Is this standard practice having a cleaner?

[lightcurtains]

I posted last year about DW wanting a cleaner and I didn't.

Well today was the first day of us having a cleaner. We tidied the house beforehand. It wasn't dirty as we cleaned it last week but obviously I know cleaners will do a more thorough job, and a deeper clean.

We booked a cleaner.
It is 2 cleaners who come for 1 hour.
The fee is £30 for the 1 hour.

The cleaners have now messaged to say that they were here for 2.5 hours so the fee is £75.

Is that usual practice?

No.

There's been a breakdown in communication somewhere.

Everything except asking for extra money afterwards sounds standard.

Why are they saying they were there 2.5 hours of they were only there 1? Sounds like there is a communication breakdown somewhere along the line.

No , are you sure it was clear just to do an hour though? I've never known a cleaner agree to less than 2 hours

What exactly did you agree to?

An hour? Then only pay the £30

If you left a massive list of jobs and the agreement was £30 per hour then pay up

If they need extra time they should agree it once the normal time is up, but really they should have come to do a visit and told you how long they need to do what and agreed it all with you…

We booked for 1 hour as there were 2 cleaners. So thought 1 hour would be sufficient.

They said they stayed longer to 'get on top of the cleaning' so it's easier for next time.

But we have booked them for every other week so surely this would be the case every time they come if it's fortnightly?

I am really surprised they have now said this afterwards and the fee has no doubled.

It takes 4 hours for a cleaner to clean my house. One hour seems optimistic!

But five hours worth of cleaning seems excessive unless it was a “first clean” and they told you it would be extra…

No - they can’t just stay extra time and charge you extra without you having a clue. However, I wonder if there is a breakdown in communication somewhere..? - eg perhaps the messages show that they agreed to come for a trial run or first time clean and would estimate that it would take 1 hour..?

I’d pay it this time but perhaps tell them that you thought you’d only agreed to an hour and had not budgeted for 2.5 so perhaps they can skip next week she thereafter only come for the agreed time?

Yes, you are paying £30 per hour. 2 cleaners each working one hour is £60. Thirty mins is £15

We didn't actually give them a list of jobs.
They just told us what they were going to do.
We didn't actually ask for anything. They said they have their usual practice of cleaning, hoovering etc.

I used to have a cleaner and they did do a longer clean on their first visit which we paid for. We were warned about that in advance though as it was standard for that company

First time cleans can normally take a bit longer imo to get everything up to their standard, then they keep on top with regular visits.

However - this should definitely have been communicated to you, via message or similar! Have you replied? I'd say there must be some confusion you only booked for two cleaners for one hour (unless they told you it might take longer and cost more).

I assume they are communicating - badly - that two hours every other week isn't enough. The cost for 5 hours cleaning sounds reasonable and that's how longing our cleaner takes (she is very slow but good so I don't mind) and if there are lots of bathrooms, it can take a while to do them properly. But that should have been clearly agreed with you up front.

So they've charged £30 per cleaner per hour and did the extra so charged you this as well.

Often with a new cleaner, the first clean is more as they do a 'deep clean' but they will tell you this beforehand

@ringoutsolsticebells
No they said 1 hour and 2 cleaners. So it technically is like a 2 hour clean. But that they be here 1 hour.

How small is your property that the cleaners can do it in an hour a fortnight?

I would be suspicious as my experience has always been that it's 1 cleaner for at least 3 hours a week, if it was every fortnight they'd want more and usually the do charge extra for the big clean at the start.

No not normal. I have one cleaner for 3 hours and she always says that she will do as much as she can in the 3 hours. It’s always enough time she would never just stay longer and charge more that’s not normal

They should have spoken to you about additional hours before not after. It would then give you the option to say yes or no. Did they do a good job?

Don't use an agency they pull this stuff all the time. Look for someone local if you can.

It’s actually 2 hours a fortnight as it’s 2 cleaners for an hour.

Look back over the communication to be sure they didn’t say ‘We’ll do a deep clean the first time we come’ or ‘It’ll be an extra hour until we get used to the house’ or some such.

If not then you can either say ok and pay this once but be clear you’re only paying for 2 hours a fortnight again. Or you say no it’s not what we agreed, pay £30 and not use them again.

So I would have expected advance warning of the additional cost. I paid for an extra 50% the first time my cleaner came as she needed to get on top of things but a) that's not an extra 150% and b) it was negotiated in advance. I would say though that unless you have a very small house two "person hours" is pretty low and if I had a cleaner every other week I would need her for longer than weekly.

My house is a small two bed terrace and my cleaner just gets round it in 2 hours, each week.

It's a 3 bedroom house.
They said they might go over by 30 mins as it's a first clean but it went over by 1.5 hours.

There's two of them so it's 2hrs of cleaning..... So the £75 sounds right.

Have you gone through a list of what you want doing when? I'd prob suck it up thus time but be very clear going forwards that 1hr for 2 cleaners is what you want.