Walk through any cleaning company's website and you'll find the same line: "Fully insured and bonded." Almost nobody who reads it knows what those words actually mean — or, more importantly, what protection they actually buy you as the client. So when something goes wrong, the gap between what was promised and what's covered turns into a very expensive surprise.
Here's the plain-English version, and the documents you should ask for before signing any commercial cleaning contract.
The three coverages every cleaning company should carry
1. General liability insurance (GL)
This is the big one. GL covers physical damage your cleaner causes to your property, plus bodily injury to non-employees on your premises. If a cleaner knocks over a $4,000 conference room TV, GL pays for it. If a cleaner leaves a wet floor unmarked and a client slips and breaks their wrist, GL covers the medical bill and any lawsuit.
You want coverage of at least $1,000,000 per occurrence and $2,000,000 aggregate. Lower limits than that and you're working with a vendor who isn't taking the business seriously.
2. Janitorial bond (sometimes called a "fidelity bond")
This protects you against employee theft. If one of your cleaner's employees pockets your laptop, the bond reimburses you up to its limit. Standard bonds run $10,000–$25,000.
Important: bonding is not the same as insurance. A bond is a guarantee that pays out if the company's employees commit theft and the company can't or won't make the client whole. Don't accept "we're bonded" as a substitute for GL — they cover completely different things.
3. Workers' compensation insurance
If a cleaner falls off a ladder in your facility and breaks their leg, workers' comp pays their medical bills and lost wages. Without it, the injured employee can sue you — even if they were the cleaner's employee, not yours, because you're the property owner.
Workers' comp is mandatory in Georgia for any business with three or more employees. A cleaning vendor that uses "independent contractors" instead of employees is often dodging this requirement, which means the liability rolls back to you. Don't accept it.
The documents you should always ask for
1. Certificate of Insurance (COI). A one-page document from the vendor's insurance broker showing all three coverages, limits, and effective dates. Real, not screenshotted.
2. Additional insured rider on the COI. Free to add — your business name shows up on the certificate as a covered party. This means if something happens at your site, your insurer can subrogate against the cleaner's policy directly. Critical for medical, religious, or any high-traffic facility.
3. Annual COI re-issuance. Insurance renews yearly. Set a reminder to re-request the COI every 12 months — and follow up if the vendor doesn't volunteer it. Lapsed coverage looks identical to active coverage until something happens.
Common gotchas
- "We have insurance" without a COI. Asking and getting a verbal answer is not the same as having documentation. Some vendors carry minimal policies that wouldn't cover real damage; others let coverage lapse and don't volunteer that fact. The COI is the only proof.
- Coverage too low to matter. A $300,000 GL policy at a 50,000 sq ft commercial site is mathematically inadequate. If the cleaner causes water damage that runs $500,000 in repairs, the policy maxes at $300K and you eat the difference.
- Subcontracted labor without coverage. Some janitorial firms hand work to other crews and skip the insurance question entirely. Your contract is with the firm; the people in your space might not be covered. Ask: "Is everyone who'll be in my facility covered under your insurance and workers' comp?"
- Bond claim friction. Some bonds require a criminal conviction before paying out — which can take a year and may never come. Read the bond's terms before assuming it'll move quickly when you need it.
Why this matters more for some industries
For a small office, the worst likely scenario is a vacuum cord knocking a monitor off a desk. For a medical practice, a religious facility with thousands of weekly visitors, or a daycare with regulated compliance, the stakes are completely different. A negligent cleaner in a daycare can trigger a CPS complaint. A cleaner who damages a sanctuary statue or a centuries-old icon can cost a parish hundreds of thousands of dollars. A cleaner who tracks a contaminant into a medical exam room can shut a practice down for a state inspection.
If your facility has those kinds of stakes, the answers above aren't due-diligence — they're the floor.
The MDSM standard
We carry $1M / $2M general liability, a $25,000 janitorial bond, and full workers' compensation on every employee. We'll send a Certificate of Insurance with you listed as additional insured the same day you ask, at no charge. We re-issue COIs annually without being prompted. Our longest-running client (a Catholic church in Evans) has carried the same additional-insured rider on our policy for thirteen years.
Asking a cleaning vendor for a real COI in 24 hours is the cheapest, fastest filter in the entire bid process.
If you'd like ours: request a quote, or call 706-750-0674 and we'll have a Certificate of Insurance to you the same business day. The five other questions to ask any commercial vendor are in this companion piece.