MAIDTHIS

No. General liability covers accidents — property damage and bodily injury your operations cause. Theft by a worker is a dishonesty loss, and the standard GL policy excludes it. The coverage designed for this is a commercial crime policy with a third-party endorsement. At Rikor's benchmark minimum of $250,000, on a Loss Discovered form, it covers theft of a client's property without requiring a criminal conviction and without seeking reimbursement from your business.

A janitorial bond is a type of fidelity bond — a three-party instrument between a surety, your business, and the client. It is what "bonded" usually means in cleaning marketing. The problem is structural: most bonds pay only after criminal conviction of the employee, and the surety expects repayment from your business after it pays the client. The most common real claim — a credible accusation with no witness or proof — may trigger nothing. A third-party crime policy is the stronger instrument. If your franchise agreement requires a bond, carry it for compliance; pair it with a crime policy for real protection.

Only if your GL policy has the subcontractor exclusion removed or restricted by endorsement and you have a current certificate on file for that cleaner. Without both, the exclusion can deny the claim — the carrier's position is that you assumed the risk by using an uninsured worker. Collect a certificate before every 1099 cleaner's first job and track renewal dates. [See how subcontractor compliance works →](/subcontractor-compliance/)

If the cleaner is a W-2 employee, yes — workers' compensation covers medical bills and lost wages for an injured employee. If the cleaner is a 1099 contractor with no coverage of her own, most states' statutory-employer rules treat you as the employer and make you financially responsible. Your WC policy with an uninsured-contractor endorsement provides coverage for this scenario. Without the endorsement, you may be personally exposed.

This is the most common form the crime exposure takes — a credible accusation with no witness, no video, no admission. A janitorial bond usually requires conviction before paying; a crime policy operates on a proof-of-loss standard rather than a criminal standard. With a third-party crime policy at adequate limits, you can respond to the client's claim and defend your reputation without waiting for a court outcome.

The biggest difference is in the WC audit. With W-2 employees, your payroll is on the books and the audit is a straightforward true-up. With 1099 cleaners who carry their own coverage, their payments are excluded from your WC exposure base. With 1099 cleaners who do not carry their own coverage, those payments become your uninsured subcontractor payroll at audit — and the carrier charges WC premium on them retroactively. The GL cost also changes because the subcontractor exclusion issue requires a specific endorsement that not all carriers include as standard.

NCCI class code 9014 — janitorial services, including residential and commercial cleaning. This is the standard code for cleaning operations. The per-$100-of-payroll rate for code 9014 varies by state and is set by the state's rating bureau, not by the insurance carrier.

Not a separate policy — but the type of cleaning matters for underwriting. Airbnb turnovers involve faster pacing, different access arrangements, and sometimes interaction with guest belongings or property. When you apply for coverage, describe your full work mix accurately: residential recurring, short-term rental turnovers, and any commercial cleaning. Understating the Airbnb turnover volume can affect coverage at claim time if the carrier discovers the real mix at audit.

A loss-sustained form covers theft that both occurred and was discovered during the policy period. A loss-discovered form covers theft discovered during the policy period regardless of when it started. For cleaning — where employee theft is typically a slow pattern found months after it began — the Loss Discovered form is the correct choice. If you switch carriers or had a coverage gap in the past, a loss-sustained policy may deny claims for the period before your current policy started. Loss Discovered closes that timing trap.

Yes, for two reasons. First, misclassification claims — a state or a cleaner challenging her 1099 status and arguing she should have been classified as an employee — are EPLI-territory claims in many states. Second, a 1099 cleaner who disputes how her assignments were managed or claims she was removed from a route for a discriminatory reason may still file a complaint that requires an employment-attorney response. EPLI covers the defense and settlement costs for those claims. Ask specifically whether the policy covers misclassification and wage-and-hour claims, which vary by carrier.