Cleaner Agreement

We're Handpicked Home Services, a domestic cleaning introduction agency for Winchester and Hampshire. We find household and small business clients who want a regular cleaner, check and introduce cleaners to them, and look after the arrangement: cover when a cleaner is away, replacements, support, and the payment arrangements in section 6. The work is domestic cleaning in private homes and light commercial cleaning of small business premises.

You're a self-employed cleaner in business on your own account. This agreement covers what we do for you, what we ask of you, and how introductions work. It doesn't make you our employee, worker, partner or franchisee, and it doesn't let either of us act on the other's behalf, except that you can ask us to make your invoices for you (section 6).

What we are in legal terms. For the purposes of the Employment Agencies Act 1973, we act as an employment agency, which introduces you to clients you then work for directly. We don't employ you, and we don't supply you to anyone. This agreement is the written statement of our terms the law requires you to have before we first find you work, so you'll have it, agreed, before we offer you your first client.

We won't charge you a fee. There's no fee to join, per clean, or to leave. What we charge the client is in section 6, separate from your money.

When you clean for a client we've introduced, the cleaning is a direct arrangement between you and that client. We're not a party to it.

Applying. You apply to join our network by phone, online or in person. Applying creates no agreement, and neither of us owes the other anything at that stage.

Vetting. Before we introduce you to anyone, we complete our checks - an interview, references, your right to work in the UK, and a basic DBS check (you apply for it, and we put £25 towards your setup costs; section 5 has the detail). We check your right to work ourselves, the way the Home Office sets out: we check your share code online, or see your original passport or birth certificate with you there, and keep a dated copy. We may decide not to offer you a place in the network. If so, we'll tell you promptly.

When the agreement starts. This agreement starts when we confirm in writing that you're joining the network, and not before.

What joining does and doesn't mean. Joining the network means we can offer you introductions and you can accept the ones you want, with no obligation on either side (section 4).

You can leave the network at any time on 7 days' written notice. There's no tie-in. Section 11 covers how our arrangement ends and what happens with clients mid-arrangement.

You run your own business. You confirm you're self-employed and responsible for your own income tax, National Insurance, business records and insurance.

You're in control of your work:

• You set your own availability and can change it. We offer work that fits it. We don't define your working pattern.
• You can accept or decline any client or job, without giving a reason. Declining doesn't affect the offers we make you afterwards. If you decline a client and later want to work with them, that still happens through us (section 8).
• You decide how you do the work. The client tells you what they'd like done. How you do it is your professional judgement. We don't supervise, inspect or direct your cleaning, and nothing we ask of you (section 9) is an instruction on how to clean. The cleaner guide in the app and on our website describes the result the client has paid for. The order you work in, the methods and products you use, and anything extra you do within the time booked, are yours to choose.
• You can ask us to arrange cover, or send a substitute (section 10).
• You can work for anyone else. Other agencies, your own private clients, another job entirely - no exclusivity.

Because you're in business on your own account, your income is your cleaning rate rather than a wage, and holiday, sick pay and a pension are yours to provide. You keep the whole of a strong hourly rate, a diary we work hard to keep full, control over when and how you work, and the support in section 5.

• We find you clients. We market, take bookings, vet the households, and offer you clients that match your availability and area.
• We offer specific jobs, not promised hours. A job is a real booking ("Tuesday 9-11:30 in Badger Farm"), and we work hard to fill your availability.
• We support you on payment. The client pays you directly (section 6). The app can make your invoices for you (section 6), or you can send your own, and we'll help you set up with a new client. If a client pays late, follow up with them first. If it stays unpaid, tell us and we'll chase the client until it's settled.
• We arrange cover when you're ill or away, so your client is looked after and waiting for you when you're back (section 10).
• We deal with problems. If there's a difficult conversation, a complaint, or a client not keeping their side of the arrangement (heating, materials, access, respect - they agree to a charter too), bring it to us and we'll handle it with you.
• We keep your record. On request we'll give you a verified statement of your work and income with us - useful for a mortgage or tenancy.
• We put £25 towards your setup. You apply for the basic DBS check our vetting requires, and we put £25 towards your setup costs when you join. If you already hold a check, the £25 goes towards your insurance instead. We pay for the re-check every 3 years. Where a client's premises need a higher-level check (a school needs an enhanced check, for example), we arrange and pay for that too, and whether to take a placement that needs one is your choice.

Your rate for each job is the cleaner's rate shown in the client's booking confirmation, and we tell you that rate before you accept the job. For a regular clean it's the cleaner's rate on our published price list at the time of booking. For a deep clean or business premises it's the rate in the quote we agree with you first. The client sees the split, your rate and our fee side by side. Our fee is charged on top of your rate, not out of it.

