do you agree say, 4 weeks upfront?

Would it help to pay via PayPal or do you leave cash?

Does he/she take holiday?

What other services could you/would you pay for? Eg ironing? Puppy company? Batch cooking/lunch prep/shopping/waiting for deliveries/ general companionship for elderly family members such as making lunch, light housework/washing, company for a few hours?

Deep cleans? Playroom organising, decluttering, kitchen deep clean etc?
(These are all things I’ve seen or heard about as extras but I’m just wondering how feasible they are)

One off deep cleans (or even gift cleans for new mums, Mother’s Day etc)

I am trying to work out how to state in my contracts about cancellations and other services and I’m at a loss as I don’t know what the norm is!

I’m in West Yorkshire & pay £15 p/h to a company.

They send up to 4 cleaners once a week & they do 4 hours between them.

So far they’ve only cancelled twice, during Beast from the East. I didn’t pay them.

I have cancelled this coming weeks clean as I’m having my kitchen replaced & the house will be upside down. I won’t be paying them. I have given them a weeks notice.

We don’t have a contract.

The owner was on holiday a couple of weeks ago, she just sent different cleaners.

They are really good cleaners, but when they first started I had a few issues with them leaving lights & the under floor heating on (I never use this, inherited it with the house). It’s on the same light switch as the lights so the didn’t realise they were switching it on. It was driving me mad, & if they werent such good cleaners, I’d have had to find someone else!

They come in whilst I’m at work, but if I am working from home, I just lock myself in the office & leave them to it.

They do only clean. I mean no making beds, taking my shopping in, changing light bulbs. I think they would hang the washing out if I asked them, but nothing else.

I did have a cleaner who offered to change the beds, but I feel that’s too personal.

What’s your cleaner’s Hourly rate? (We are in the midlands) - we pay £11 an hour, SE London

What’s your agreement if you (the client) cancels a week? - we haven't ever cancelled a week but if we did I imagine we would still pay as it's our weekly slot so I'm not sure she'd be able to get one off work for that time.

What if the cleaner cancels? If she's not available the agency asks us if we'd like someone else, or if our cleaner can do a different time/day they will offer that or we can go without the clean - I wouldn't expect to pay for that but so far we have found an alternative day that works.

Do you have a rolling ‘contract’ or do you agree say, 4 weeks upfront? Ongoing- I think we need to give 2 weeks notice

Would it help to pay via PayPal or do you leave cash? I would prefer to pay by bank transfer but our cleaners have always preferred cash so we do that.

Does he/she take holiday? Not yet but our agency will let me know if she does.

What other services could you/would you pay for? Eg ironing? Puppy company? Batch cooking/lunch prep/shopping/waiting for deliveries/ general companionship for elderly family members such as making lunch, light housework/washing, company for a few hours? Our cleaner tidies for us and I would pay for folding laundry and ironing too.

Deep cleans? Playroom organising, decluttering, kitchen deep clean etc?

• yes I would and have paid for deep clean when we moved in and also end of tenancy cleaning of previous flat.

I need a cleaver so badly and can afford it for the first time ever. How do I go about getting one?!

We have two cleaners who do two hours twice a week. We pay £50 a session but they bring all cleaning materials. We employ via a small agency but have had the same girls for years. If they are on holiday then we get someone else to cover. We only pay for hours worked and not if we cancel (although I can’t imagine cancelling).

They’ll do anything reasonable, swapping laundry, emptying dishwasher, usual cleaning routine, changing beds. We can book additional deep cleans pre Christmas or when we’re away. They drove to Winchester and deep cleaned our daughters house before they moved in too.

I know if we asked they’d do other things and have collected medicines or brought a pint of milk with them in the past.

We pay BACS transfer to the agency.

I do think it is a different thing altogether forming a 'cleaning company' and employing people, from being an individual that cleans peoples homes.
People pay more money to an agency, and, as such, do have the expectation to have a 'replacement' cleaner turn up, etc., if yours ins't available, and, if there is any issue, the agency manage it. If you are an individual, then, in effect you are self employed, so, if you aren't needed, then you wouldn't expect to be paid, and if you are ill or unavailable yourself, then you know you won't be saved. This is why a cleaner can charge £10 an hour, rather than the £7.70 or whatever NMW is - there is a built in 'safety net' for the times you don't get paid.

I agree with pps who have mentioned doing a "more than just cleaning" service. I know a few older folk who absolutely need to have someone who will do those jobs they can no longer do for themselves.... yes, cleaning, but maybe also making a light meal, nipping to the post box with a letter, picking up something from the shops - maybe birthday cards or a pair of tights, not necessarily just food, even accompanying them to appointments. Personal care (helping someone shower etc) is another level altogether, but the "home help" role rather than limiting yourself to "just" cleaning would really widen your client base. A lot of elderly or disabled folk would be able to stay in their homes if they had someone coming in for an hour every day. 5 x £10 a week is a darn site cheaper than having to go into a home.

