The short answer
Handing someone a key to your home is a bigger decision than the price per hour, and most people talk themselves out of the obvious questions because asking feels rude. It is not. Anyone who cleans houses for a living has been asked all of this before, and the good ones have the paperwork ready. Before a first clean, ask for:
- A basic DBS certificate, seen as a document or a number you can check, not just "we're DBS-checked" on a website.
- Public liability insurance, with the insurer's name, policy number and cover amount.
- Two references from current customers, ideally ones you can telephone.
- A named person and a real address, so there is someone to call if something goes wrong.
- Written confirmation of what happens when your cleaner is ill or on holiday.
The rest of this guide explains what each of those actually proves, because two of them are widely misunderstood.
What a DBS check really tells you
The Disclosure and Barring Service issues three levels of check, and the level a domestic cleaner can lawfully hold is narrower than most cleaning company websites suggest.
| Check | What it shows | Cost | Can a house cleaner have one? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | Unspent convictions and conditional cautions | £21.50 | Yes. Anyone over 16 can apply for their own, no eligibility criteria |
| Standard | Spent and unspent convictions, cautions, reprimands, warnings | £21.50 | Only for roles in the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act exceptions, which cleaning is not |
| Enhanced | A standard check plus police intelligence and, where relevant, the barred lists | £49.50 | Only where the role means regular contact with children or vulnerable adults |
DBS fees rose to those levels on 2 December 2024. The important column is the last one: an employer cannot order a standard or enhanced check simply because it would feel safer. The role has to be eligible, and checking an ineligible role is an offence under section 123 of the Police Act 1997. So a company advertising "enhanced DBS-checked cleaners" for ordinary domestic work is usually using "enhanced" loosely to mean "we checked them". Ask which level they mean; the answer tells you how carefully they read their own paperwork.
Three other things worth knowing:
- A certificate is a snapshot of the day it was issued. A check from 2019 proves less than one from last year, so the date matters as much as the certificate.
- The DBS Update Service keeps a certificate current for £16 a year, so a self-employed cleaner who has signed up can give you something you can verify today rather than a printout from three years ago.
- A clean basic DBS is a floor, not a character reference. It says there are no unspent convictions, and nothing about whether someone turns up or works carefully. That is what references and an interview are for.
Insurance: the question that sorts professionals from chancers
Public liability insurance covers accidental damage a cleaner causes in your home. Without it, a cracked hob or a scratched worktop becomes a conversation about whether someone earning by the hour can afford to replace it, and often a claim on your own home insurance.
Cover of £1m to £2m is the normal range for domestic work, and it is cheap: Simply Business reported that 10% of cleaners paid £67.30 or less a year for up to £2m of public liability cover in the first half of 2026. So "insurance would push my rates up" does not hold.
Ask for the insurer, the policy number and the expiry date. A cleaner who has it will tell you in one message. Hesitation here is the most useful red flag of all.
If you are hiring someone directly, one more thing is worth reading first: if you set their hours, tell them how to do the job and supply the equipment, HMRC may treat you as their employer, with the duties that brings, including the National Living Wage of £12.71 an hour for workers aged 21 and over from April 2026. Check the employment status guidance on gov.uk before you agree anything.
References, and how to take one properly
Two references, phoned rather than emailed, beat ten reviews. Ask the customer, not the cleaner:
- How long have they cleaned for you, and have they ever missed a visit without telling you?
- Do you leave them in the house alone?
- What happened the one time something went wrong?
- If they moved away tomorrow, would you be annoyed or relieved?
That last one gets more honesty than anything else on the list.
What a real vetting process looks like
Use a company rather than hiring directly and you are paying for the vetting to have happened already, so ask what it involved. A thin answer sounds like "all our cleaners are vetted". A real one: identity and right-to-work documents seen, a basic DBS check, an interview in person or on video, references from previous cleaning customers, and insurance held by the business rather than left to each cleaner.
"They are very professional and very conscientious about their jobs. They did a wonderful clean in my home. I would definitely recommend them." — Arlene L.
At ReadyClean every cleaner is interviewed by us and DBS-checked before being matched with anyone, we are insured, and cleaners bring their own products. We pay them £17 an hour, every Monday: the least glamorous trust signal on this page and one of the most reliable, because cleaners paid properly and on time stay. You keep the same cleaner every visit, so the person in your house in six months is the one you met in week one.
Our weekly and fortnightly cleaning page has the details, and the local pages for Wilmslow, Alderley Edge and Knutsford show typical prices around here.
Red flags
- Cash only, no invoice, no records. Plenty of honest sole traders prefer cash, but no paper trail at all means no proof of what was agreed.
- No address and no surname. A mobile number and a Facebook page is not a business you can find again.
- Won't show insurance. There is no good reason.
- Card details demanded before anyone has cleaned anything. We do not take a card to book; you are invoiced after the clean, with seven days to pay.
- No cover arrangement. Ask what happens if your cleaner is off sick the week before you have guests. "You'd have to wait" is an answer, but hear it before you book.
- Pressure to decide today. A discount that expires in an hour is a sales tactic, not a standard.
- A rate far below everyone else. Around Cheshire and South Manchester, a vetted, insured cleaner who brings products costs £22 to £28 an hour. Much below that, something has been left out, usually the insurance or the cleaner's pay. Ours are £24.99 an hour weekly, £28.99 fortnightly, £30.99 deep clean and £32.99 move-out, with products, insurance and vetting included.
Then ask the question that covers everything else: what happens if I am not happy? Ours is that you tell us within 24 hours and we put it right.
Frequently asked questions
Do cleaners in the UK need a DBS check by law?
No. There is no legal requirement for a domestic cleaner to hold a DBS check. A basic check is voluntary, costs £21.50, and any cleaner can apply for their own, which is exactly why a professional one will have done so.
Can a house cleaner get an enhanced DBS check?
Usually not. Standard and enhanced checks are only permitted for eligible roles, typically those involving regular contact with children or vulnerable adults. Ordinary domestic cleaning does not qualify, so a basic check is the right level to ask for.
How do I check a cleaner's DBS certificate is genuine?
Ask to see the paper certificate and check the name and issue date, or ask whether they are on the DBS Update Service, which lets you verify a current certificate online with their permission.
What insurance should a cleaner have?
Public liability insurance, normally £1m to £2m of cover for domestic work, which pays for accidental damage to your home. Ask for the insurer's name, the policy number and the renewal date.
Is it safe to give a cleaner a key?
It is normal, and most of our customers leave a key or a key-safe code. Do it once you have seen the DBS certificate and the insurance, keep the arrangement in writing, and use a company that tells you in advance if a different cleaner is coming.
What if I do not get on with the cleaner I am matched with?
Say so. There is no contract and no minimum term, and we will match you with someone else.