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10 things house cleaners won’t tell you
The nitty-gritty on paying a stranger to make your home bright and shiny
1. “We tidy up your closets, but good
luck finding the skeletons in ours.”
As more Americans find themselves with less time to take
care of their homes, it’s becoming more common for people to hire professional
help. But for the average person who doesn’t know how to run a background check,
verifying the identity of the person they’re letting into their homes—and ruling
out candidates with questionable records—can be tough.
Amber Gillespie needed a new housekeeper when she moved
to Arizona last year from California. So she decided to work with someone
recommended by an acquaintance. The woman said she was bonded and insured under
her own cleaning company, but when Gillespie looked her up online, she
discovered that she actually worked at an unrelated home-service business. It
turned out she wasn’t insured as a housekeeper at all. After that, “I had a
really hard time trusting her,” says Gillespie. “I basically asked her not to
come back.”
Gillespie says the experience was a lesson in how hard it
can be to vet a person who is going to have access to your home. Some companies
will go through the process of verifying that a person is legal to work in the
U.S. and checking if they’ve had any criminal or credit issues in the past.
Chris Rall, owner of the Golden Shine Cleaning agency in California, says his
company only works with employees who have clean records. (Some states restrict
employers from using background checks and credit checks.)
Anyone trying to vet a housekeeper on their own should
ask for multiple references and discuss liability insurance up front, says Ernie
Hartong, executive director of the Association of Residential Cleaning Services
International, or ARCSI, a trade group for the residential cleaning services
industry. Even those going through larger cleaning agencies should ask about
what specific steps the company is taking to verify a worker’s identity.
2. “Prepare for sticker shock.”
Thinking about hiring a pro to spiff up your home? Be
prepared to pay up for that first visit. Cleaning companies will often charge
more than their typical rates for the initial deep cleaning, and then have lower
rates for the standard service. For instance, it generally costs $85 to $120 to
clean a four-bedroom, two-bathroom house, according to industry pros. That first
deep cleaning, however, can cost up to $200.
Of course, there’s a reason for the price differential.
Cleaning companies say that after the initial deep cleaning, visits are more a
matter of maintenance than heavy lifting. The staff might use that first visit
to move most of the furniture to vacuum underneath and dust off the ceiling
fans, tasks that can be done less frequently or alternated in follow-up visits.
And housekeepers can work more efficiently once they get to know a property,
industry pros say.
But not all new customers have to pay a premium for the
first visit, and clients should be able to specify what tasks they want the
cleaners to focus on. “You may be able to skip that first deep clean if your
home is in above average shape,” says Hartong.
3. “We are more about speed than thoroughness.”
Many housekeepers will whiz through a property if they
feel pressured to get through multiple homes in one day. That speed can
sometimes lead workers to miss spots, break things or just do a subpar job. It
was that sense of rushing that lead Michelle Tennant Nicholson, a public
relations specialist near Asheville, N.C., to fire her cleaning company earlier
this year. The first cleaning Nicholson received with a large cleaning company
was “fabulous,” she says. With a manager supervising their work, the staff
brought their own supplies and gave her two-bedroom, two-bathroom cabin a good
scrubbing. But on following visits, workers often left dog hair on her bedroom
floor or failed to clean behind the toilet in her bathroom. “Unless I was
watching them, they would take shortcuts.” she says. (Nicholson is now using a
self-employed housekeeper referred by a friend, and she says she likes being
able to talk to the individual directly, rather than a management company, about
which tasks need to be done each week and what can be skipped over.)
To prevent his staff from doing rushed, careless work,
Mark Kushinsky, chief executive of MaidPro, a cleaning franchise with offices
throughout the U.S. and parts of Canada, says he assigns small crews of one or
two employees to each property, since customers generally expect larger crews to
finish a job more quickly. The small crews also remain responsible for the same
properties on repeat visits, which allows the workers to get to know the
homeowners over time and adjust the service based on what that customer needs,
he says: “It’s just a more personal clean.” Many cleaning companies also create
checklists of tasks cleaning crews must complete at each visit.
4. “That is, if our workers even know what
they’re doing.”
Excited about hosting her family’s annual Christmas party
a few years ago, Katherine Ibarra decided to get help cleaning up her new South
Florida townhouse. But the housekeeper she found through a local cleaning
company seemed unprofessional. For instance, the cleaner accidentally left a
Windex soaked rag on top of the mattress when she made the bed. “I couldn’t get
the chemical smell out of the mattress so I had to flip it until I could replace
it,” says Ibarra. The maid also didn’t clean under any furniture or dust on top
of the bookshelves.
Hartong, of trade group ARCSI, says many cleaning
agencies are educating their workers about the best methods for cleaning various
surfaces and recognizing the benefits of specialized supplies like microfiber
cloths and mops with special bristles. The association recently launched a
training program that covers safety and basic chemistry that has seen high
demand, says Hartong.
5. “I can work under the table, but it’s you who
will be on the hook.”
Some homeowners may be tempted to slash cleaning costs by
hiring a self-employed housekeeper instead of turning to a larger cleaning
company. And with some individuals charging $10 to $25 an hour, compared with
the $30 to $40 typically charged by some cleaning companies, the savings can
indeed be substantial.
But those cheaper fees could result in a bigger check to
the tax man. Anyone paying a household employee cash wages of more than $1,800 a
year is normally required to pay that worker’s Social Security and Medicare
taxes, which
could add another 8% to the bill, not including the taxes the housekeeper is
responsible for. For example, someone hiring a housekeeper at $20 an hour for,
say, four hours a week would end up paying an annual wage of $4,160, and they
would owe an additional $320 in payroll taxes.
