Switching Office Cleaning Company: A Step-by-Step Guide

This guide is for office managers and business owners who are fed up with their current cleaners and want out, but can't afford a week where nobody turns up. Most bad switches go wrong on paperwork, not cleaning: a notice period nobody read, keys that never came back, or a cleaner who turns out to have a legal right to move across. Here is the order we'd do it in.

When is switching your office cleaning company worth the hassle?

Switch when the problems keep coming back after you've raised them in writing. One missed bin is a bad week. The same missed bins every Friday, a spec nobody follows and emails that go unanswered are a firm that won't change. If you haven't complained in writing yet, do that first: it costs nothing and you'll need the record anyway.

How much notice do you have to give your current cleaners?

Whatever your contract says, so find it before you do anything else. Look for three clauses: the notice period, any minimum term that hasn't run out yet, and what counts as written notice. Some contracts also let you end early if the firm keeps breaching the spec, which is where your written complaints come in.

Count back from the date you want the new firm to start. If your notice period is one month and you want a clean start on the first Monday of a new month, your notice has to land at least one month before that Monday. Give it by email and by letter if the contract names a postal address. Ask for a written acknowledgement.

If you can't find a contract at all, you're probably on a rolling arrangement. Ask the firm in writing for the terms you're on. They may be on the original quote or on your invoices. If nothing was ever agreed, take advice before you give a short notice.

Does TUPE apply when you change cleaning contractor?

It can. TUPE protects staff when a service moves from one contractor to another. Cleaning is one of the services gov.uk names when it explains TUPE. If your current cleaner works mainly on your site, their job may move across to the new firm on the same pay and terms. It's a matter between the two contractors, but it changes your timeline.

What the rules say

The gov.uk guide to TUPE lists a contract that ends and is given to a new contractor as one of the changes it covers. Under regulation 3 of the TUPE Regulations 2006, a service provision change counts when there is an organised grouping of employees whose principal purpose is carrying out the work for that client. It doesn't apply to a single event or a short-term task, or to a contract that is wholly or mainly the supply of goods.

In plain terms: a cleaner who spends most of their hours on your site may well be covered, because gov.uk says only staff who can be clearly identified as providing the service are protected. A cleaner who does your office for an hour on the way to six other jobs probably isn't. Where TUPE applies, the new employer takes on the employee's existing terms and conditions, and their continuous employment isn't broken, according to the gov.uk page on transferring contracts.

Why it matters to you as the client

The outgoing firm has to give the new firm information about the staff transferring, at least 4 weeks before the transfer (gov.uk: information about employees during transfers). So if TUPE applies, a switch planned for next week isn't realistic. Build those four weeks into the plan from the start.

There's an upside too. If you like your cleaner and the problem is the firm behind them, TUPE may mean you keep the person and lose the management.

Questions to put to both firms

• To the outgoing firm: who is assigned to our site, and is cleaning our site most of what they do?
• To the new firm: if TUPE applies, how will you handle the transfer, and does it change your price or start date?
• To both: who is talking to whom, and by when?

We aren't lawyers, and TUPE cases turn on the detail. If staff may be affected, read Acas's TUPE guidance or take advice before you give notice.

A 12-week timeline for a switch with no gap

This is a worked example, not a rule. It assumes a one-month notice period and that TUPE might apply. With a longer notice period, add the extra time between weeks 8 and 5. If you're on a rolling arrangement with no staff transfer, you can squeeze it into five or six weeks.

What should the handover cover?

Everything the old firm had that lets someone into your building or uses your stock. Write it as a list and tick it off on the day. Don't rely on the old firm to remember, because by then you're no longer their client.

• Keys and fobs: count them against what you issued. If any are missing, change the locks or cancel the fobs.
• Alarm codes: change the code the day after the old firm's last visit, then give the new one to the new firm.
• Supplies: agree who owns the toilet roll, hand towels, soap and bin liners in your cupboard. If you paid for them, they stay.
• Equipment: vacuums, mops and buckets usually belong to the cleaning firm. Arrange a collection time so nothing is taken during your working day.
• The spec and the issue history: your copy of the spec, plus your written complaints, so the new firm knows where the old one fell short.
• Site notes: the stiff back door, the meeting room that's off limits on Thursdays, the bins that go out on Tuesday night. Write these down for the new firm. The old cleaner carried them in their head.

What goes wrong in the first month after a switch?

The first visits miss the things the old cleaner knew without being told. That's normal for the first week or two, and it's why site notes matter. What isn't normal is the same miss on week four. Walk the office after the first two visits, report what you find in writing, and check it's fixed by the next visit.

The other early problem is the spec itself. If you copied your old firm's spec, you've also copied its gaps. A month in is a good time to ask the new firm to adjust it: drop tasks nobody needs, add the ones you kept doing yourself.

For what a good spec and contract should say in the first place, see our office cleaning contract checklist.

How we take over from another cleaning company

If you're switching to us, send us your current spec and we'll quote against it directly, matching or improving the scope. We walk the site with you for free, and you get a written spec and fixed price within 48 hours. Most contract cleaning jobs start within one to two weeks of the walkthrough, so the start date usually comes down to your notice period, not us.

Every cleaner we place has a DBS check before their first visit. We hold keys only where that's agreed. From the first visit, check-in and check-out times are logged against your spec in the client portal, and anything you report goes straight to our managers. So if something slips in the first month, there's a record of it from week one. We cover Portsmouth and the towns around it.