Hiring a gardener or cleaner for regular help at home
Hiring regular help is different from hiring a tradesperson for a one-off job. A gardener or cleaner may come every week, often when you are out, and sometimes with a key to your home. The relationship lasts for months or years, so the important questions are about the arrangement itself: who employs them, who is insured, what each visit covers, and how trust is built.
Gardeners, landscapers and cleaners: what you are hiring
Gardeners usually do regular maintenance: mowing, weeding, pruning, hedge cutting and seasonal tidying. Landscapers design and build: patios, fencing, planting schemes, turfing and drainage. Landscaping is closer to a building project, so treat it like one, with a written quote and staged payments, as in our guide to vetting a builder.
House cleaners range from one person working alone to franchised cleaning companies. Some offer regular cleaning, others deep cleans, end-of-tenancy cleans or oven cleaning as separate services.
Some jobs need specialists. Tree work is best done by a qualified tree surgeon or arborist with suitable insurance. In the UK, trees covered by a tree preservation order need the council's consent before most work, and for trees in a conservation area you usually have to give the council notice first, so ask before cutting. In many US states, applying pesticides or herbicides commercially requires a state licence.
Employed, self-employed or agency
This choice affects your responsibilities more than most people realise.
Self-employed
Most regular gardeners and cleaners work for themselves and serve several households. They set their own methods, bring their own tools (often), handle their own tax and insurance, and invoice you. This is the simplest arrangement for you, as long as the working pattern genuinely fits self-employment.
Directly employed
If you control when, where and how someone works, and they work only for you, they may legally be your employee, whatever you call the arrangement. That can bring employer duties such as payroll, tax, minimum wage, holiday pay and insurance cover for someone working in your home; in the UK, check whether your home insurance covers people you employ. In the US, household employer tax rules can apply. The rules and thresholds differ by country, so check the official tax authority guidance for where you live (for example HMRC in the UK or the IRS in the US) if you plan to employ someone directly.
Agency or company
A cleaning company or garden maintenance firm employs or contracts the workers and deals with insurance, cover for holidays and sickness, and vetting. You usually pay more per visit, but you get a replacement when your regular person is away and someone to complain to. Agencies vary: some employ their staff, others only introduce you to self-employed workers and take a fee. Ask which model they use, because it changes who is responsible if something goes wrong.
Insurance
Ask any gardener or cleaner, or their company, for proof of public liability insurance. It covers damage to your property or injury to others caused by their work, such as a strimmer stone breaking a window or a spilt chemical marking a floor. For companies with staff, ask about employer's liability insurance too. Check that the policy is current and in the name of the person or business you are paying.
It is also worth checking your own home insurance: some policies have conditions about people who hold keys or work in the home.
Keys and trust
Handing over a key or an alarm code is a big step. Some sensible practices:
- Agree how the key will be stored. It should not be labelled with your address.
- If you use an alarm, ask whether it can have a separate user code you can change or delete.
- For a company, ask how they store client keys and who has access to them.
- Ask about background checks. In the UK, a cleaning company may run a basic DBS check; elsewhere, ask what checks they do. Do not assume.
- Agree what happens to keys when the arrangement ends.
- Lock away anything valuable or private, not because you expect a problem, but because it removes doubt for both sides.
Ask for references from current clients who have used the person for a while, and actually call them.
Start with a trial visit
Book a single paid visit before agreeing a regular arrangement. Use it to check:
- Whether they arrive on time and work for the agreed duration.
- The standard of work against what you discussed.
- Whether they ask sensible questions about products, plants or rooms to avoid.
- How they communicate about problems, such as a broken item or a plant they were unsure about.
Give feedback after the trial. A good cleaner or gardener will want to know what matters to you.
What is included
Write down what each visit covers. For a cleaner, that might be kitchens, bathrooms, floors, dusting and changing beds; extras such as ironing, windows, inside the oven or inside the fridge are often separate. For a gardener, list mowing, edging, weeding, hedge cutting and pruning, and say what happens to green waste: whether they take it away, use your bin, or compost it on site.
Also agree who supplies what. Cleaners may bring their own products and equipment or use yours. Gardeners usually bring tools, but ask about larger items. If you have preferences, such as particular cleaning products or no chemical weedkillers, say so at the start.
Hourly or per visit
Regular help is usually priced in one of two ways:
- Hourly: you pay for time. This is flexible, but you need to agree how many hours each visit lasts and what gets priority if time runs out.
- Per visit or per job: a fixed price for an agreed list of tasks. This is easier to budget, but check what happens when the work takes longer, for example in spring when the garden grows fast.
Either way, agree the price for extras, how much notice either side must give to cancel a visit, whether you pay for visits you cancel at short notice, and how and when you pay. Get these terms in a short written message or agreement so there is no confusion later.
Warning signs
- No proof of insurance, or reluctance to show it.
- Pressure to pay for many visits in advance.
- No fixed way to contact them other than a number that often goes unanswered.
- A landscaper asking for a large upfront payment before any materials are ordered.
For more on spotting problems early, see contractor red flags, and for comparing prices for one-off garden projects, see getting quotes.