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Cleaning service agreement and cancellation policy
A cleaning service agreement should settle cancellations first: the notice you need to move a visit, the fee for cancelling late and the fee when nobody lets the cleaner in. Next, how skipped visits change a recurring price, and where a regular visit ends and deep or add-on work begins. Keys, pets, breakage and ending the agreement follow. Have the customer sign those terms before the first clean, because a fee first heard after a lockout reads as a penalty.
Set your cleaning terms
Fill the blanks with your own notice period, fees and visit list, and cut any clause you won’t enforce: a fee you always waive tells customers the other terms are optional too. Attach your every-visit checklist if the services line can’t hold it.
Cleaning service agreement
Between ____________ (____________) and ____________, ____________.
- Services included: ____________
- Price: ____________
- Schedule: ____________
- Start date: ____________
- Payment terms: ____________
- What a regular visit includes. Each regular visit covers the rooms and tasks listed in the services above. Inside the oven, fridge and cabinets, interior windows, laundry, dishes and tidying are not part of a regular visit unless they are listed there.
- First clean and extra work. The first visit is a deep clean at the price above, because a home takes longer to bring up to standard than to keep there. Anything not on the list is extra: we tell you the price first and do it only once you agree by text or email.
- Cancelling or moving a visit. To cancel or move a visit at no charge, tell us at least ____ hours before it starts. Later than that, we charge $____. If we have to move a visit for illness, weather or a vehicle breakdown, we tell you as soon as we know and offer the next open slot at no charge.
- If we can’t get in. If no one is home to let us in at the booked time, or the key or code doesn’t work, we call or text and wait ____ minutes. If we still can’t get in, we leave and charge a lockout fee of $____.
- Skipped visits. Our recurring price assumes we clean every ____. You can skip up to ____ visits a year with ____ days’ notice. When the gap between cleans runs past ____ weeks, the next visit is charged at our one-time rate of $____, because it takes longer.
- Keys, codes and pets. Keys you give us are tagged with a number, never your address, and alarm or door codes are kept apart from them. Tell us where pets will be during the visit; we won’t let them in or out unless you ask us to.
- Breakage and damage. If we break or damage something, we tell you the same day and repair it, replace it or pay its fair value. Point out anything fragile or irreplaceable, or put it away. We don’t pay for things already loose, cracked or badly fixed, like a towel bar that pulls out of the wall when wiped.
- Cleaning products. We bring our own products and equipment. If you want us to use yours, leave them out and we use them as their labels direct. Tell us about surfaces that need special care, such as marble, unsealed wood or brass, and we follow your instructions.
- Payment and price changes. You pay for each visit as shown in the payment terms above. If a payment is more than ____ days late, we add a $____ late fee and may pause visits until it’s paid. We give you at least ____ days’ written notice of a new price, before the visit it applies to.
- Ending the agreement. Either of us can end this agreement with ____ days’ notice by text, email or letter. You pay for visits already done, and we return your keys and delete your codes by the last visit.
____________: signature ____________ date ____________
____________: signature ____________ date ____________
What should a cleaning cancellation policy say?
Set the free-cancellation cutoff at the point where you can still fill the slot. If a gap reported the afternoon before usually gets rebooked, that’s your cutoff; if it doesn’t, ask for more notice. Then name two fees: one for cancelling after the cutoff, and a larger one for a lockout, since by then the crew has driven out and the morning is gone. Put the same terms on every booking.
Size the fees from what the gap costs you. Say a biweekly customer pays $160, inside the $130–$200 that Kleen-It Maids charges for a three-bed, two-bath home in Dallas (checked October 2026). Half the visit for a late cancellation is $80; the full $160 for a lockout pays for the crew who drove out. Decide once whether a regular’s first miss is free, and hold everyone to the same rule.
How do skipped visits work on a recurring cleaning plan?
A biweekly price is the price of a home cleaned every two weeks, so the agreement has to say what a skip does to it. Write how many skips a year keep the rate, how much notice a skip needs, and what happens to their slot while they’re away. A customer back from a month of travel will expect their Thursday morning to be waiting; if you plan to give it to someone else, say so now.
How should a cleaning business handle keys and alarm codes?
Tag each key with a number and keep the list matching numbers to addresses somewhere else, so a lost key ring opens nothing. Ask the customer to set up a separate code for you on the alarm or smart lock, which they can delete without changing their own. Send a code only to the cleaner going that day, never in a group chat, and hand keys back at the last visit.
Frequently asked questions
Who pays if a cleaner breaks something?
Your business does, when your cleaner caused it. The agreement sets the fix: repair, replace or pay fair value, and fair value for a lamp bought years ago is less than the price of a new one. Note chips, cracks and wobbly fixtures on the first walkthrough so an old crack isn’t pinned on today’s visit. For anything costly, call your general liability insurer before you pay.
Should a house cleaning contract have a minimum term?
Not for homes. A customer who wants to leave will leave, and chasing an early-exit fee costs more time and goodwill than it brings in. Ask for enough notice to fill the slot instead, and make the same notice apply to you. Save minimum terms for office contracts, if you use them at all.
Do I need a lawyer for this?
Not for plain terms like these on ordinary home cleans. What protects you is a customer who read the agreement and signed it before the first visit. If you start cleaning offices, get handed a client’s own contract, or keep losing the same argument, pay a local lawyer once to read your standard version.