You work inside other people’s buildings. The exposure ends there.
Commercial insurance for commercial cleaning, window washing, pressure washing and house cleaning. Including 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.
Send us what you have. We’ll tell you if it’s right.
Your current policy paperwork, a renewal notice, or nothing at all. A licensed agent reads it and replies the same business day.
What janitorial and cleaning businesses actually need.
General liability
Third-party bodily injury and property damage. It is the line nearly every contract names by default.
Without it — Damage you cause inside a client building is your bill, and no contract will be signed without the certificate.
Crime & employee dishonesty
Theft by your own staff, funds transfer fraud, and the dishonesty bond a home care contract will ask you for by name.
Without it — A theft allegation against a crew member with keys is the claim this trade actually faces, and clients ask for the bond by name.
Workers compensation
Required in almost every state the moment you have employees. Priced on payroll and class code, which is why the class code is worth arguing about.
Without it — Chemical exposure and fall injuries become uncapped claims against the business.
Commercial auto
Vehicles the business owns and the people who drive them for work.
Without it — Crews driving between sites all day are uninsured for work use without it.
Inland marine & equipment
Tools, equipment and property in transit. It picks up exactly where commercial property stops, which is the moment the item leaves the building.
Without it — Machines, pressure washers and equipment stolen from vans are a total loss.
Umbrella & excess liability
Extra limit stacked above general liability, auto and employers liability. Usually the cheapest million dollars on the policy.
Without it — Larger property management contracts routinely require limits above the primary policy.
Contractors pollution liability
Bodily injury, property damage and clean-up caused by a pollutant your work released: chemical drift, run-off, fuel spills. The standard general liability form excludes all of it.
Without it — A chemical spill, a fume complaint that empties a floor, or the wrong product on the wrong surface is excluded by the pollution wording on a standard policy.
The claims we actually see.
Ordered by how often we see them, not by how dramatic they are. Each one names the coverage that answers it — and the policy people wrongly assume already does.
Most common
Damage to a client’s property while cleaning it
Covered by General liability, and care custody and control
General liability excludes property in your care, custody or control, which is every building you are cleaning. Without the buy-back the everyday claim in this trade is excluded.
Common
Theft from a client’s premises by a cleaner
Covered by Janitorial / business service bond
Neither liability nor property answers theft by your own employee from someone else’s building. This is a bond, and it is the one clients ask about by name.
Common
A cleaner injured by a fall, a chemical or a lift
Covered by Workers compensation
High turnover and part-time staff do not reduce the obligation. Anyone you direct and pay is an employee for comp purposes whatever the paperwork calls them.
Common
Someone slips on a floor you just cleaned
Covered by General liability
The building owner is sued first and then comes to you, because your contract almost certainly says you will indemnify them. Read what you signed before assuming the loss stops with them.
Less common, severe
A staff member driving to a site crashes their own car
Covered by Hired and non-owned auto
Crews drive between sites all day in personal vehicles, and personal auto policies exclude the business trip that put them there.
What your state requires.
- Arizona general liability insurance cleaning businessArizona Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions
- Illinois general liability insurance cleaning businessIllinois Department of Insurance
- Indiana general liability insurance cleaning businessIndiana Department of Insurance
- New Mexico general liability insurance cleaning businessNew Mexico Office of Superintendent of Insurance
Five endorsements, and a certificate is none of them.
A certificate is evidence a policy existed the day it was printed — it says so on its own face. The coverage a contract is really asking for lives on the policy as named endorsements, and this is the list they come from.
- Additional insured — ongoing operationsCG 20 10Covers the general contractor for claims arising from your work while the job is in progress.Without it: They fund their own defense on a claim your work caused, then look to you for it.
- Additional insured — completed operationsCG 20 37Extends that coverage to claims arising after your work is finished.Without it: The claim arrives years later, when the policy that should have carried it has renewed several times. Cheaper policies often exclude this or do not offer it.
- Primary and non-contributoryCG 20 01Puts your policy first and stops your insurer demanding a contribution from theirs.Without it: Two insurers argue about who pays while the defense waits.
- Waiver of subrogationCG 24 04Stops your insurer recovering from the party you agreed in writing to protect.Without it: Your insurer pays, then sues your customer, which ends the relationship.
- Per-project aggregateCG 25 03Gives each job its own general aggregate instead of sharing one across the year.Without it: Another project’s claims quietly spend the limit that was meant to cover this one.
Tract, condominium and apartment work is the exception that undoes all five — an exclusion for multi-unit residential removes the coverage before any endorsement can apply. What national homebuilders require covers that in full — D.R. Horton, Pulte Group, Blackrock Homes and the rest of the national builders set the strictest terms a sub will see, and they do not negotiate them.
Contracts ask for more than these five. Every contract insurance requirement, explained, or paste your exhibit into the Contract Insurance Decoder to see the endorsement behind each clause.
How high do you work?
Third floor and above is a different account. The exposure is not only the fall — it is what gets dropped, who is underneath, and how far a tool travels before it lands. Carriers ask for a height limit and many stop at two or three stories, so work you take on because it was offered can quietly put a renewal into a market you were not in last year. Tell us the tallest job you do, not the usual one.