• The client pays you directly into your own account. We don't collect, hold or pass on your money, and we deduct nothing from it.
• You're paid for every clean you deliver. If a client cancels inside 24 hours, or you're locked out on arrival, the late-cancellation fee they pay is your full rate for the booked visit.
• Owed to you directly. The fee is owed to you under your cleaning arrangement with the client. You invoice it, they pay you, and none of it comes to us. We drop our own fee for that visit.
• Yours to waive. You can waive the fee if you choose, and we won't waive it for you.
• One exception. If a client reschedules because of contagious illness in their home, the move is free for them and you keep the work on the new date.
• Already paid for a clean that doesn't happen. Return that payment or net it off their next clean.
• Invoices in your name, if you want them. If you switch on "Invoices in your name" in the app, you ask us to make an invoice in your name after each clean you deliver, and show it to the client in their account beside our own. For a business client, we make one a month instead, dated the last day of the month, covering every clean you did for them that month and payable within 7 days. It shows your name, the address you give us, your rate, the length of the clean as the app records it, and your bank details. Each one is your invoice for your work, from you to the client, and stays in the app for your records and tax return. Check them as they're made and tell us if one is wrong. You stay responsible for your own tax. These invoices carry no VAT number, so don't switch it on if you're registered for VAT. Switch it off at any time and we make no more; the ones already made stay.

If the published rate changes, we'll tell you before it takes effect, and you're free to decline work at a rate that doesn't suit you. We review it against advertised local rates every January.

Many cleaners in our network have private clients alongside their Handpicked work. This agreement doesn't change that:

• Any client you bring with you, or find yourself, is entirely yours. We make no claim on them and take no fee from them.
• In a patch this small, a household you already clean for may contact us without realising you're in our network. If we offer to introduce you to someone you already clean for, tell us before the introduction goes ahead and they stay outside this agreement. Once we've made an introduction, section 8 applies to that client.

For each client we introduce you to, you agree not to solicit or accept private cleaning work from that client outside Handpicked - while you're cleaning for them through us, and for 12 months after your last clean for them. That is the whole restriction. It doesn't limit who else you may work for.

Our clients agree to pay us a fee if they go direct with a cleaner we introduced, so going direct is no saving for either of you, and a client can't agree it away. You'd also give up the cover, the new clients and the admin we handle.

What we ask is about reliability, care and trust, the outcomes a client feels. How you clean is yours.

Reliability. Two things.

• Turn up to cleans you've accepted, on time. If you can't make one, tell us and the client as early as you can, and either ask us to arrange cover or send a substitute (section 10).
• Keep your availability in our system up to date, so we only offer you work you can take.

Care and trust. Five things.

• Treat clients, their homes and their belongings with care and respect.
• Keys: you're personally responsible for any key you hold. Label a key with the code we give you, not the client's address or name. Don't post a key. Return keys immediately, by hand, when you stop cleaning for a client. Tell the client and us straight away if a key is lost.
• Confidentiality: keep what you learn about clients and their homes - access details, alarm codes, routines, anything personal - to yourself, and don't bring anyone who isn't an agreed substitute into a client's home.
• Materials: you bring the consumables - cloths, wipes, dusters and sprays. The client provides the vacuum, the mop and bucket and anything else bulky, though you're welcome to bring your own vacuum or mop. The products you bring are your choice and your responsibility, so check each one suits the surface before you use it. If a client leaves out a product they'd prefer for a particular floor or surface, use that one, unless you think it will do damage: then tell them before you use it.
• Ironing: you can iron for a client if you both agree, but most cleaners' insurance doesn't cover it, and the client terms put damage from ironing at the client's risk. You can turn down any item, and it's wise to turn down anything labelled dry clean only.

Staying vetted. Five things.

• Hold your own public liability insurance of at least £2 million and keep it in force. It needs to cover your cleaning work in private homes and, where we introduce it, small business premises, including accidental damage to the things you're working on. You show us your policy schedule when you join and at each renewal, and we verify it. That's what lets us tell clients every cleaner in the network is insured.
• Tell us within 5 working days if your cover lapses, is cancelled, or changes in a way that affects any of that. We'll pause introductions until it's back in place.
• Renew your DBS check every 3 years (we pay for the re-check - section 5), and tell us promptly about anything that would change what it shows.
• When you join, give us the details of referees we can contact - people you've cleaned or worked for, not family. We take up your references before your first introduction.
• If your permission to work in the UK ends on a date, give us a new share code before that date so we can check it again. We'll pause introductions if it lapses.

If something goes wrong on a clean. Four things.

