Hiring a Cleaner: Employee, or Company?
Hire a cleaner directly and you may legally be their employer, with payroll, holiday and insurance duties. What each arrangement really commits you to.
Published by Jerimiah, owner of J&BROS Cleaning Last updated 4 September 2026 5 min read
In short
There are three ways to get a cleaner, and they are not the same purchase. Hire someone directly and you are usually their employer, which means payroll, tax, statutory pay and employers' liability insurance. Book a genuinely self-employed cleaner and those duties sit with them. Book a company and they sit with the company.
Most people think they are choosing between cleaners. They are usually choosing between three quite different legal arrangements, and only one of them makes you somebody’s employer.
This is worth ten minutes of your attention if you are about to set something up in a flat in Canary Wharf or a house in Wapping, because the cheapest looking option is the one that quietly hands you the most obligations. None of it touches the communal areas your service charge pays to clean, which the building arranges separately.
The three arrangements
You employ someone directly
You found a cleaner, they work only for you, on hours you set. Hire someone to work in your home on that footing, with no agency paying them and no genuine self-employment on their side, and government guidance treats you as their employer in the usual case.
You book a genuinely self-employed cleaner
They work for several households, set their own hours, bring their own equipment and handle their own tax. They invoice you. The duties are theirs.
You book a company
Your contract is with the business, not with a person.
Side by side
The distinction is not paperwork for the sake of it. It decides who pays tax, who is insured, and who finds a replacement in February when the person who normally comes has flu.
| Duty | Employing directly | Booking a company |
|---|---|---|
| Tax and payroll | Yours: payroll, Income Tax, National Insurance | Theirs |
| Employers’ liability insurance | Yours to arrange | Theirs, under the Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act |
| The building itself | Yours | Yours either way: the duty of care you owe a visitor does not move |
| Holiday and sick pay | You fund 5.6 weeks’ holiday, plus statutory sick and maternity pay | In the rate |
| Cover when nobody comes | You find and vet the replacement | The company covers |
What being the employer actually commits you to
If you land in the first category, the list is longer than most people imagine:
- Run payroll and keep the records, even if you pay in cash, and register as an employer with HMRC once the pay or the person’s circumstances trigger it.
- Deduct Income Tax and National Insurance and pay them across to HMRC.
- Tell HMRC about the employee on or before their first pay day.
- Give a written contract and payslips.
- Pay at least the National Living Wage. From 1 April 2026 that is £12.71 an hour for anyone aged 21 or over.
- Fund paid holiday. Almost all workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks a year.
- Pay statutory sick pay and maternity pay where the person qualifies.
- Check they have the right to work in the UK.
- Hold employers’ liability insurance, named in the guidance next to the contract and the payslips.
The drift
None of this is exotic and plenty of households do it properly.
The label does not decide it
A common shortcut is to agree the cleaner is self-employed and treat the question as closed. That is not how status works. The facts of the relationship decide it, and the guidance is blunt that you cannot ask an employee to become self-employed.
Why a private home is the awkward case
HMRC’s own manual is instructive here. It has a rule that automatically treats cleaners as employed earners, but that rule is written for premises other than a private dwelling house, which is why cleaning a small office in East London sits under a different set of rules. For a private home, the normal status tests apply, which means somebody has to actually look at how the work is arranged.
The test you can apply yourself
Does this person work for other households, choose their own hours, and provide their own equipment? The more of those that are true, the more genuinely self-employed they are.
Insurance is the part that gets skipped
Employers’ liability insurance is the item people are most surprised by, and it is the one with the sharpest edge, because it only matters on the day something goes wrong.
Where the cleaner works for an agency or another business, HSE is clear that they are covered by their employer’s insurance under the Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act. Where you are the employer, that cover is yours to arrange. Some home insurance policies include it for domestic staff, many do not, and the wording varies enough that guessing is a poor strategy. Ask your insurer in writing.
What you are really buying from a company
You are buying cover and continuity. A directly employed cleaner going on holiday means three weeks with nobody, unless you organise a replacement, vet them and hand over your keys again. A self-employed cleaner who takes on a new regular client on your day may simply stop being available.
For someone leaving for the office before eight and getting home after seven, that reliability is usually the whole point of the arrangement. It is also the thing that is hardest to judge before you have bought it, which is why the questions in the FAQ below are worth asking out loud.
The short version
Employ directly if
The weekly hours are high and you will run it as what it is: an employment relationship with payroll, holiday, statutory pay and insurance attached, set up properly from the first week rather than discovered later.
Book a company if
You would rather not keep payroll records, hold employers’ liability insurance and fund the holiday for four hours of cleaning a week. That is not laziness. That is exactly what booking a company for regular domestic cleaning is for.
The numbers, and where they come from
- You may be the employer
- Government guidance says you are usually considered the employer of someone who works in your home if you hire them and they are not self-employed or paid through an agency.
- Source
- Cash does not make it informal
- An employer must set up and run payroll even if the employee is paid in cash, deduct their Income Tax and National Insurance, and pay statutory benefits such as maternity and sick pay.
- Source
- Insurance is on the list
- Employers' liability insurance is named in the government's guidance as a duty of anyone employing a person to work in their home, alongside a written contract and payslips.
- Source
- Company staff are covered
- HSE states that someone employed by an employment agency or another business to do domestic work in a home is covered by their employer's insurance under the Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act.