Residential or commercial?
Underwriters treat these as separate trades even when the work is identical. Residential carries construction-defect exposure that follows the job for years and a homeowner who sues; commercial carries bigger limits, tighter contracts and a general contractor who enforces them. A book that is mostly one prices very differently from a book that is evenly split, and the mix is usually the second question on the application.
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What the insurance company will ask about your janitorial and cleaning business
We read the applications the markets use for businesses in this field and pulled out what they actually ask. Have these answers ready and a quote takes a day instead of a week, because nobody has to come back to you for the missing piece.
About the business
- What is your legal business name and any other names you've operated under?
- How long have you been in business?
- What is your main line of work and what services do you provide?
- Are you a sole proprietor, partnership, corporation, or LLC?
How you operate
- How much of your work is commercial, residential, industrial, municipal, or government?
- Do you work beyond a 50-mile radius from your main location?
- What percentage of your work do you subcontract to other companies?
- Do your subcontractors carry their own insurance?
- Do you have a written contract that customers sign before work begins?
Safety and controls
- Do you have a formal safety and training program?
- Do you perform background checks on new hires?
- Do you have a written grievance policy?
- Do you make unannounced jobsite visits to check on work quality and safety?
- Do you maintain records of work orders, accident reports, and job details?
Your history
- Have you ever had a claim or loss under an errors and omissions or liability policy?
- Have you had any incident or problem on a job that could lead to a claim?
- Do you have any past or pending bankruptcy, foreclosure, or unpaid tax judgment in the last five years?
Money and people
- What are your annual receipts?
- What is your annual payroll?
- How many full-time and part-time employees do you have?
- Who is your current insurance company and what is your premium?
- Do you own any vehicles used in your business?
Have these ready
- Your last five years of claims history from your current insurer, called loss runs
- A sample customer contract showing what you agree to do and what the customer agrees to
- A list of the main equipment you use in your work
- Your formal safety and training program if you have one written down
You answer what you can; a licensed agent fills the rest with you.
What our janitorial and cleaning clients ask us.
What does "bonded and insured" actually mean?
Insured means you carry liability coverage for damage you cause. Bonded usually means a janitorial service bond, which covers theft of a client’s property by your employees, a different thing entirely, and the one clients are really asking about when they let strangers into a building after hours. Most cleaning contracts want both, and the bond is inexpensive.
Do I need coverage for damage to what I am cleaning?
Yes, and it is the gap most cleaning policies have. General liability excludes property in your care, custody and control, which is a problem when the thing you damaged is the floor you were treating or the window you were washing. Care, custody and control coverage is the endorsement that closes it.
Are my subcontracted cleaners covered?
Not automatically. If they cannot produce their own certificate, expect their pay to be treated as payroll at audit and expect your policy to be the one that responds to their claims. Collect certificates before the first shift, not at renewal.
A new client wants higher limits than our policy allows. What do we do?
Add an umbrella or move the primary policy. A policy bought online for a small cleaning business is often capped well below what a commercial client asks for, and on our calls one owner could not raise hers to meet a vendor contract starting five days later. Send us the insurance page of the contract first. On one New York account general liability at $2,000,000 per occurrence and $4,000,000 aggregate with a $3,000,000 excess layer and the additional insured, waiver and primary wording came to about $30,000 a year, which is the kind of number to budget before you bid.
Why did the underwriter ask about services we do not offer?
Because they read your website. On our calls an underwriter quoting a commercial cleaning company asked about hood cleaning, marble restoration and surgery center cleaning, all listed on the company site and none performed. Take old services off the site or explain them in the submission, because each one is a class an underwriter may rate you for.
Do we need commercial auto if our cleaners drive their own cars between sites?
You need hired and non-owned auto, which is usually inexpensive and protects the business when an employee driving their own car for work causes a crash. Commercial auto is for vehicles the business owns or leases. On our calls a cleaning company bidding a school contract dropped a commercial auto quote once it was clear hired and non-owned auto answered the exposure.
What does a janitorial and cleaning insurance application ask for?
The applications for janitorial and cleaning businesses ask about 4 things above all: what is your legal business name and any other names you've operated under; how much of your work is commercial, residential, industrial, municipal, or government; do you have a formal safety and training program; have you ever had a claim or loss under an errors and omissions or liability policy. Have your last five years of claims history from your current insurer, called loss runs and a sample customer contract showing what you agree to do and what the customer agrees to ready and a quote takes a day instead of a week.
Guides on janitorial and cleaning.
- Janitorial Bond: What Cleaning Clients Are Asking ForWhat "bonded" means to a cleaning client, how a janitorial bond differs from crime coverage and from liability, and what to check before you send proof.
- Should I sign the terrorism rejection form?The terrorism disclosure is an offer the carrier must make under federal law. What the coverage answers, what rejecting it changes, and when a lease or loan decides for you.
- Do insurance companies look at your website?Underwriters compare your website with your application, and a mismatch costs a quote or a policy. What they read, what a misstatement can do to a claim, and how to send a submission that matches the site.
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.