• Tell us straight away. Report any accident, damage, injury or complaint as soon as you know about it, even if it looks minor. Insurers can and do refuse claims reported late, so telling us early protects you. The same goes for anything in a client's home that worries you, for the client's sake or your own. Tell us, and we'll decide with you what happens next.
• Apologise, but don't settle on the spot. Saying sorry is fine, and an apology isn't an admission of liability. Don't agree to pay for something, or formally accept blame, before your insurer has looked at it. That can invalidate your cover.
• Help us put it right. Give us and your insurer the information needed, and keep hold of anything damaged - insurers usually need to see it.
• Offer to put it right yourself. If a client isn't happy with a clean, the first fix we'll propose is that you go back and put the problem areas right at no charge. You're not obliged to re-clean, and whether you do is your choice. Most cleaners do, because going back is usually the quickest way to keep a good client happy.

If a claim lands on us because of something you did. Your insurance covers your work, and ours covers ours. If a client or anyone else brings a claim against us because of something you did or didn't do on a clean, because you broke this agreement, or because you didn't hold the insurance you told us you had, you'll be responsible for what that costs us, but only to the extent it was caused by your fault, and not to the extent it was caused by ours.

Cover is how you take a holiday or recover from illness without losing your clients:

• You can ask us to arrange cover and we'll do our best to place a vetted cover cleaner from the network with your clients while you're off.
• Or send a substitute. If you can't attend a clean, you can arrange another cleaner to cover it in your place. Before a substitute works for any client, she needs to pass our checks: we check her right to work in the UK ourselves, and she needs a DBS check and insurance, the standards the client was promised. Tell us who she is in good time, and don't send her until we've told you she's cleared. Checking her is ours to do, so it can't be handed to you or to her. The easiest way is another network cleaner, who's already checked, and we'll help you connect. The arrangement and their payment are between you and them. Sending someone we haven't cleared is a serious breach: we may pause introductions straight away, or end this agreement without the 7 days' notice in section 11.
• Your clients stay yours. A client covered while you're away goes back to you when you return.
• The same works in reverse. Network cleaners cover for each other, and taking cover work when you have spare capacity is a good way to add hours.

Either of us can end this agreement on 7 days' written notice. There's no exit fee.

If you're leaving, tell us in good time and honour cleans you've already accepted, or give us the chance to arrange cover. Clients plan around you, and a clean handover protects your reputation as much as ours.

When the agreement ends:

• return any client keys immediately, by hand;
• cleans you haven't accepted lapse, and anything a client still owes you for delivered cleans stays yours;
• section 8 continues for each introduced client's 12-month period;
• your own clients remain yours, and if you've been using our software for them, we'll help you take your records with you; and
• if you're retiring or winding down, talk to us, and we'll arrange a proper handover for your clients.

We hold what the network and introductions need: your contact details, availability and areas, your vetting records (identity, right to work, references, DBS status, insurance certificate), your clean history, and our correspondence with you.

• We use it to match you with clients, run the service, and meet our own legal duties.
• We share your details with clients when we introduce you (that's the service), and with the providers who run our systems. We don't sell your information.
• DBS information is handled under the DBS code of practice. We record the outcome we need, not the certificate content, and only the people running vetting can see it.

The full detail - what we hold, why, how long we keep it, and your rights (including your right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk) - is in our privacy notice at handpickedhomeservices.co.uk/privacy.

Client information you hold. The client details you work with - contact details, address, keys and access information, what matters most to them and the practical notes about their home in the cleaner guide, anything you learn in their home - are yours to protect under data-protection law. Because you run your own business, you're an independent controller of that information, not our processor. In practice, keep it secure and confidential (section 9), use it only for the cleaning, and delete what you hold when you stop cleaning for a client. Our privacy notice covers what we do with the same information on our side.

Who we are. We are Handpicked Home Services Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 17380383, registered office 33 Boston Road South, Holbeach, Spalding, Lincolnshire, PE12 7LR. Reach us at hello@handpickedhs.co.uk.

Changing this agreement. If we need to change this agreement, we'll send you the change in writing at least 30 days before it takes effect, with the date it starts. No change applies to a clean you've already accepted unless you expressly agree to it. You're free to end the arrangement instead (section 11).

The whole agreement. This document is the whole agreement between you and us about introductions and the network. It replaces anything said or written before it on the same subject, though nothing in it excludes liability for fraud.

If part of it turns out to be invalid, the rest stays in full force.

Notices. Notices go in writing to the contact details we each hold for the other, and count as received 24 hours after sending (or the next working day).

Only you and us. No one else has rights under this agreement (Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999).

What survives. Ending the agreement doesn't end section 8 (for each client's 12-month period), the confidentiality and key obligations in section 9, your responsibility for claims arising from work you did while the agreement was running (section 9), or anything either of us still owes the other.

Governing law. This agreement is governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales will deal with any dispute.