I have a simple cleaning contract on my website, located on my Free Info page. It's written by Robert Kravitz, author of Get That Account and it's a very valuable document, many people have gotten their business started using Kravitz' contract. But it's not the only contract you will ever need.

Which takes us to this week's article. I'm going to talk about potential problems in common cleaning contracts. The idea being to give you an idea of things to look for when evaluating a cleaning service contract.

There are some errors that pop up over and over again in cleaning contracts. If you eliminate them all you still don't have a guarantee that there is nothing wrong with your contract but you will have gone a long towards that goal.

One of the main points of a contract is to remove sources of conflict between the two parties involved. This is done by describing exactly what each party must do. Having said that your contract should not be intimidating. Exactly what is intimidating depends on the size and nature of your company, the services you provide and the expectations of the business or homeowner you you will work for.

This is a matter of judgment and you will learn as you go along what your contracts should look like. The basic rule of thumb is: It should have everything it has to have and nothing else; and no fancy legal language (often called legalese) simply for the sake of fancy legal language.

 Common Mistakes 

Get your customer's name and address right. I know, it sounds so basic, and it is but people make this mistake all the time. I guarantee your customers will be put off if you misspell their name or the name of their business.

Getting the location or exact address wrong can be even worse. There is a big difference between cleaning the business at: 409 Costas Avenue, Suite 3 and 409 Costas Avenue. If you leave off the suite number, you may have just signed an agreement to clean four or five times as large an area as you meant to, while charging them four or five times less money than you should.

In the same way, if your agreement says you will be paid after you clean the house at 287 Toyon Drive - when it should have been 827 Toyon Drive. Does the owner of the house at 827 Toyon Drive still have to pay you after you do the work? You may have to go to court to find out.

You need to list a detailed description of the services you will provide. This should include how often you will perform the services as well. If you are to clean a building three time a week but sweep and wet mop the cafeteria only once a week, make sure that is stated clearly.

At the very least your contract should have a table of areas to be cleaned, how often, with a summary of the specific cleaning services you will provide in each area. It's perfectly valid to include drawings and diagrams to make sure everybody knows what you mean when you refer to specific areas.

For example, you might think that when you wet mop the cafeteria once a week you have fulfilled the terms of your contract. However, your customer might think the hallway leading to the cafeteria is part of the cafeteria. If you have a diagram with the cafeteria clearly marked included in your contract this can resolve the question before it becomes a real problem.

Guarantees: be specific, what if anything do you guarantee and how long and to what degree? "your satisfaction guaranteed" can be interpreted to be an open-ended promise that you will do anything and everything needed to satisfy your customer about anything and everything. Are you sure you want to say that?

Termination Clauses: You need to state in clear language who has the right to cancel the contract, when, and under what circumstances. Can both you and the customer cancel the contract? If it doesn't say that you have the right to cancel, the customer might not be willing to let you go. Especially if you find you underbid the contract.

If there has to be a "cause" for termination then what qualifies as cause and what burden of proof has to be met? Personally, I have never required cause to terminate a contract because in my opinion it opens a can of worms. I've always figured that if I couldn't keep a customer happy it was best to let them go. Also, sometimes its just not worth keeping a customer, in which case its better for you to get out.

Pricing: This is another area that seems so basic and so obvious that nothing more needs to be said about it. But questions of price, when it is due, how it's calculated and so on, are often areas of conflict. Again, being specific, is what will keep you out of trouble.

Note: It's perfectly legal to have a late fee policy, but the language must be stated on your invoice. And you absolutely need to ask a lawyer to find out what constitutes a valid late fee policy in your state.

Insurance: Insurance questions are outside the scope of my little article. But I do want to give you one simple piece of advice about insurance issues in your contract. Ask your insurance provider for help. Your provider would much rather give you expert advice in evaluating your contract than pay out exorbibant amounts to your customer because you signed an ill-advised contract.

Unfortunately, cleaning clients have been known to try to put the responsibilty for all liability issues that occur at their facility on us, whether we are at fault or not. This is especially a problem when you start servicing larger accounts and insurance becomes a more important and complicated issue.