Cleaners and insurance and south london

[SparkyUK]

We've been between cleaners for a while and I really need to sort this out. I'm just hesitant as I can't find a decent personal recommendation. Our last cleaner flooded our house by leaving the tap on, and then unfortunately left the tap on the following week. She was self-employed though and didn't have insurance so we had to pay for the repairs and redecoration through our insurance which meant paying the excess plus rates going up next year potentially. She was a great cleaner though and we offered to keep her on if she would get herself insured but she said she couldn't do this.

So, do I now go through an agency? I hate the idea of some Fat Cat making the profits while my cleaner gets paid minimum wage. But I also can't risk having another problem. I saw someone on here a while back said they had Employers insurance? What is that and if the cleaner is self employed then surely they wouldn't be covered.

Are there any other solutions I haven't thought of? Can anyone recommend an insured cleaner in South (central) london?

Ime if you want the cleaner to get a decent wage you need to pay them cash in hand. Not useful for your insurance query I know!

Hi there! I am a manager of a cleaning company very far from you so don't worry about me trying to sell you our services.
When I lived in London (10 years ago) I was self employed and tried every single away to be insured without luck.I can tell you I lost some good houses that preferred agencies because of that reason.

Some cleaning agencies are insured but their cleaners are self employed and working for them and therefore not insured thenselves ,you have to ask that beforehand.

But there are cleaning companies (like ours) that employ their cleaners. in our case (hoping it helps you) we offer Public liability and Employers Liability and if asked by the client we will show proof of how much the cleaners get paid per hour. (and proof of our insurance as well of course)

Apologies to Sparky for hi-jacking your thread but, can I tentatively enquire of notsoold, how much would your company charge per hour for domestic cleaning?
I am in need of a cleaner but am reluctant to approach agencies in case they charge the earth.
I appreciate this will vary from area to area but I just wanted a starting point.
Many thanks.

I pm you Winged