Do I Need Insurance to Be a Cleaner in the UK?

Short answer: public liability insurance is not a general legal requirement in the UK for a cleaning business, but employers' liability insurance is — and the moment you take on any non-family employee, that changes everything.

Employers' liability (EL) insurance is a legal requirement as soon as you employ anyone who is not a close family member (spouse, parent, child, grandchild, sibling) and who is based in England, Scotland or Wales. You need a minimum of £5 million cover from an authorised insurer, and the fine for not having it is £2,500 per day. This does not apply to a genuine sole trader with no employees.

Public liability insurance is different: there is no general UK law requiring it, but in practice almost every client, letting agent, commercial site and many booking platforms expect it — and some will refuse to engage you without it. Treat “not legally required” and “not needed” as two very different things here.

A few other covers depend on what you actually do: motor insurance needs a business-use endorsement if you drive to jobs (your normal commuting cover may not be enough), goods-in-transit cover matters if you carry expensive equipment like a carpet cleaner, and professional indemnity is more relevant if you're contractually guaranteeing a specific standard of work.

We don't recommend specific insurers here — this is about understanding what category of cover you need before you start comparing providers.