Is a house cleaner legally required to be insured?

In most states, no. Cleaning is not generally a licensed trade for residential work, and insurance is a business decision rather than a legal requirement. Some cities and states license cleaning businesses, and requirements change, so check with your own state or city if it matters to you.

What is the difference between bonded and insured?

Insurance pays you when the cleaner damages something. A bond repays you if a cleaner steals, generally only after a criminal conviction. They cover different risks and are bought separately.

Does my homeowner's insurance cover a cleaner who is hurt in my home?

It may, and that is the problem. Relying on your own policy for someone else's workplace injury can mean a claim, an excess, and a higher premium. Ask who carries workers' compensation before the first visit, and check what your own policy actually says.

Should I hire an uninsured cleaner if they are cheaper?

That is a real trade-off rather than an automatic no. An uninsured independent may be excellent and cost less. What you are accepting is that any damage becomes a conversation between the two of you, with no third party obliged to pay.

What is a certificate of insurance?

A one-page document from the insurer naming the policyholder, the insurer, the policy number, the coverage limits, and the valid dates. It is the only meaningful proof of cover, and any insured business can produce one on request.

Am I a household employer if I hire a cleaner directly?

Possibly. It depends on how much control you have over how and when the work is done, not on what either of you calls the arrangement. The IRS publishes the tests and the wage thresholds in Publication 926 — read those rather than relying on a rule of thumb.

How much liability cover is enough?

There is no correct figure, and the honest answer is that it should be plausible against what could go wrong in your home. Water damage is the loss that escalates furthest, especially in an apartment with neighbours below, so weigh the limit against that rather than against the price of a vase.

Can I be added to a cleaner's policy?

Being named as an additional insured is normal in commercial contracts and unusual for domestic cleaning. It is worth asking for on a large one-off job in a managed building, partly because the building may require it before letting anyone in.

Does insurance cover a bad clean?

No. Liability insurance answers for damage to your property, not for work you were unhappy with. Ask separately what happens if a clean falls short, because a re-clean policy is the thing that actually addresses it.

Hiring guide

Should a house cleaner be insured and bonded?

Almost every cleaning company advertises that it is "licensed, bonded and insured", and almost none explains what those words buy you. They are three separate protections against three different problems, and a cleaner can carry one without the others. Here is what each covers, which ones matter for your situation, and how to check rather than take someone's word for it.

Published August 31, 2026, last updated September 9, 2026. No prices on this page are quotes — request one from cleaners serving your exact ZIP code.

Short answer

Insurance and bonding cover different risks. General liability insurance pays when a cleaner damages your home; a surety bond repays you if a cleaner is convicted of stealing from it; workers' compensation covers the cleaner if they are hurt in your house. None is required of a cleaner in most states, so ask which they carry, and ask for the certificate rather than the claim.

The three protections, and the risk each one answers

These terms get bundled together in marketing, but they are bought separately, from different providers, and they pay out in different situations. Knowing which is which turns a vague reassurance into a question you can actually get answered.

Protection	What it covers	Who it pays
General liability insurance	Accidental damage to your home or belongings — a broken mirror, a scratched floor, water damage from a knocked-over bucket	You
Surety bond (often sold as a janitorial or dishonesty bond)	Theft from your home, generally once there is a criminal conviction	You, after a claim
Workers' compensation	The cleaner's medical costs and lost wages if they are injured while working in your home	The cleaner

A cleaner may carry any one of these without the other two. "Fully insured" is a marketing phrase, not a defined level of cover.

Why the bond matters less than people assume

A surety bond sounds like the strongest protection because it is the one people associate with theft, but it is usually the hardest to collect on. Most bonds pay out only after a criminal conviction, which means reporting the theft to police, an investigation, and a prosecution that actually concludes. Items that simply go missing, with no proof of who took them, rarely clear that bar.

That is not an argument against hiring a bonded cleaner. It is an argument for not treating a bond as a substitute for the ordinary precautions — putting valuables away, knowing who has keys, and hiring someone whose references you have actually spoken to.

Liability insurance is the one that pays most often

Accidental damage is far more common than theft, and general liability insurance is the protection that handles it. A cleaner working in dozens of homes a month will eventually break something; the question is whether that becomes their problem or yours.

Ask what the policy limit is, not just whether one exists. A policy that covers a cracked worktop may not cover water damage that reaches a downstairs ceiling. If you have anything in the house that would be genuinely expensive to replace, say so before the first visit rather than after.

Workers' compensation, and why it can become your problem

If a cleaner is injured in your home and carries no workers' compensation, the costs can land on your homeowner's policy — or on you. This is the protection homeowners think about least and the one with the most asymmetric downside.

