Essential Cleaning Household Insurance.
Because you are the employer of the Cleaner, you must ensure that your household insurance policy provides Employer’s Liability cover in respect of domestic servants, with a minimum level of cover of £10,000,000 per claim. Most household policies have this cover but you should check with your insurer if you are unsure.
While your Household Insurance policy should cover injury to workers while working on the inside of your premises, you may find that it does not cover work outside such as gardening or cleaning the exterior of buildings. Do not ask your worker to do cleaning on the outside of your building.
Where your cleaner is also contracted to do any outside work, such as gardening, check that the appropriate extension to your household cover has been added.
Your cleaner should be covered by an insurance policy that normally includes Public Liability cover providing for a maximum payment of £1,000,000 in the event of damage to or loss of your property. Cover applies provided that this damage or loss is caused by the negligence or omission of the Cleaner.
Damage to property will not be covered if it is considered the client has contributed to the damage - for example, as we have said, by supplying the cleaner with inappropriate cleaning materials.
Accidents do happen from time to time and the purpose of the insurance is not to cover everyday minor accidents to low value breakages, but to provide cover for major disasters and damage.
Most insurance policies will only cover loss or damage to property if and to the extent that the loss or damage is of value in excess of £100.
Where any claim is of a value in excess of £100, the employer is liable to pay the first £100 of any such claim. Theft of belongings cannot be and is not covered under most household insurance. Fidelity Guarantee insurance to cover dishonesty would be very expensive and in any case would have only limited cover. Prevention is better than cure.
Bleach damage caused by spills of cleaning fluids containing bleach is not covered under many insurance policies. We do not recommend the use of concentrated or neat bleach. (Whilst you may keep bleach for your own use, you should not permit the cleaner to use it. Alternative safer products are available.)
Next article: Over the next few weeks we will present to you a series of cleaning service tips .
Tags: Cleaning tip, Insurance