Do have one truck or a dozen trucks on the road? It doesn’t matter to us. We want to help you protect your rug-cleaning business. We understand the possible liabilities that arise from cleaning rugs, carpets, and upholstery at a customer’s home or business. We understand that removing furniture, vacuuming the carpet, and applying a cleaning solution with an extraction machine involves risk. Special coatings, such as stain-proofing or water-proofing, may be applied. We also understand that customers can be difficult to please at times.
This is probably the biggest liability you have since you work on the client’s premises. There’s always the risk of someone slipping and hurting themselves. There’s also the risk of scratching, staining, damaging or breaking the client’s belongings. Please use caution signs to warn people when cleaning and mopping an area.
Another problem occurs when cleaners and janitors fail to lock the premises during their cleaning or after completing their tasks. Do you currently have a lock up procedure for your workers? Is there a checklist that is reviewed before leaving the premises?
Fortunately help is at hand. Many of the better home insurance policies include what’s known as ‘accidental damage’ cover, designed to financially protect you from the various common accidents that occur around the home.
Such accidents include the type of things which can ruin a carpet; from cigarette burns and wine stains, to scorching from an iron and nail varnish damage.
Check the small print of your policy if you’re not sure if it includes accidental damage, or call your insurer or insurance broker.
If the carpet stains, markings and damage can’t be treated so that their impact becomes unnoticeable, your insurer should cover the cost of replacing the carpet.
As most policies which include accidental damage as standard are usually a little more expensive, the carpet replacement will probably be on a new for old basis.
Your insurance agent will ask you for is a written appraisal of your rugs’ value. Having a written, professional opinion means much more than a sales receipt to an insurance adjuster. It’s an uninterested, educated, third-party opinion as to the value of an object. In addition to your written appraisals and sales receipts, be sure to keep plenty of photos of your rugs. These photos should be clear, well lit, show as much of the item as possible, and should include a family member or pet in the frame. This helps protect you against any future potential suspicion of insurance fraud. (It happens!) You may also be asked for sales receipts for your rugs, so do be sure to keep them!
As a professional upholstery and carpet cleaner, you help your customers maintain their soft furnishing and floor coverings so they stay sanitary and last longer. There’s no replacement for professional cleaning services — even regular vacuuming and rental cleaning machines can’t provide the same level of maintenance. It takes expert-level attention and training to provide the superior carpet cleaning services. Your insurance provider should provide the same utmost attention and care to your business needs as you do your customers.
Professional upholstery and carpet cleaning is not without its risks. In addition to the risks associated with the solvents, compounds, and chemicals you use, your business also requires frequent driving and extended visits in clients’ homes, which adds to your risk exposures.