- Source
- The wage floor
- From 1 April 2026 the National Living Wage is £12.71 an hour for workers aged 21 and over, and it applies to domestic staff the same as anyone else.
- Source
- Paid holiday is not a perk
- Almost all workers are legally entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year, which an employer funds on top of the hourly rate.
- Source
- Private homes are a special case
- HMRC's status manual applies its automatic employed earner rule for cleaners to premises other than a private dwelling house. For private homes, the normal status rules decide the answer.
- Source
- When PAYE registration starts
- Government guidance says you must register for PAYE if an employee is paid £96 or more a week in the current tax year, has another job, or gets a pension. Below that you still have to keep payroll records.
- Source
- Where employer NI starts
- The employer National Insurance secondary threshold for 2026 to 2027 is £96 a week. Above it the household, as the employer, owes contributions on top of the wage itself.
- Source
Common advice that is wrong
- false
“Paying a cleaner in cash keeps it a private arrangement with no paperwork.”
You are the employer whether or not you pay in cash, and even below the PAYE registration threshold you have to keep payroll records.
The method of payment changes nothing. Government guidance is explicit that an employer must set up and run payroll even where the employee is paid in cash. What the payment method does not decide is whether you register for PAYE: that turns on the person. You must register once they are paid £96 or more a week, or if they have another job or a pension, and below that you still have to keep payroll records. Cash mainly removes your own record of what you paid and when.
Source: gov.uk
- false
“If I call them self-employed in the arrangement, they are self-employed.”
Status is decided by how the work actually happens, whatever both sides call it, and domestic cleaning has no shortcut rule.
Status is decided by the facts of the working relationship, not by the label either side puts on it, and the government guidance says plainly that you cannot ask your employee to become self-employed. HMRC's own manual sends domestic cleaning in a private home back to the normal status rules rather than treating the description as settled.
Source: gov.uk
- partly true
“Hiring directly is always cheaper than booking a company.”
The hourly rate is lower. The total often is not. Holiday runs to 5.6 weeks funded on top, and a household cannot claim the Employment Allowance.
The hourly number is lower and the total is not the same thing. Almost all workers get 5.6 weeks of paid holiday, funded on top of the rate. Then statutory sick pay, employers' liability insurance, the time cost of payroll, and employer National Insurance above £96 a week, which a household cannot offset with the Employment Allowance because domestic staff are excluded from it. Then the weeks nobody comes because your cleaner is away. Direct hire can still win at high hours, by less than the rate suggests.
Source: gov.uk
- partly true
“Booking through a company means I have no responsibilities at all.”
Most duties really do move to the company. You keep the building, and every visitor to it has to be reasonably safe.
The employment, tax and insurance duties genuinely sit with the company, which is most of the point. What does not move is the building. As the occupier you owe every visitor the common duty of care under the Occupiers' Liability Act 1957, so the loose stair nosing or the dodgy socket is yours to fix or flag, though the Act also lets you expect a professional to guard against the risks of their own trade. Keys, access and who is coming are worth settling in writing first.
Source: legislation.gov.uk
What we see on the job
We are a six person family business rather than an agency, which is the practical difference most people are actually buying. You get the same team each visit instead of whoever is free, and when someone is ill or on holiday that is our problem to cover rather than a week with nobody. We have never no-showed. There is no contract to sign and no notice period, so if it is not working you stop, and we can usually take short notice work. If we miss something, we come back and put it right.
Common questions
Am I really my cleaner's employer?
You might be. The government's guidance draws the line at two things: whether the person is genuinely self-employed, and whether an agency pays them. If neither applies and you hired them to work in your home, the usual answer is that you are the employer. A cleaner who works for many households, sets their own hours and brings their own kit generally is self-employed. Someone who cleans for nobody else, on days and hours you decide, is closer to being your employee.
What do I have to do if I employ a cleaner directly?
Register as an employer, run payroll even if you pay in cash, deduct Income Tax and National Insurance, provide a written contract and payslips, pay at least the National Living Wage, fund paid holiday, cover statutory sick and maternity pay if they qualify, check they can work in the UK, and hold employers' liability insurance.
Does my home insurance cover a cleaner working in my house?
Do not assume either way. Some home policies include employers' liability cover for domestic staff and some exclude it entirely, and the answer changes depending on whether the person is your employee or is working for a company. Ask your insurer the question in writing and keep the reply.
Is it cheaper to employ someone directly?
On the hourly rate, usually. On the total cost, less often than people expect. Paid holiday alone adds more than a tenth on top of the wage before you count sick pay, insurance and the administration. The other cost is cover: when a directly employed cleaner is away, nobody comes unless you arrange it yourself.
What should I ask a cleaning company before booking?
Who will actually be in my home, and will it be the same person each time. What insurance covers the work. How keys or fob access are held and logged. What happens if someone is ill. Whether there is a contract or a notice period. What is included and what is charged extra. Any company should be able to answer those without hesitating.
Do the rules differ for cleaning an office rather than a home?
Yes, and noticeably. HMRC's automatic rule treating cleaners as employed earners applies to premises other than a private dwelling house, so commercial cleaning is handled differently from domestic cleaning. Offices also carry workplace duties on cleanliness and welfare facilities that simply do not exist for a private home.
If you would rather we did it
We are a small cleaning team working across Canary Wharf and East London.
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Who is behind this
J&BROS Cleaning is run by Jerimiah, who owns the business. We are a small cleaning team working across Canary Wharf and East London, and these guides are published under his name. More about us .
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