Is Your Professional Window Cleaning Service Insured?
Updated on: March 11, 2022
Is it time to refresh your windows? If you know the benefits of using a professional window cleaning service and you’re shopping around, it’s important to consider if the professionals you’re talking to are insured. Many homeowners don’t think about it at all, but when it comes to injuries on your property or damage to your home, whether or not your cleaning service is insured can mean a lot.
Window cleaning insurance is exactly what it sounds like—it’s protection for you, and the company as well, in the event of mishaps on the job. Keep reading to learn more about why using insured professionals is essential to your financial wellbeing.
In this article, you’ll learn more about…
- Why Insurance Matters
- How to Tell if a Business is Insured
- What to Ask About Training & Bonding
- Costs of Window Cleaning Insurance
- Hiring A Professional Window Washing Service
Why Insurance Matters
There are countless horror stories out there about homeowners who have worked with unlicensed and uninsured contractors. More often than not, it’s a costly lesson in homeownership, and a stressful one for everyone involved. The best way to avoid that is to ask these seven questions before signing any contracts with a professional company.
Before we get into the specifics of figuring out if your prospective window cleaning company is actually insured, let's first discuss why insurance is so important.
Injuries Happen
Usually, they all have a somewhat similar ending: something goes wrong, someone gets injured, or the contractor left something incomplete, which leads to injury later. And of course, it's always the homeowner who ends up—quite literally—paying the price. We can pretty much guarantee that no home repair or window washing treatment will be worth thousands of dollars in court fees, payouts, or mental stress and anxiety.
Keep in mind that if you're not working with an insured contractor or company, you could very well be held financially responsible for any medical bills and even lost income by a worker who gets injured while cleaning your windows.
Property Damage Can Happen Too
It's not just the potentially sky-high cost of medical bills that you need to worry about. You should also take into consideration that you'll be liable for paying for any damage to your property done by the uninsured window cleaning company.
A worker slips and ends up cracking the glass of your windowpane? You'll be paying for that. Someone uses the wrong cleaning agent, causing your pane to spot and turn a brownish shade? That cost falls to you as well. With an insured window cleaning company, damage like that is covered—inconvenient? Probably, but covered thanks to window cleaning insurance.
At the end of the day, or job as it were, it's just not worth working with someone who isn't insured. However, just because a professional window cleaning company claims to have insurance, that doesn't mean they're always telling the truth.
Now, let's talk about how to be sure that the company you want to work with actually is insured.
How to Tell if a Business is Insured
The best way to tell if a window cleaning company has insurance is by learning more about insurance and watching for some red flags that might indicate that a company isn’t insured. Be on the lookout for the following telltale signs that a company isn’t insured.
- Their prices are very low. The old idiom “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is” applies here. If someone is offering their services at a drastically lower price than competitors, it may indicate that they can get away with charging that because they haven’t invested in insurance.
- They can’t provide documentation. Whether they are being upfront and saying that they can’t supply something they don’t have, or they are coming up with excuses to not provide proof of insurance, the fact is that they aren’t showing you definitive proof that they are insured, it isn’t a good sign. (In some states, your contractor is not legally allowed to give you a copy or show you the documentation. For situations like this, ask about bonding status or make adjustments to your contract.)
It’s also important to learn a little about how window cleaning insurance, or any kind of contractor insurance for that matter, works. Being insured means having a lot of options, and that your professional cleaners will need more than one type of insurance.
General Liability Insurance
General liability insurance protects both your property and your family members in the event of an accident. For example, if you’re injured due to the work being performed or negligence of the contractor, general liability insurance will protect you.
Worker’s Compensation Insurance
If an employee has an injury while working, worker’s compensation covers their medical bills and missed work as they heal. Without it, homeowners may be liable for those charges, regardless of why it happened.
What to Ask About Training & Bonding
While it may be tempting to accept a quote once you have verified that a window cleaning company is indeed insured, there’s still one more thing to consider: training and bonding.
First, we’ll talk about bonding.
Bonding isn’t strictly necessary to have, but it’s helpful. When a company is bonded, it means that they have a set amount of money that is available to the customer and being held by a third, reputable party (usually a bonding company or licensing board). In the event that something happens, the customer files a claim with them and can access the funds. Many companies offer a guarantee to fix any issues at no charge rather than being bonded, and generally, it isn’t an issue with reputable companies.
Next, is the value of training.
Do you really want the people in this picture to be untrained?
It’s very easy to assume that when a company opens for business, all of its employees are trained in their respective roles. Ideally, they would be, and in most cases they are. But, you want to be certain that your window washing company has trained their staff in how to safely and efficiently clean windows. With Labor Panes, we spend at least 100 hours training our employees before they go out on a job.
Some companies have the attitude of “It’s just window washing, how hard can it be?” But realistically it’s important to train employees on how to be safe while cleaning windows, regardless of the window type or size.
Costs of Window Cleaning Insurance
When considering the importance of window cleaning insurance, as well as being bonded and trained, it can be easy to assume that it is a very expensive purchase for companies. The truth is that it is much like other insurance options with tiers and choices on coverage, amount, and premium.
With some providers, plans are customizable. Take Next as an example. They offer coverage for equipment, including commercial auto, general liability, commercial property, and even worker’s compensation. All of these can be bundled under one of three tiers, depending on the needs of the company and their budget.
Hiring A Professional Window Washing Service
If you’re ready to work with a professional window cleaning service, consider Labor Panes. Not only are we fully licensed and insured, but we also offer a complimentary re-cleaning if you're not happy with our services -- as well as a rain guarantee. We’ve formulated our own streak-free cleaning solution that gets your windows cleaner than the standard commercial mix without compromising the integrity of your glass.
In addition to getting your windows perfect, we offer other services too. Many homeowners find that it’s better to clean the exterior of your home all at once. After all, clean windows aren’t a huge benefit of debris from dirty gutters soils them again soon after. We offer gutter cleaning services (along with installing gutter guards) as well as pressure washing your exterior walls, decks, walkways, and driveway.
Why stop at the windows? Make the rest of your exterior like new with Labor Panes! Read our reviews below so that you’ll feel good about having our trained professionals work on your home.
FAQ Frequently asked questions about window cleaning insurance
Here’s what we most often get asked about on window cleaning insurance and being insured. Don’t see your question? Ask! We’d love to add it to our FAQ.
Should window cleaners have insurance?
Yes, they should. While not required, insurance protects the company, employee, and the homeowner from being sued or experiencing serious financial hardship in the event of an accident or damage to the home.
How much does window insurance cost?
Smaller window cleaning companies pay about $55 monthly for general liability insurance. This, of course, goes up when other insurances are added in or higher coverage limits are selected. Typically insurance companies offer a discount for bundling, allowing window cleaning insurance to be more affordable.
What insurance does a window cleaning company need?
The legal requirement for insurance varies by state, but generally, all states require that companies have general liability. While other insurances are highly recommended, they may not be required.
