To cancel the cleaner?

[flamungo]

Have a very ordinary 4 bedroom house, three young DC (youngest is three and a half). Both work long hours but mostly from home, which makes things easier.

Have had same cleaners for 4 years, who do 5 hours a week. Just cleaning, no laundry or bed changes, house always tidy before they come.

They are lovely, but not brilliant and can be a bit random, we are very flexible when they come and understanding of frequent cancellations/ late notice. But they've also kept the same pay £12 an hour for the last two years (used to be £11). Just had a message that it's now going up to £16. I think that's top end of the market here but not crazy.

I don't think we can justify this, we're already stretched with everything else and I'm not sure I can justify spending that much on something my husband and I could do ? That said I feel bad - they're obviously feeling the pinch too.

Have a look around but five hours seems quite long

We do four for four bed

If they've only given you two days notice then I wouldn't be concerned about given them notice to cancel. Notice works both ways.
£16 is a lot but if they're not doing a great job then I'd find someone who will. Find someone who is recommended

£16 per hour isn't too much but 5 hours a week probably is. My ideal for a house that size would probably be 2 lots of two hours.

How old are the older two, any chance they can do some jobs for pocket money.
Do you have all the labour saving devices? Washing machine/dishwasher/robot vacuum cleaner? Might be worth investing.
Who does the ironing? Would sending out the ironing be cheaper/helpful. I never minded doing the housework but getting the ironing done was wonderful.
How about gardening? Do you do it yourself? Do you enjoy it, would spending a bit on a gardener free some time up and cost less.

Just a few ideas, I think we are all different about the jobs we like/tolerate/hate and as I said the ironing was the big issue for me.

It is going to be costing you over £300 a month so work out if there is anything under £300 a month that would be more valuable.

I brought up 4 so I know how overwhelming it can be. My other thing was lowering standards but I'm possibly less houseproud than many.

Cut it down to 2 hrs a week or just bathrooms.

I forgot to say mine takes 4 hours for a small 3 bed 2 bath. No pets or small DC, but we have a dark wooden floor that needs a lot of attention.

I'm a cleaner and I put my rates up to £16 in January, they were previously £15. I had been charging £15 for a couple of years. I gave my clients over a months notice. 2 days notice is not on!
£12 is very cheap but that's a huge increase! And I agree 5 hours seems a lot. As others have said, cut the hours or have the cleaner fortnightly. Funnily enough I've been expecting some cancellations due to the economic situation but have had 4 new clients in the last fortnight!

Perhaps I will lose some in the coming months.

@ChairCareOh

Tell them you can’t afford that and see if they will lower their price. Tell them what you can afford (and what you think they’re worth).

You can’t tell someone you can’t afford it and to lower their prices, their prices will reflect cost of living increases. You don’t ask those providing a service/selling goods to reduce fees, so you shouldn’t expect a cleaner to drop their prices.

@SparklingStars10 I agree, but the cleaner hasn't gone about it in the right way.

Is it two people that are cleaning your house for 5 hours ? I do agree 12e an hour is actually cheap. Though my old house was a 4 bed house and it took once person 4 to 5 hours to clean it properly, every two weeks. Now it was scrubbed, you would come home and the house would be spotless. In my new house i have a different cleaner, smaller house so less time but pay 15e an hour for three hours. She is excellent though. I also work from home long hours and honestly to leave my office in the eve knowing the house is clean is worth every penny. With regards to their standards, if they are not cleaning they way you like why haven't you said something ? Have you given them a list to do? If you want to give up completely and do it your self, that's ok go ahead and do it, but i would see if you could reduce their hours, maybe come every second week and see if they improve

£16 PH and they don’t even do a great job…

I’d get rid and find someone else to do maybe 2-3hours instead.

2 days notice isn’t good enough either. She should at least be giving a couple of weeks notice

@SparklingStars10

Of course you can. They've given 2 days notice of a large price rise. Nothing at all wrong with negotiating. Either side can say 'no thanks' & walk away.

People negotiate on goods & services all the time.

You are always right to say I don’t accept this new price and stop the service

It’s a new agreement and if you can’t afford it say no

If you have to be out when they come, how do you know how many hours they're doing?

5 hours for a 4 bed is ridiculous!

If you can't afford it, you can't afford it.
Everyone is facing cost of living rises so they're not doing anything unreasonable although I think such a hike is a gamble for them.

The increase is £20 per week or £80 per month. 5 hours is a lot by 4 is not.

Cleaning is not something that I would give up in a hurry, especially if they are good ... our house gradually deteriorates when we don't have a cleaner coming in. It's not something we easily fit around our other daily activities. It is personal preference.

I would say.. we cannot afford the increase but would consider dropping to 4 hours but we understand if need the extra cash and that dropping an hour doesn't really help so if you are not happy to do that then perhaps we are at the end of our relationship.

£88 a week for a cleaner seems huge, you could have an extra holiday a year for that, I’d cancel. Although I don’t have a cleaner so probably can’t judge! But for over 4.5k a year I’d want to be very happy with my cleaner. Maybe just have her less hours if you want to keep her? 2 hours a week at £32 seems far more reasonable.

At that pay rate, you could employ reliable, thorough, trustworthy cleaners.

So just dump them.

Two days notice of an increase is ridiculous - that’s massively unprofessional.

Do they stipulate that you have to be out when they come?

Thanks all for the responses.

To answer all the queries, yes it's our fault for not addressing the issues. There are two of them and the second partner has changed over the years, I think that's where the problems lie.

We know when they leave as we can see the timings on our Ring. We don't check and it's never really bothered us.

We used to have a cleaner, but then one day she just stopped coming and didn't answer our messages. We didn't replace her because we both worked from home by then and were past the baby/toddler years. Now we do it ourselves on Saturday mornings – half the house each, the kids tidy their own rooms, change their own beds, we occasionally wash their floors. Really just dusting and hoovering throughout, cleaning bathrooms, kitchen, washing non-carpet floors. If it doesn't get done then, it doesn't get done that week and we live with it. Because we do it weekly it never gets that bad anyway.

Someone on our road does cleaning, so we occasionally get help for a big spring clean, but otherwise it now feels like less hassle to do it ourselves.

Ours is £12.50 which is on the higher end for a non agency cleaner round here. She does 3 hours a week and is good. I’d accept a small increase but not sure I’d go for an extra £500 a year. I’d probably alternate 2 and 3 hour weeks.

If you can’t afford it, then stop it or find a cheaper one. It’s a business!

Did you pay them throughout lockdown?