Cleaning is one of the few trades where the thing most likely to go wrong is damage to the very property you were hired to work in, and that is precisely the loss a plain public liability policy is least likely to pay for. The cover is worth buying and it is asked for by almost every commercial client, but the shape of it matters more here than in trades where the risk is a passer by rather than the client's own carpet.
What the policy actually answers for
Public liability responds when your work injures somebody who is not your employee, or damages property belonging to somebody else, and you are legally liable for it. For a cleaner the classic claims are the ones everybody pictures: a wet floor with no sign on it and a visitor who slips, a trailing vacuum lead in a corridor, a ladder that goes through a pane of glass. It also carries the legal costs of defending the allegation, which in practice is the part that arrives first and the part a small business can least afford to fund out of its own working capital.
Property in your care, custody and control
Here is the exclusion that surprises people. A standard public liability wording answers for damage to third party property, and then carves out property that is in your care, custody or control at the time. A cleaner is holding the client's property almost continuously, so a bleached carpet, a scratched worktop, a machine that soaks a wooden floor or a dropped television can all fall straight into the carve out. Insurers that write for this trade either delete the exclusion, write it back for a stated amount, or sell a separate treatment and damage extension. Read which of the three you have been sold before you rely on it, because the certificate looks identical either way.
Keys, alarms and working when nobody is there
Most cleaning happens outside the client's own hours, which brings two risks that sit outside the liability wording. Keyholding means that if keys are lost the client may have to replace locks and reprogram an access system, and a keys cover extension is what pays for that rather than the liability section. Setting or failing to set an alarm can trigger a call out charge or, worse, leave a premises open. Neither is a bodily injury and neither is third party property damage in the ordinary sense, so if the contract makes you responsible for them, check the schedule names them.
What a commercial contract asks you to prove
Domestic customers rarely ask. Commercial ones almost always do, and they ask in a specific way: a named limit of indemnity, a certificate showing the policy is current, and sometimes a requirement that their own entity is noted on the policy. Facilities managers and managing agents tend to set the limit in the contract itself rather than leaving it to you, and the figure is a procurement decision on their side rather than a measure of your risk. The practical consequence is that the limit you carry is usually decided by the largest contract you want to be eligible for.
Questions people ask about public liability insurance for cleaners
Is public liability insurance a legal requirement for cleaners?
No. There is no statute in the United Kingdom that requires a cleaner to hold public liability cover. What creates the requirement is the contract: commercial clients, managing agents and most agencies will not let you on site without it, and many domestic platforms ask for it too.
Does public liability cover me if I damage the client's furniture?
Not automatically, and this is the single most misunderstood part of the cover. Property you are working on or looking after is usually excluded as property in your care, custody and control. You need that exclusion written back or a separate treatment and damage extension, and it will be described that way in the schedule.
Do I need employers' liability as well?
Only once you have employees. If you genuinely work alone you do not, but the moment you take on staff, including casual or part time cleaners, employers' liability becomes compulsory and is enforced separately from anything a client asks for.
What limit of indemnity do cleaners usually carry?
Whatever the biggest contract you want demands. Insurers offer a ladder of limits and the price difference between the rungs is usually modest, so the sensible approach is to read the contracts you are bidding for and buy to the highest figure any of them names.