Benefits of Hiring a Cleaning Business That is Registered and Insured

Alert!!!! Free resources at the bottom. And I apologize for the long post.

Have you heard of a case, I believe it was in NYC, where a burglar fell through the roof of a home he was going to burglarize, then sued the owners and won? Ridiculous, right? Now imagine you hire a cleaning service, and one of the cleaners gets hurt due to their own negligence and then sue you because the company did not have commercial liability insurance. They request for medical bills to be paid along with the salary for 1 year that they will be out of work for recovery.

Here is another example, your most favorite rug in the living room is the highlight of your ambiance in the home. It is where you enjoy your evenings with your family, and holidays with close friends as well. Now, during Fourth of July someone spilled something on your rug and now you have a few stains, which can easily be removed with the right products in a timely manner. You ask your cleaner to please take a look at those during your next cleaning and see if they can please get the stains out and that you will pay extra since that is your favorite (and did I mention, quite expensive?) rug. Your cleaner brings their DIY product or a DIY product they bought on Etsy, without even testing the pH or doing a patch test, and sprayed it on your rug. They let it soak for 5 minutes and then begin scrubbing with a bit of dish soap and warm water only to leave huge blobs of discolored rug fibers behind, because the DIY spray contained an uneven formulation of ingredients, one of which was bleach. On the bright note (no pun intended), the stains from Fourth of July are gone.

These situations are somewhat mild in comparison to some other ones. Your cleaner is done cleaning your home and are rushing to get to their next cleaning job. On their way, just a couple of miles down the road, the cleaner runs a stop sign or they try to make that yellow light at a busy intersection and t-bone another vehicle that results in the driver’s death. Come to find out the other vehicle was your extended family coming to see you. Vehicle insurance claims are filed, and the cleaner’s insurance denies to pay because they do not have commercial coverage. Since this was a workday and they were going to their next job, the vehicle was being used in a work capacity and not for personal use, your family receives $0 from their insurance company. You are able to file a lawsuit and try to put liens and judgements on the person and their business (if they are even a real registered business in NC) and attempt to get justice for your family but run into similar pitfalls that so many clients do. Take a look at Jake Muehlbach’s interaction with Lindley Builders Inc, where they are unable to receive any type of restitution from the business for over 3 years https://m.facebook.com/groups/1056074578609070/?ref=share or http://www.youtube.com/@JakeMuehlbach. With that said, trust but verify.

1. Go to sosnc.gov and click on “I want to…” and then on “Search For A Business”. The search can either be done by the name of the business or the person who claims to be the owner. To search by the name of the owner, switch the “Company” category to “Company Officials”, “Organization” to “Individual” and type in their last name and first name. If you search by the business name and it does not show up, they could have a DBA (Doing Business As). The real name of the company can be found on the register of deeds search database of the county where they registered the business.

2. Call the NC Department of Insurance at 855-408-1212 to verify whether the business or the individual acting in the business capacity have insurance and whether the company that is covering them is financially sound.

3. Go to NC Courts database, https://portal-nc.tylertech.cloud/Portal/Home/Dashboard/29 to look over the person’s criminal record and whether they have any liens against them.

4. Go to your local Register of Deeds website and check out their database as well. For Chatham county that can be found at https://www.chathamncrod.org/search.wgx , for Randolph - https://us4.courthousecomputersystems.com/RandolphNC2 , Orange County - https://rod.orangecountync.gov/OrangeNCNW/application.asp?resize=true . If you need help with other counties please feel free to reach out to me.

With that said, there are a few different policies and your cleaner should have at least one or two of. You are within your right to ask these questions and possibly look at the paperwork with redacted vital information, just to verify their business name and have their insurance policy just for your record. In fact, a valid cleaning service will have a “New Customer Packet” and a contract with these resources listed because legitimate companies do not have anything to hide and should be as open as possible with their clients just like their clients should be with them. Some of these policies arehese policies are:

1. General Liability Insurance - covers common cleaning work risks such as damage to client’s property and bodily injuries.

2. Worker’s comp. - protects sole proprietors and employees of the business from costs that health insurance may not cover resulting from a work injury. Keep in mind that NC does not require a business to carry workers comp. if they have less than three employees. Also keep in mind that some businesses hire employees as 1099 (independent contractors) instead of W2 (company employees) and therefore, may not be required to carry worker’s comp at all.

3. Commercial Auto Insurance - provides property and liability coverage in case of an accident involving a business vehicle.

4. Commercial Umbrella Insurance - combines two or more policies under one umbrella of coverage.

5. Janitorial Bonds - surety bonds that protect the business and the clients against employee dishonesty, such as theft of client property.

This information and policies described are not only applicable to cleaning businesses but any other service providers that come into your home. At the end of the day we each want to protect ourselves, our property and estate, and our family. Do not be afraid or shy to ask any of these questions of a business that is serving you or will serve you.

If you have any further questions on this topic, please feel free to get in touch with me and I will happily do some research to help you with your situation.