You hold keys to houses you are alone in. That is the whole risk.
Cover for residential cleaners and maid services — damage to a client’s belongings, theft allegations against your staff, and the bond clients ask for by name.
Tell us the situation.
One licensed human replies the same business day — not five agents, not an auto-responder. If the policy you have is already the right one, we will tell you.
We use this to quote and service your insurance, and we do not sell it or pass it to lead networks. Privacy policy.
What house cleaning business businesses actually need.
General liability
Injury and damage at a client’s home.
Without it — You work unsupervised among other people’s possessions all day.
Care, custody and control
Damage to the property you are actually cleaning or handling.
Without it — General liability excludes the very item in your hands.
Janitorial or dishonesty bond
Theft by an employee from a client’s home — what clients mean by "bonded".
Without it — A theft allegation is the claim this trade most fears and GL does not answer it.
Workers compensation
Cleaners, and contractors who may be reclassified at audit.
Without it — Repetitive strain, slips and chemical exposure are the routine injuries.
Commercial auto and equipment
Vehicles between jobs, and the equipment and supplies in them.
Without it — Personal auto excludes business use, and this is business use all day.
What our house cleaning business clients ask us.
What does "bonded" actually mean to a client?
Almost always a janitorial or employee dishonesty bond — cover for theft by your staff from a client’s home. It is what a homeowner is really asking about when they say "licensed, bonded and insured", because their fear is not that you will burn the house down, it is that something will go missing. Note the mechanics: a bond pays the client and then seeks repayment from YOU, so it is a guarantee to them rather than protection for you. Carry both the bond and the liability, and say so in your marketing, because most competitors say it without holding it.
What happens if we break something?
That is care, custody and control, and it is the gap most cleaning policies have. General liability covers damage to the home generally — you knock a lamp off a table — but frequently excludes damage to the specific item you were working on, which for a cleaner is a wide category. A cracked worktop, a stained carpet from the wrong product, a damaged floor finish: those need the extension. Ask about it explicitly, because it is not standard and it is the everyday claim.
Is this the same as janitorial insurance?
Related and priced differently, and the difference is who is present. Commercial janitorial work happens in empty buildings, out of hours, with a supervisor. Residential cleaning happens inside occupied homes, often alone, with keys or codes, surrounded by valuables and sometimes with the client or their children there. That drives the theft and allegation exposure that dominates this class, and it drives what underwriters ask about: background checks, key and code control, and whether staff work in pairs.
Our cleaners are independent contractors. Does that help?
Less than you would like, and it can hurt. If the relationship looks like employment in practice — you set the schedule, supply the products, direct the work — a workers comp auditor or a state agency can reclassify them, and you owe premium retroactively. Meanwhile a client suing over theft or damage sues the company they hired, not the individual. Collect certificates from genuine contractors, and price the comp properly for everyone else.
Commercial insurance is 96% of what we do — it is not a department here, it is the whole business. Not ready to talk? The guides answer the questions this page raises in more depth. Already insured with us and need a certificate or a policy change? Ask the service team rather than starting a quote — it is faster and it goes to the people whose job it is. We also write home and auto, which is usually cheaper alongside the business policy than apart from it.