CLEANING SERVICES
Window Cleaning Insurance
Cover built around window cleaning: the glass you are working on, work at height, and the kit you carry between jobs.
How You Reach The Glass Decides The Premium
Window cleaners insurance covers what comes with working at height and on other people's property: a dropped pole, a cracked pane, a fall from a ladder. We arrange window cleaner insurance for sole traders and for firms running several rounds, including insurance for window cleaning businesses that work on commercial premises.
Window cleaning public liability insurance is where nearly every policy starts, because it answers damage to a client's property and injury to the public. Employers' liability follows once you have staff, alongside cover for poles, ladders, water-fed systems and the van that carries them. We arrange insurance for window cleaners and window cleaning insurance UK wide, including work at height.
Reach and wash, ladders and rope access are three different risks to an underwriter, and the method you use moves the price more than the size of the round does. Tell us which you actually do, including the occasional job at height you would rather not mention, because cover is written around what was declared and the terms, conditions, exclusions, limits and excesses of the policy.
We also cover other types of cleaning insurance including domestic, commercial, commercial kitchen, & needle sweep.
Height Limits On Your Policy
Nearly every window cleaning policy caps the height you can work to, and the cap is expressed in different ways: ground and first floor only, up to three storeys, or a stated figure in metres. Some go further and specify the method, covering water-fed pole work while excluding ladders.
Work above the limit and the policy may not respond at all, not reduced, not partially, but declined. It is the most common gap in the trade because the job that takes you above it is usually a one-off favour for a good customer.
So read the figure on your schedule before you price a taller job, and tell us if your work is changing. Raising a limit is a routine adjustment; discovering it during a claim is not.
How Much Is Window Cleaning Insurance?
Window cleaning is one of the cheaper trades to insure when the work is at low level. Across the cleaning policies we place the lowest sit around £57 a year, and window cleaning specifically tends to sit at that end of the book. The wider cleaning book runs to £1,844 for larger contract businesses.
Height and method are the main things that move it, followed by turnover, how many people you employ, and whether you do gutter, fascia, solar or pressure washing work alongside the glass.
These are premiums arranged for other cleaning businesses and are not a quote. Call 02382 000820 and we will go to the market for you.
Declare These
What changes a window cleaning policy.
- Maximum working height
- Ladders, poles, cradles or rope access
- Gutter, fascia and solar panel work
- Pressure washing
- Equipment left in the van overnight
- Flexible payment options
- Dedicated account managers
- Out-of-hours contact should you need to make a claim or just have a question
- A quick and easy, pain-free service
- An excellent customer experience
Damage To The Glass Itself
A scratched pane, a cracked sealed unit, a frame marked by a pole: the window you were cleaning is the item most likely to be damaged, and most public liability wordings exclude “property being worked upon”. That exclusion is the one window cleaners meet most often and expect least.
Cover for it is an extension: treatment risk, damage to property being worked upon, or custody and control. On commercial glazing it matters a great deal: a single large toughened or coated pane can run well into four figures, and a whole elevation is a claim nobody wants uninsured. Check the limit as well as the wording.
Water-Fed Poles, And What Else You Carry
A pole system, a purified water tank and the van it sits in represent real money, and a tank of water is heavy enough to matter for the vehicle as well. Equipment cover should reflect replacement cost, and cover for tools left in a vehicle overnight is where most trades policies apply their tightest conditions, often requiring forced entry, and sometimes excluding overnight theft entirely.
Worth mentioning at the same time: whether you use a pressure washer or do any gutter, fascia or solar panel cleaning. Each is a different activity from cleaning glass and each is rated separately, which is why they need declaring rather than assuming the policy stretches.
Commercial Rounds And Contract Requirements
Domestic rounds rarely ask for paperwork. Commercial ones almost always do: managing agents, schools, retail parks and offices typically want £5m public liability, a method statement and a risk assessment before you set foot on site, and increasingly a copy of your working-at-height training.
It is worth being ready with that rather than losing a contract to it. If a client needs to be named on the certificate or wants indemnity to principals, tell us and we will arrange it that way from the start. Premiums can be paid monthly or annually.
What We Need To Quote
Your annual turnover, the split between domestic and commercial work, the maximum height you work to and how you reach it (pole, ladder, cradle, MEWP or rope access) whether you do gutters, fascias, solar panels or pressure washing, how many people you employ, the value of your equipment and where the van is kept overnight, and your claims record.
Protect Your Business
So why wait? Protect your business today with CoverTrade's comprehensive insurance coverage. Contact us now to schedule a consultation with one of our expert advisors.
Cover that often goes with this
The gaps we most often find sitting next to this policy.
- Commercial cleaning insuranceFor interior contracts alongside the window round.
- Domestic cleaners insuranceFor domestic work in the same customers' homes.
Common questions
Does my policy limit the height I can work to?+
Almost always, and it is the condition window cleaners breach most often without realising. Policies commonly cap you at ground and first floor, or at three storeys, or at a stated height in metres, and some are written for water-fed pole work only, excluding ladders entirely. Work above the limit and the policy may not respond at all. Check the figure on your schedule before you price a taller job.
How does the way I reach the windows affect the price?+
More than anything else. Water-fed pole from the ground is the cheapest to insure because the operator stays on the ground. Ladders cost more. Cradles, MEWPs and rope access are different propositions again and many insurers will not write rope access at all without specific qualifications such as IRATA. Tell us how you actually work, including the occasional ladder job, because a policy rated for poles that finds you up a ladder is a problem.
Am I covered if I scratch or crack a window?+
Only with the right extension. Standard public liability generally excludes 'property being worked upon', which for a window cleaner is the glass itself. Damage to property being worked upon, sometimes called treatment risk or custody and control, is what responds. On commercial glazing this matters a great deal, since one large coated or toughened pane can run into four figures.
How much is window cleaning insurance?+
It is one of the cheaper trades to insure when the work is at low level. Across the cleaning policies we place, the lowest sit around £57 a year and window cleaning specifically tends to be at that end, with the wider cleaning book running to £1,844 for larger contract businesses. Height, method, turnover and staff numbers are what move it.
Do I need employers' liability if I have someone helping me?+
Usually yes, once anyone works for you, including part-time help and people who invoice you as self-employed where you direct their work and provide the equipment. Some close family arrangements fall inside the limited exemptions, so that one is worth checking rather than assuming. It is a legal requirement with penalties up to £2,500 for each day uninsured. Working at height makes this more consequential than in most trades: an injury claim from a fall is not a small one.
Is gutter cleaning or solar panel cleaning included?+
Not automatically. They are separate activities from cleaning glass and are usually rated separately. Gutter and fascia work brings different height and access questions, and solar panel cleaning brings the risk of damaging expensive equipment plus, on roof-mounted arrays, a different working-at-height profile. Both are easy to add when declared and awkward to argue about afterwards.
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Related reading
Guides from our team on the cover discussed on this page.
