A domestic client who books a clean is entitled to expect two things: that the work is done properly, and that it is finished within a sensible length of time. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 treats every contract to supply a service as already including terms to that effect, whether the client mentions them or not.

Reasonable care and skill

Section 49 of the Act sets the standard for how the work itself is carried out. It uses the word trader to mean the business supplying the service, which in this case is you.

"Every contract to supply a service is to be treated as including a term that the trader must perform the service with reasonable care and skill." (Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 49)

In practice, this means the clean has to meet the standard a competent cleaner would meet: doing what was agreed. It does not promise perfection, but it does mean a client can ask for work to be put right if it falls short of that standard.

Reasonable time

Where you and the client have not agreed a specific time for the clean to be finished, section 52 sets a term for that too.

"Where the contract does not expressly fix the time for the service to be performed, and does not say how it is to be fixed, there is a term that the trader must perform the service within a reasonable time." (Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 52)

What counts as reasonable depends on the clean itself. A one-off end of tenancy clean and a weekly maintenance visit are not judged against the same clock.

A domestic clean is usually booked by phone, by message or on the doorstep, and the detail of what was agreed can blur after a few visits. Writing down what each booking covers, before the first clean, gives you and the client something to check back against if a question comes up later.

What the note needs to say

A short note is enough. It should set out which rooms are included, whether extras such as the oven, the windows or the inside of the fridge are covered, how long the visit is booked for, and the price agreed.

• Which rooms and areas are included
• Any extras covered, such as the oven, windows or inside the fridge
• How long the visit is booked for
• The price agreed and how often the clean takes place

Why it helps if there's a disagreement

If a client later says a clean wasn't finished, or that something they expected wasn't included, the note of what was agreed is the first thing both of you can look back at. It won't settle every disagreement on its own, but it narrows the question to what was actually agreed, rather than what either side remembers.