The risk depends heavily on the arrangement. Booking a company that employs its cleaners generally puts that obligation on the company. Hiring an individual directly, setting their hours and supplying their equipment, can make you a household employer, with the tax and insurance obligations that follow. The IRS publishes the tests and thresholds; your own state may set others.

How to verify, rather than take someone's word

Every one of these is a document. A cleaner who carries them can produce them, and asking is routine rather than rude.

Ask for a certificate of insurance, not a verbal assurance. It names the insurer, the policy number, the limits, and the dates it is valid.
Check the dates. A lapsed certificate is the most common problem, and a certificate from two years ago proves nothing about today.
Ask whether the policy covers the person who will actually be in your home, which is a different question for a company that uses subcontractors.
For a bond, ask what triggers a payout. If the answer is a criminal conviction, you now know what the protection is worth to you.
Ask who carries workers' compensation for the individual cleaning your home, and get a straight answer rather than a company-level one.
Confirm what happens if something is damaged: whether they claim on the policy, absorb it, or expect you to.

Reading a certificate without being an insurance person

A certificate arrives as a dense one-page form and most people glance at it, see an insurer's name, and file it. Four things on it decide whether it is worth anything, and all four are readable in under a minute.

Check the named insured first. It has to be the business you are hiring, not a parent company, a former trading name, or the owner's other venture. A certificate in a different name covers a different business.

Then the dates, because a lapsed policy is the most common problem and an expired certificate looks exactly like a current one. Then the limits, so you know what one incident can pay. Then the type of cover, since a certificate can list several policies and only general liability answers for damage to your home.

Ask for it to come from the insurer or the agent rather than as a forwarded image. It costs the business nothing, takes a day at most, and removes any question about whether the document reflects a policy that is still in force.

What a policy does not stretch to

Insurance covers accidents, and several of the things people expect it to answer for are not accidents.

Poor work is the big one. No liability policy pays to have a bad clean redone, because that is a dispute about the service rather than damage to your property. That is what a re-clean policy is for, and it is worth asking about separately.

Wear from ordinary use is excluded, as is damage from a product used exactly as intended on a surface that could not take it, in some policies, and anything the insurer decides was deliberate. Money and jewellery are frequently excluded or capped low, which is another reason the valuable and the irreplaceable belong out of the way rather than under a policy.

What HouseGlow does and does not verify

HouseGlow does not currently operate a verification programme for insurance or bonding, and no listing on this site should be read as a confirmation that a cleaner carries either. Where a business describes its own cover, that is the business's statement, not ours.

We think that is worth saying plainly, because "verified" is used loosely across this industry. Ask for the certificate yourself, from whoever you hire and wherever you find them.

Frequently asked questions

Is a house cleaner legally required to be insured?: In most states, no. Cleaning is not generally a licensed trade for residential work, and insurance is a business decision rather than a legal requirement. Some cities and states license cleaning businesses, and requirements change, so check with your own state or city if it matters to you.
What is the difference between bonded and insured?: Insurance pays you when the cleaner damages something. A bond repays you if a cleaner steals, generally only after a criminal conviction. They cover different risks and are bought separately.
Does my homeowner's insurance cover a cleaner who is hurt in my home?: It may, and that is the problem. Relying on your own policy for someone else's workplace injury can mean a claim, an excess, and a higher premium. Ask who carries workers' compensation before the first visit, and check what your own policy actually says.
Should I hire an uninsured cleaner if they are cheaper?: That is a real trade-off rather than an automatic no. An uninsured independent may be excellent and cost less. What you are accepting is that any damage becomes a conversation between the two of you, with no third party obliged to pay.
What is a certificate of insurance?: A one-page document from the insurer naming the policyholder, the insurer, the policy number, the coverage limits, and the valid dates. It is the only meaningful proof of cover, and any insured business can produce one on request.
Am I a household employer if I hire a cleaner directly?: Possibly. It depends on how much control you have over how and when the work is done, not on what either of you calls the arrangement. The IRS publishes the tests and the wage thresholds in Publication 926 — read those rather than relying on a rule of thumb.
How much liability cover is enough?: There is no correct figure, and the honest answer is that it should be plausible against what could go wrong in your home. Water damage is the loss that escalates furthest, especially in an apartment with neighbours below, so weigh the limit against that rather than against the price of a vase.
Can I be added to a cleaner's policy?: Being named as an additional insured is normal in commercial contracts and unusual for domestic cleaning. It is worth asking for on a large one-off job in a managed building, partly because the building may require it before letting anyone in.
Does insurance cover a bad clean?: No. Liability insurance answers for damage to your property, not for work you were unhappy with. Ask separately what happens if a clean falls short, because a re-clean policy is the thing that actually addresses it.

Sources

Independent contractor (self-employed) or employee? — Internal Revenue Service
Household employer tax guide (Publication 926) — Internal Revenue Service