Cleaning Business Insurance UK: What Cover You Need

This article contains affiliate links. If you click through and purchase a product, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

Where Generic Policies Leave Cleaners Exposed

Cleaning sits awkwardly in the insurance market. You work inside other people’s property, handle their belongings, use chemicals, hold their keys, and often have access when nobody is home. Each of those creates a risk that a generic small business policy may not reach.

The dangerous assumption is that public liability covers all of it. It does not, and the gaps are predictable.

Public Liability

The foundation. It covers your liability when a third party suffers injury or property damage because of your work: you mop a hallway, a visitor slips, and the policy meets the claim and the legal costs.

Most cleaning businesses carry between £1 million and £5 million. Commercial clients and facilities management companies commonly specify £2 million or £5 million in their contracts, so check what you are being asked for before choosing a limit.

What it does not cover is property in your care, custody and control, which for a cleaner is almost everything you touch.

Care, Custody and Control

The gap most likely to catch you out.

The moment you start cleaning something, the worktop, the display cabinet, the marble floor, it is arguably in your care, and a standard policy can decline damage to it on that basis.

Look for a care, custody and control extension on the public liability section, and ask two questions rather than one: is it included, and what is the sub-limit? These extensions routinely carry a much lower limit than the headline cover, perhaps £100,000 against a £2 million policy, which matters if you clean anywhere with expensive surfaces, glass or equipment.

Allegations of Theft

The cover most cleaning guides leave out, and the one clients worry about most.

If an employee steals from a client, that is not a public liability claim. It needs fidelity guarantee cover, sometimes sold as employee dishonesty or crime cover, which responds to theft by your own staff.

It matters commercially as well as financially. Facilities management contracts increasingly require it, and an allegation of theft against a cleaner is one of the hardest situations to handle without an insurer and a process behind you. If you employ anyone who works unsupervised in a client’s property, price it.

Employers’ Liability

Compulsory under the Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 from your first employee, including part-time and zero-hours staff.

• Minimum £5 million, with most policies issued at £10 million
• The insurer must be FCA and PRA authorised
• Penalties reach £2,500 for each day uninsured, and up to £1,000 for failing to display or produce the certificate

Two exemptions apply narrowly. An unincorporated business whose employees are all close relatives is exempt, which ends the moment you employ anyone outside that list and never applies to a limited company. A company whose only employee owns at least half the shares is also exempt.

Self-Employed Cleaners

The general rule is that genuinely self-employed cleaners carry their own cover. The complication is that status is decided by the working relationship rather than the label.

Someone who works only for you, uses your equipment, follows your instructions on how and when to work and cannot send a substitute looks like an employee to HMRC, to a tribunal and, importantly, to your insurer. If that person is injured and later found to have employee or worker status, a claim can be declined because they were never declared.

Declare how your workforce is actually structured. Some policies bring labour-only subcontractors inside the employers’ liability section; others need a separate declaration and premium.

Key Cover

If you hold client keys, losing one means lock replacement, and a key with a fob identifying the address means it happens immediately.

Key cover typically pays for replacement keys, replacement locks where security is compromised, and locksmith call-out charges. It is normally an extension rather than a standalone product, and some commercial contracts require it.

While you are thinking about keys, think about the information attached to them. Addresses, alarm codes and access instructions are personal data, and a list of which client is away when is exactly the sort of thing that needs keeping securely rather than in a notebook in the van.

Chemicals: Cover and Compliance

On the insurance side, some policies exclude treatment risks, meaning claims arising from the application of a product. If a chemical discolours a fabric, damages a surface or causes a skin reaction, a policy without that extension may not respond. Check the wording and have it added if it is missing.

On the compliance side, the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 require you to assess the risks from hazardous substances, control exposure, and give employees information, instruction and training. In practice that means a COSHH assessment for each product, built from the supplier’s safety data sheet, and training your staff on it.

Two things follow that cleaning businesses often miss. Occupational dermatitis is a recognised risk in this sector and is reportable under RIDDOR when diagnosed in connection with the work, with records kept for three years. And insurers increasingly ask whether COSHH assessments exist, because a failure to comply sits badly in a claim where someone has been harmed by a product you chose.

Working at Height

Window cleaning, high-level dusting, anything on a ladder or a platform. Many trade policies restrict or exclude work above a specified height, commonly around three metres, or impose conditions on equipment.

If any part of your work happens off the ground, check the wording before quoting for it rather than after. This is one of the most common reasons a cleaning claim fails, and it is entirely avoidable by declaring the work properly.

Commercial Contracts

Tender documents and contracts set their own minimums, frequently:

• Public liability of £2 million, often £5 million or £10 million for larger sites
• Employers’ liability of £10 million, which most policies carry anyway
• Care, custody and control and key cover, increasingly specified by facilities managers
• Fidelity cover where staff work unsupervised
• Occasionally professional indemnity, for consultancy-style or managed cleaning roles

Read the insurance schedule before signing. Starting work below the required limits is a breach of contract as well as an uninsured exposure, and discovering it mid-contract is an awkward conversation with a client who has already relied on you.

Some clients, particularly schools, healthcare sites and buildings with vulnerable occupants, will also ask about DBS checks for your staff. That is a contractual matter rather than an insurance one, but it belongs on the same checklist.

Other Covers

Equipment and machinery. Vacuums, carpet extractors, scrubber dryers and pressure washers against theft, accidental damage or breakdown. Check the single-item limit against your most expensive machine, and the conditions for equipment left in a vehicle, since most policies restrict overnight storage and require evidence of forced entry.

Commercial vehicle insurance. Carrying equipment or staff in a van needs commercial cover, not a personal policy. Even a sole trader driving a car between client sites needs business use declared, and driving for work on a personal-only policy can invalidate it entirely.

Personal accident. No sick pay means an injury stops your income. Worth considering if the business depends on you turning up.

FAQ

Is public liability a legal requirement for cleaners?

No. Commercial clients require it contractually, and the exposure makes it effectively essential. Employers’ liability is the one that is legally required, from your first employee.

Do I need separate cover for each property?

No. A cleaning policy covers your activities wherever you work. What matters is declaring the types of premises accurately, since domestic, commercial, healthcare and industrial environments carry different risks and some need specific agreement.

Can I drive to jobs on personal car insurance?

Not without business use declared. Travelling between client sites is business use, and driving without it can invalidate the policy. For a van, you need commercial cover.

Does my policy cover damage I cause accidentally?

Only with a care, custody and control extension, and only up to its sub-limit. Standard public liability excludes property in your care, which as a cleaner covers nearly everything you work on.

A client says one of my cleaners took something. What now?

Tell your insurer before you respond to the client, and do not admit liability. Theft by an employee needs fidelity cover rather than public liability, and if you do not hold it, you are facing both the loss and the relationship on your own.

Cleaning Business Insurance: The Bottom Line

Do not assume public liability is enough. For a cleaning business the care, custody and control extension is arguably as important as the underlying cover, and the sub-limit on it is the number that matters.

Add key cover if you hold keys, fidelity cover if staff work unsupervised, and treatment risk cover if you use anything stronger than soap. Check the position on working at height before you take on window work, and declare how your workforce is structured so a subcontractor’s injury does not become an uninsured claim.

Then get the COSHH assessments done. They are a legal duty, they reassure clients, and they are the first thing an insurer asks for when a chemical claim arrives.

This article is general information about insurance and UK health and safety law, not advice, and it does not take account of your circumstances. Policy wordings, exclusions and contract requirements vary and change. Speak to an FCA-authorised broker who works with cleaning businesses, and check current HSE guidance, before relying on anything here.