Most people hire a cleaning company assuming that if something goes wrong, it just gets taken care of. Usually nobody asks how, exactly, until it actually happens. Two things determine what “taken care of” really looks like: workers’ compensation and bonding. They cover two completely different problems, and it’s worth knowing both before you need either one.
Workers’ compensation: what happens if the cleaner gets hurt
Workers’ comp is insurance that covers a cleaner’s medical bills and lost wages if they’re injured on the job — in this case, injured in your home. A slip on a wet floor, a fall off a step stool, a strained back from moving furniture.
Here’s the part that surprises people: if the company doesn’t carry workers’ comp, and one of their cleaners gets hurt in your house, you can end up on the hook for the medical costs. Not the company — you, the homeowner, because the injury happened on your property and there was no coverage behind the person who got hurt.
This is a real gap. Plenty of 1099-based operations and smaller, unlicensed companies skip workers’ comp entirely, either because they don’t have to carry it for contractors or because it’s an expense they’d rather avoid.
Bonding: what happens if something is stolen or damaged
Being bonded means a company has purchased a surety bond — essentially a fund that’s already in place to reimburse you if a cleaner steals from you or damages your property.
Without a bond, if something goes missing after a cleaning, your options are limited: file a police report, try to prove what happened, and potentially sue the company or the individual directly. That process is slow, and it often doesn’t lead anywhere, especially against an individual with limited assets. A bond exists specifically so that money is already set aside, instead of you having to fight for it after the fact.
Two protections, two different problems
It’s worth keeping these straight, because they don’t overlap:
Workers’ comp protects the cleaner (and, indirectly, protects you from liability for their injury). Bonding protects you directly against theft or certain kinds of loss. A company can have one without the other, and a lot of them do — usually whichever one is cheaper or required by their state, not necessarily both.
Crucial Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Cleaning Service
Ask any cleaning company two direct questions: “Do you carry workers’ comp for your cleaners?” and “Are you bonded?” Both should get a quick, confident yes, ideally with an offer to show proof. If either answer is vague, that’s the gap you’d be inheriting if something went wrong.
We carry both. Every cleaner on our team is covered by workers’ comp, and we’re bonded on top of that — along with being W-2, background-checked, and insured.