What’s your cleaner’s Hourly rate? (We are in the midlands)
East Midlands and pay £10/hour

What’s your agreement if you (the client) cancels a week?
We just cancel and she comes the next week or I try to arrange another day if she is available. I do not pay for this as she hasn't cleaned. Usually they are last minute due to one of us being ill and can't be helped. I can't afford to miss work and pay the cleaner unfortunately.

What if the cleaner cancels? I don't pay

Do you have a rolling ‘contract’ or do you agree say, 4 weeks upfront?
We have no contract. I pay weekly.

Would it help to pay via PayPal or do you leave cash?
I prefer PayPal or bank transfer, much easier for me! But currently pay cash.

Does he/she take holiday?
She can take holiday whenever but it would be unpaid

What other services could you/would you pay for? Eg ironing? Puppy company? Batch cooking/lunch prep/shopping/waiting for deliveries/ general companionship for elderly family members such as making lunch, light housework/washing, company etc
If we could afford it I would be tempted to pay for clothes washing but not sure how much would get done in the time to make it worth it? My Cleaner doesn't change the beds but I woke be interested in this as hate the job!

Deep cleans? Playroom organising, decluttering, kitchen deep clean etc?
(These are all things I’ve seen or heard about as extras but I’m just wondering how feasible they are)
Not something we've done so far but would be interested.

One off deep cleans (or even gift cleans for new mums, Mother’s Day etc
I'm not sure about this one. Maybe because we have a Cleaner this wouldn't be exciting for me but if you didn't it would probably be a welcome gift!

We have our Cleaner weekly, each week I ask her to do all floors, bathroom, kitchen and dusting etc and then over the weeks she varies other jobs like windows, sofas, more intensive cleaning in different rooms.

It works for us and I would never be without a cleaner now!

I ran my own cleaning business for 10 years.Retired 4 years ago.
Most things have been covered by other replies, but, I did have my own cleaning supplies and vacuum cleaner because frankly some people have crap hoovers and limited supplies of cleaning materials. I had a large car and it was loaded up with all the necessary equipment. If a client wanted something special used for cleaning that was out of the ordinary they usually had to supply it, unless I found it was so good I decided to stock it as well.
It is hard work. I never got paid for holidays or sickness - no work, no pay, oh the fun of being self employed.
You also have to factor in travelling time between jobs - I tried to do one area a day to cut down on this, and I would not travel more than about 5 miles anyway. Even so, I had a waiting list in that small area.

Backforgood I love the idea of being a home helper, that’s definitely something I am going to explore.

Thanks everyone for your input.

My previous post was wrong - we pay £14 an hour. I just checked the statement.

I should have added, she also comes in to help with party setups, and clear ups. After a particularly big one we emerged from bed, around midday, to find that she'd arrived about 4 hours early, and had done everything. Everything! I'll never forget how amazing that was.

And she also puts away online food deliveries.

Initially she would let us know when the price was going up, and we'd go with that. However, it seemed that she found this interaction awkward, so now we increase by a pound an hour every Christmas. It's a fairly simplistic way of doing things, but it suits all of us, I think. Just means that every year cleaning goes up by a fiver a week.

However, having thought about, and typed up, how much she does for us, I feel an interim payrise coming on...

Yes, Silvery, I do think its wrong not to pay a cleaner if she is unwell. Instead of giving her sherry and cake, she would probably prefer to be paid if she is unwell so she can still pay her rent.
My cleaner had the norovirus recently. It would be totally unethical of me if I had expected her not to have money for that week and, if she had come to clean and spread the germs to me, I would have deserved to catch them for being a scrooge.
Yes, they are self-employed. However, none of the cleaners I have had have been able to afford to have insurance for sickness, and all of them were honest about being hard-up and needing the money.

£10 p/h rural East Mids. She lives very local though so no travel costs. We provide all kit and products. Previous cleaner was £13 but provided own products/equipment.

We pay for 3 hrs a week. She cleans bathroom, ensuite, kitchen, WC, hoovers and basic dusting downstairs, plus 2 beds (other beds unused).

No formal contract, pay in cash usually but I like bank transfer/standing order too. I’m happy with a contract though, previous cleaner did have T’s and C’s.

Cleaner tells me when she is away and we just don’t pay for those weeks, I can live with a few weeks off each year so no relief cleaner needed.

If we cancel without notice then we pay, but if away on planned hols etc notified in advance we expect to not pay. We are moving down the road soon and will cancel for 2 weeks whilst we unpack and get settled.

Oven cleaning and cat sitting are useful extras that she does that I use. Might use a deep clean too.

harshbuttrue1980

It's entirely your choice but reading back through the thread it would appear that the majority agree with me.

As for taking away her sherry, you would have to prise the glass out of her cold, dead hands.