Cleaning Service Background Checks: What to Ask For
"Background checked" has no fixed meaning. Here is what a real check covers, what you can reasonably ask to see, and what it cannot tell you.
“All our cleaners are background checked” appears on nearly every cleaning company website in Austin. The phrase has no standard definition. It can mean a $12 instant database lookup, or it can mean a seven-year county-by-county criminal search run by a licensed screening firm. Those are very different products.
The four questions that make the claim mean something
Who ran it? The answer should be a named third-party screening company, not “we look them up.” A company that uses a consumer reporting agency has to get written consent from the applicant under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which means there is a paper trail. A company that Googles people has none.
What did it cover? Ask for the scope, not the verdict.
How recently? A check run at hire in 2021 says nothing about 2026. Ask whether checks are re-run, and how often.
Does it cover everyone, including new hires mid-contract? Growing companies sometimes onboard fast in spring and catch up on paperwork later.
What a serious check actually includes
| Component | What it does |
|---|---|
| SSN trace | Builds an address history so the search knows where to look |
| County criminal search | Courthouse records in every county of residence, usually 7 years |
| National database scan | A wide net — useful as a supplement, incomplete as a substitute |
| Sex offender registry | National, quick, standard |
| Motor vehicle record | Only relevant if they drive a company vehicle to you |
| Identity / work authorisation | I-9 verification for W-2 employees |
The important line in that table is the county search. National criminal databases are aggregations of whatever jurisdictions choose to contribute, and coverage is genuinely patchy. Texas has 254 counties. A database-only check can miss a conviction in a county that does not report.
The Texas DPS also offers a cheap name-based public search. It is name-based, which is exactly its weakness — common names produce both false hits and misses. Treat it as a first pass, not a result.
What you can reasonably ask to see
Not the report. A background check is the employee’s personal data and the company should not be forwarding it to customers; a company that offers to email you someone’s criminal history is telling you how it handles data generally.
What you can ask for, and should get:
- Written confirmation that a check was completed for the specific person assigned to your home
- The name of the screening vendor
- The date it was run and the scope it covered
- Whether that person is a W-2 employee, because contractors are frequently outside whatever screening policy exists
That is a proportionate ask. It also filters out companies where the policy is aspirational.
What a background check cannot do
This is the part that usually goes unsaid.
A clean check means no conviction was found in the counties searched, in the window searched. It does not mean the person has never done anything wrong. It does not predict future behaviour, and most losses in home services come from opportunity rather than from people with records — someone who has never been charged with anything takes the watch off the nightstand because the watch was on the nightstand.
Screening is a filter, not a guarantee. Anyone selling it as a guarantee is overselling.
What actually reduces the risk
Layers, not one document.
Bonding. A surety bond exists specifically to cover employee theft. Ask the amount, and ask what triggers a payout — most bonds require a police report and many require a conviction or admission, which is worth knowing before you need it.
The same team every visit. A named, repeating crew is accountable in a way that a rotating roster is not. If three different people have been in your house this month, nobody is responsible for anything.
Knowing who is coming. Names in advance, badges or ID on arrival, and a phone number that a human answers during the visit.
Removing the opportunity. Cash, jewellery, prescription medication and spare keys in a drawer that closes. This is not an insult to your cleaner. It is the same reason you lock a bike you trust nobody to steal.
Key control. A coded lockbox or a smart-lock code you can rotate beats a physical key that lives in a van.
The honest summary
Ask who ran the check, what it covered and when. Ask whether the person is an employee. Ask about the bond. Then put the valuables away anyway, and judge the company on whether the same two people show up in month four.
Everyone we send is a W-2 employee, background-checked and reference-verified before their first solo visit, badged, and named to you in advance. We will confirm the check in writing for whoever is assigned to your address. We will not email you their file, and no company should.
