Hiring a House Cleaner in The Woodlands: There's No Licence to Check, So Check These Instead

The Uncomfortable Fact

With an HVAC contractor, you can verify a state licence in two minutes. With a house cleaner, you can't — because house cleaning is not a state-licensed trade in Texas. It doesn't appear among the occupations regulated by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.

That's not a scandal. It's just a fact, and it changes the job you have to do. There's no official database to fall back on, which means the vetting is entirely yours.

And the stakes are unusual: you are giving a stranger repeated, unsupervised access to your home — often a key or a door code, often while you're at work. This deserves more care than most people give it.

Here's what to check instead of a licence.

1. Insurance — Non-Negotiable

Ask for a Certificate of Insurance showing general liability coverage.

Why it matters concretely: a cleaner knocks over a television, cracks a stone countertop, or floods a bathroom. Without liability coverage, you are absorbing that loss — or suing an individual who may have no assets.

If the company employs staff, ask about workers' compensation too — and don't assume it exists. Texas is the one state where workers' comp is optional for most private employers, so a cleaning company here can legitimately carry none. If someone is injured in your home and isn't covered, you may find yourself exposed. Ask the question explicitly; the answer isn't a formality here.

If a company can't produce a certificate, or asks you to trust them — that's your answer.

2. Bonding

A bond is different from insurance. Insurance covers accidental damage; the bond a cleaning company actually carries — usually sold as a janitorial or business services bond, and technically a fidelity (employee-dishonesty) bond rather than a surety bond in the construction sense — is aimed at theft by an employee.

Ask directly: "Are you bonded, and what does the bond actually cover?" Plenty of companies advertise "bonded and insured" as a slogan. Ask them to explain what each one means for you, specifically. A company that can answer that clearly is a company that has thought about it.

3. Background Checks

Ask: "Do you run background checks on the people who will be in my home, and who exactly will be coming?"

Then ask the follow-up that separates real answers from marketing: "Will it be the same person or team each visit?" Consistency matters enormously — both for quality and for security. A rotating cast of subcontractors is a different proposition from a fixed, checked team.

4. Employees or Contractors?

This distinction has real consequences.

• Employees of a company are typically covered by the company's liability insurance and are supervised and trained by it. Workers' comp, though, is not a given in Texas, where it's optional for most private employers — ask, don't assume.
• Independent contractors may carry their own insurance — or none.
• An individual you hire directly may be excellent and considerably cheaper, but you are the one carrying the risk, and there may be tax and employment considerations.

None of these is automatically wrong. But know which one you're choosing, rather than discovering it after something goes wrong.

5. The Key Question

How does the company handle keys, alarm codes, and access?

Good answers sound like: keys are held securely and logged, codes aren't shared informally, there's a defined procedure if a cleaner leaves the company. Vague answers ("oh, the girls just keep them") are informative.

Consider giving a temporary door code you can revoke rather than a physical key.

Practical Things to Agree in Writing

• Exactly what's included. Interior windows? Inside the oven and fridge? Baseboards? Laundry? These are the classic disputes.
• Supplies. Do they bring products and equipment, or use yours? If you have stone countertops, hardwood, or specific allergies, say so before the first visit — the wrong product can damage a surface permanently.
• Frequency and price. Weekly, biweekly, monthly — and what a deep clean (usually a larger one-off first visit) costs versus a maintenance clean.
• Cancellation policy and what happens if they can't come.
• Pets. Tell them. It affects time, products, and whether doors can be left open.

Red Flags

• Cash-only, no paperwork, no certificate of insurance.
• A price dramatically below everyone else. Somebody is absorbing that difference — usually the person doing the work, and often by cutting the insurance.
• Reluctance to say who will actually be in your home.
• No written scope, then extras appearing on the invoice.
• Pressure to prepay for a long block of visits up front.

On Reviews

Online reviews are the main information most people have — and they're worth reading with a cool head. A few negative reviews among many is normal; no business pleases everyone. What you're looking for is a pattern: several reviews describing the same specific problem (didn't show up, breakage denied, price changed after the fact). Also look at how a company responds to criticism — a professional reply tells you something a five-star average doesn't.

What reviews can't tell you is whether they're insured. Only the certificate does that.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are house cleaners licensed in Texas? No — house cleaning isn't among the trades licensed by TDLR. There's no state licence to verify, so insurance, bonding, and background checks matter more.

What should I ask for? A Certificate of Insurance (general liability, and workers' comp if they have employees), whether they're bonded, and whether staff are background-checked.

Bonded vs insured — what's the difference? Insurance covers accidental damage; the bond (usually a janitorial/fidelity bond) is aimed at theft by an employee. Ask a company to explain both in plain terms — and ask separately about workers' comp, which is optional for most Texas employers.

Should I give them a key? Consider a revocable door code instead, and ask how the company secures and logs access.

Is a very cheap quote a bad sign? Often. Ask what's being cut — it's frequently insurance, or the worker's pay.

What's a deep clean? A more thorough one-off clean, usually on the first visit, priced above the recurring rate. Agree what it includes.

The Bottom Line

There's no licence to look up, so do the work the licence would have done for you: get the Certificate of Insurance in your hand, ask what the bond actually covers, confirm who will be in your house and whether they've been checked, and put the scope in writing. Then give a code, not a key. That's the whole method — and it takes one phone call more than most people bother to make.

Insurance, bonding, and employment arrangements vary by company. This is general guidance, not legal or tax advice — verify a company's coverage directly with its insurer before work begins.