To think £85 a week is extortionate

[Pollypanda]

For a cleaner.

My house is not large, it’s a new build 4 bed with 2 bathrooms and a downstairs loo. We would only need 2 of the bedrooms cleaned as the others are largely unused.

I have been quoted £85 a week for a basic house clean (2 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, kitchen, living room and stairs)

AIBU to think this is obscenely high? I was expecting about 40-50.

For context I live in the south, but not London or the south east.

That is what I pay for a 4 bed house! And it is very thorough- fridge cleaned, inside of cooker.

We’re S.E. And pay our cleaner £10 per hr 3 hrs a week for a 4 bed, 2 bathroom. But we keep it really tidy and hoover/ dust a bit ourselves so cleaner really does just clean.
That sounds like a rip off to me... agencies round here want to take £20-£30 a month on top of £8-10 per hour to cleaner which is why we don’t use one. I’d rather the cleaner got all the money.

Seems too high. My neighbour lives has a massive house with loads of extensions and pays the same to clean the entire house. For context, I am in the South East.

I get annoyed with this- I pay a cleaner x2 hours a week. It’s not enough to make the whole house perfect but I don’t want that- I want the floors done and the bathrooms done and anything else is a bonus. The number of cleaners who can’t get past the kitchen in 2 hours is crazy

I'm in London and pay £12 p.h. for 3 hours every fortnight - yes that seems a lot OP

Ridiculous price

When I was in the South £15ph was about average for self employed, £20 with an agency. This is within the last 4 years.

We are now in East Mids and pay £10-£13ph self employed (current is £10, previous was £13). Agency wanted £15ph.

I'd expect your house to be done in 3hrs ish depending on exactly what you want done and how bad it is. So £45 would seem fair. Possibly £50 but definitely no more.

Lots of MMs don't even do a good job! Or rather, they don't do good end of tenancy cleans!

I hate going in after a MM has been in, I always have to make a specific not about the poor standard of cleaning. And it is n't the same person as I cover a large area that a single MM wouldn't be able to!

But I didn't know they were also expensive!

Pollypanda Molly Paid used to charge me £41/week (almost 20 years ago) for: 1 bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, lounge, dining room, hall and cloakroom. It wasn't until I realised they (2 ladies) were only ever here cleaning for 20-22 minutes a week that I cancelled the contract. I used them for convenience as was at work, but felt like I'd been taken for a ride once I realised how little cleaning they were actually doing each week. I wouldn't go near them!

I pay €100 a week for an independent cleaner, but that's twice a week and it includes ironing. She does pretty much set her own hours and will do a short or a long morning depending how messy the house is or whether she has other things going on for herself, but it generally evens out at about 8 hours a week.

Maid not Paid!

I pay £10 an hour 2-3 hours a week, does 4 bathrooms, hoovers upstairs and down, skirting boards and bannister, mops floors and polish gloss kitchen cupboards and the kitchen diner table and downstairs loo. I do cleaning alongside so I do the dusting, beds and putting away eg clothes and life's debris

I pay £15 per hour for 3 hours twice weekly ,so £90.I rarely lift a finger at home

Ps on the days she does 3 hours also does windows

You need an hourly rate to control it since what they consider as "done" for £85 may well be very different to what you consider as "done"

I pay £10 and hour for 3 hours every 2 weeks. She does all the house in that time, apart from the playroom, which is always a mess so I tell her not to bother.

Molly maid here is a good 40% more than an independent cleaner. I’m in Leeds

Find yourself a self employed cleaner with an hourly rate then you know what you are paying for. Most cleaners are £10-£12 an hour around here.

Yes its extortionate and they will be paying the cleaners minimum wage and expecting them to be done in a couple of hours!

Most cleaners do hours and they statecwhats included in a "2 hour clean" etc. It makes it easier to charge. I pay £10ph for 2 hr clean which is the basic once over of whole house.

I have a cleaner two hours a week, costs £12 p/h. My house is 3 bed, 2.5 bath but she only does certain parts of the house as a really thorough clean would be 3 hours work I think and I can't afford that. She makes sure the bathroom and kitchen surfaces are clean and rooms are hoovered/mopped and I do the rest like windows, polishing etc. Depends how many cleans a week you want but £85 to me based on my experience seems steep. I'd expect to pay around £50 per visit.

Sign up to NextDoor.com (neighbourhood community online forum) and put up a post asking for cleaning recommendations. Or type in 'cleaner' in the search box and see who has posted about it previously.

The company say they don’t work to hours, it takes as long as it takes and they don’t leave til it’s up to standard

Translation: write us an open cheque

Find another company ...

Molly maid quoted me £85 for a fortnightly clean on a one bedroom flat. It’s an insane price - god knows who’s happy to happy that!

Crazy. We live in inner London, we pay £12 per hour. Our lovely cleaning lady comes for 2 hours per week, and leaves our 3-bed 1-bath small house spotless. So she could do yours for £36/£48 easy.

It does seem like a lot - I'm not in UK but in Dublin which has similar salary levels, property prices etc to SE England. The going rate here for privately sourced cleaners (i.e. not agency) is €14 p/h which is just over £12p/h. Our 4-bed, 3 bath 2,000sq.ft house takes 5 hours to clean (no bed changes or ironing in that 5 hours) and trust me, the cleaner is working quickly, efficiently and thoroughly for all of that 5 hours - she's actually in the house for 6 hours but doesn't seek payment for a break and lunch-time.

I am amazed at those with 4-bed houses who think that it could be properly cleaned in 3 hours??