Certificate of Insurance for Cleaners

The Document That Gets You In the Door

A certificate of insurance is the one-page proof-of-coverage document a client or property manager wants before they'll hand you keys or a building code. In cleaning specifically, it's rarely optional — you're being trusted with access, so most commercial clients and a growing share of residential ones won't book without seeing it first.

Recurring Account vs. One-Time Job: Different COI Situations

If you're servicing a property manager's building on a standing weekly contract, they'll typically want one COI on file that covers the whole relationship, renewed annually. If you're picking up one-off deep cleans through a lead site or referral, you may find yourself issuing a fresh COI more often, to different certificate holders, sometimes with different limit requirements each time. Both are normal — the difference is whether you're managing one relationship or many transactional ones, and it changes how often you'll be back in touch with us for a new certificate.

What's Actually On the Document

• Named insured — your business name, exactly as written on the policy
• GL limits — per occurrence and aggregate
• Policy dates — when coverage starts and ends
• Certificate holder — whoever's requesting it: the property manager, the homeowner, the facility
• Additional insured — if the client wants to be named on your policy directly
• Description of operations — sometimes required to specifically reference cleaning services and key/access handling

The Additional Insured Question

Adding a client as additional insured extends some of your GL protection to them — meaning if a claim arises from your work on their property, your coverage responds to protect them too, not just you. Not sure if what's being requested is additional-insured language or a bond? See the difference between GL and bonding first. Almost every property manager and most commercial clients ask for this. We can add individual clients quickly, or set up a blanket additional insured endorsement that automatically covers anyone you work for — the better option once you're juggling more than a couple of accounts.

How Fast You Can Actually Get One

Certificates are issued instantly once you're bound with us — same day, often within minutes of the request. If a job or contract starts tomorrow and you need proof today, that's the normal turnaround, not an exception. Curious what binding actually costs first? See our pricing breakdown.

Common COI Requirements from Commercial Clients

Commercial and property management clients typically require cleaning contractors to provide:

• General liability with limits of at least $1M per occurrence / $2M aggregate (some require $2M/$4M)
• The client named as additional insured
• A waiver of subrogation in favor of the client — see our guide to getting bonded if that's also part of the ask
• A janitorial bond (common for commercial and government contracts)
• Primary and non-contributory language (on larger commercial accounts)
• Workers compensation if you have employees

Requesting a Certificate Once You're Covered

Once you're bound, getting a new COI out is a two-minute ask, not a multi-day process — send us the certificate holder's name and address plus any specific contract wording they need, and we turn it around fast enough that it's never the reason a start date slips.