Many people try to avoid the hassle by paying their
housekeepers in cash, but if they get caught, they could owe the IRS back taxes
and other penalties. If you’re hiring a cleaning service, make sure that it will
be handling its employees’ wages and taxes, or that its workers are independent
contractors who do their own taxes.
6. “My injuries will hurt you too.”
Homeowners may be on the hook for medical bills incurred
by housekeepers who get injured in their homes. Gillespie found herself paying a
few hundred dollars out of pocket two years ago when her previous housekeeper in
California cut his hand trying to save a crystal vase from falling on the floor.
She wasn’t aware until he got injured that he didn’t have health insurance.
Gillespie says she didn’t think to ask about his insurance status, since she
originally hired him through a large cleaning company, but she says it’s a topic
she wishes she had brought up sooner.
While most homeowners insurance policies will cover
injuries incurred by people on a property, many will limit coverage for someone
who is considered an employee of the household, experts say. Some homeowners may
find that it is easier to settle the bills privately, than to file a claim;
that’s what Gillespie decided to do. But such an incident could leave them
spending hundreds or thousands of dollars out-of-pocket.
ARCSI says consumers should ask cleaning agencies if
their housekeepers carry workers’ compensation insurance, which should cover any
injuries workers might suffer while on the job. Some states will require
companies to offer the coverage if they have a certain number of employees. Also
ask whether the agencies carry general liability insurance, which should cover
any damage a housekeeper might do to your property.
7. “We don’t always make up for our mistakes.”
Tracy Bagatelle-Black, a publicist in Los Angeles, had a
team of housekeepers making their monthly visit to her 2,000-square-foot home a
few years ago when one of the maids snagged the vacuum on an electrical cord and
knocked over a $300 glass lamp. At first, the small agency that hires the
cleaners was reluctant to reimburse Bagatelle-Black for the damage, claiming it
wasn’t something they typically did for customers. The lamp was a model that was
no longer being made and couldn’t be replaced. But after she showed the company
a receipt for the lamp and followed up with the owner, it agreed to write her a
check.
Industry pros say the discussion about who will be
responsible if something gets damaged should happen up front—not after the fact.
Not all companies are prepared to reimburse homeowners if a housekeeper breaks
an item or ruins a surface by using the wrong tool or chemical. Consumers might
want to ask the company to sign a service agreement stating that the company
will pay for damages up to a certain amount, says ARCSI’s Hartong.
8. “Good luck if something disappears.”
Many cleaning agencies assuage customers’ fears of
getting robbed by pointing out that they’re bonded—meaning they have a type of
insurance that covers property damage or loss up to a certain amount. But some
homeowners don’t realize that may need to overcome several hurdles before that
coverage would even kick in. Most times, an employee needs to be arrested, tried
and found guilty before a bonding company will pay up—pitting the homeowner’s
word against that of the housekeeper’s. “Bonding situations don’t pay off unless
there is a conviction,” says Hartong.
Anyone who suspects their housekeeper stole one of their
belongings should file a police report to get the investigation started as soon
as possible, says MaidPro CEO Kushinsky. Kushinsky says his company will try to
make customers whole, even without a conviction, if they determine one of their
employees is at fault for missing or damaged property.
9. “We’ve gone high-tech, but not necessarily
more efficient.”
New Web-based companies are entering the market,
promising to reduce the hassle of finding a housekeeper by making it easy to
instantly book pre-vetted cleaning professionals. But consumers say the process
isn’t always so seamless. Cheryl Clements says it was easy to book a housekeeper
for her apartment in New York City’s West Village by using Handybook.com, a New
York-based startup that helps people book cleaning staff or handymen online or
via a smartphone app. She made the appointment online, received a confirmation
email the day before the appointment, and was overall content with the cleaning.
But when Clements tried to cancel an upcoming session before a vacation, first
online and then by phone the day before the appointment, the housekeeper still
showed up at the previously scheduled time. There were also some disputes over
how much time housekeepers needed to clean her apartment.
To be sure, the complaints customers have about Web-based
cleaning services may not differ much from the concerns they have over other
cleaning companies. But concerns about scheduling can be common, with some
consumers saying that while it is easy to book appointments, it can be difficult
confirm scheduling changes or reach representatives on the phone.
Oisin Hanrahan, founder of Handybook, says the company is
able to accommodate most scheduling changes with at least 24 hours advance
notice. But with the company handling thousands of jobs a day around eight major
U.S. cities, including New York, Boston, Chicago, Miami, Philadelphia and San
Francisco, mistakes can happen. Hartong says consumers should take the same
precautions with the Web-based companies that they would with any cleaning
service, asking questions about their vetting process, training and insurance
policies.
10. “It isn’t easy being green.”
Ibarra, who owns a property maintenance company with her
husband near Fort Lauderdale, Fla., made the switch to only organic cleaning
products after her son was born last year. But her housekeeper struggled to
adjust, sometimes not diluting the soap enough when she mopped her wooden
floors. Other times she used too much water, messing up the floor boards. Ibarra
found herself having to constantly redo the job, and five months ago decided to
stop using the cleaning service. “In general, most maids seem clueless when it
comes to organic,” she says.
Indeed, a 2010 survey done by Ipsos for Procter
& Gamble of 428 professionals who make cleaning-related decisions
found that less than a quarter of them had guidelines in place to help their
businesses to become more sustainable and environmentally responsible. While
many professional housecleaners are willing to use organic cleaning products
provided by homeowners, many aren’t trained to properly use some of those
products, says Hartong. But some companies are responding to increased consumer
demand by adding more green products and training workers on the best ways to
treat exotic home surfaces, he adds. And many cleaning companies are taking
steps to be more environmentally friendly by recycling, carpooling and even
introducing their own lines of “green” cleaning products.
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