Cleaner raising prices

[inthemornin]

Received a text from our cleaner we have had a few years now. She is raising her hourly price from £12 to £15. Fair enough, we are in a cost of living crisis, however, £3 more per hour is a big and sudden jump. She also gave less than one months notice to this price increase.

What do you all think?

YABU - that sounds about right in this current time.

YANBU - that is a big price increase.

YABU - she was undercharging before, especially if they provide their own cleaning stuff!

I'd be okay with that with our lovely cleaners, who are amazing and have been with me years.

Fuel costs, cleaning materials, cost of childcare if applicable.

If they weren't so fabulous, I'd perhaps hesitate more.

My landlord put my rent up with 2 weeks notice, a month is generous. Your cleaner must really need the money saying that I am not sure I'd pay someone more than my hourly rate, again it depends on how often she cleans.

£15 is standard where I am

i don’t think there are many people who can afford a cleaner but can’t afford an extra £9 or £12 a week to cover the payrise

Assuming you aren’t living under a rock, you know that the cost of living rise is going to affect those on lower incomes more than higher incomes, so you would have to be pretty unpleasant to begrudge a moderate payrise to someone doing an important job around the house, when paying the extra isn’t going to make much difference to your household finances.

What does your contract say?

Perfectly reasonable, especially if she hasn't changed prices in a while.

All supplies ect will be going up in cost and she'll have to absord that cost as well as increasing her take home to manage the cost of living.

Sounds reasonable to me. Her bills will have gone up the same as everyone elses..

My cleaner gave me 1 week’s notice from £15 to £17.50! She’s worked for us for 4 years and literally never let us down.

I wouldn't want to be without our 'cleaner' so treat her very very well and ensure we pay above average.

She was underpaid before. I think the increase sounds about right now. We pay 16 p/h for someone that does an excellent job.

Going rate is £15-25ph here so I think that's perfectly reasonable.

I pay €20/hr so £15 sounds reasonable.

At the end of the day, your cleaner is self-employed and can set whatever price she wants, and you can go elsewhere/clean yourself instead if you don’t want to pay it.

What's the average price where you are?

£15 is cheap here, £12 would be a rip off, but maybe different where you are. If I had a cleaner that was good & reliable I'd pay £3 more an hour to keep them.

YABU. My parents had a cleaner who only charged £12, albeit this was years ago, and even then they paid her £15 as they said £12 was far too low a rate (it was set by an agency). I think that £15 in the current climate is a very good deal.

Our cleaner did the same (less than 2 weeks notice) but I think £15ph is the norm where we are and she hasn't put prices up before so are happy to pay - I think she's worth it.

My cleaner is £14 ph in the SE which I think is very reasonable. The cost of everything has gone up.

YABU £15 is a fair price. If you can find someone cheaper you are within your rights to switch though.

Totally reasonable, my cleaner was charging £12.50, I suggested unceasing to £15 as I thought she might struggle to say something. Where ever you are I think £15 would be about minimum given they are self employed and this needs to cover everything, you certainly won't gera agency for less.

17 here so that's a bargain

That's a pretty standard price in London and there's a shortage of cleaners so they know that they'll easily find new clients if needed

I pay £15.50 an hour so the result is about right.

However, a 25% increase without much notice isn't ideal.

If you have her for 3 hours a week, that nearly a £40 per month extra to find.

I can see why you'd find that difficult/unpalatable.

You were getting a bargain at £12. My lovely lovely cleaner charges £15.50 and has done for the last 3 years i think. I expect she will put her prices up again soon, which is fair enough. Good cleaners are like gold dust. If you don't like it, you can always let her go.

£17-20ph is the going rate round here.

You say you've had her a few years. Have you paid £12 an hour in all that time? If so then YABU definitely. Although YABU anyway, £12 is not much more than min wage and she has to cover travel time between houses and petrol costs.

Well, she’s self employed so if you don’t want to pay £15 you don’t have to, you simply stop using her services.