Business insurance for cleaning businesses and facilities
Protect your cleaning and facility management business with insurance tailored to your activity
You work on other people's property every day, from private homes and offices to schools, retail units and industrial estates. Public liability covers what you owe a client when something goes wrong on their premises.
Public liability from €7.55 per month including taxes, with a choice of €1.25 million, €2.5 million or €6.5 million per claim.
Cleaning trades: damage to a client's property, covered as standard up to €500,000 per claim.
Facility management: professional indemnity from €10.80 per month including taxes, for financial loss caused by a professional mistake.
Insured in minutes, no long-term commitment, cancel any day.
Business insurance, done differently.
Fully online business insurance in Ireland.
A few questions and you're covered.
No lock-in, no long contracts.
Excess from €0, up to €6.5 million of cover.
Our insurance is for
Why business insurance matters in cleaning and facilities
Cleaning and facilities work puts you inside other people's buildings, around their equipment and their belongings, often when nobody else is there:
Injury to a client or a member of the public: someone slips on a floor you have just cleaned, or trips over a cable or a machine on a job.
Damage to a client's property: a cleaning product marks a worktop or a floor, or a machine catches a fitting.
Damage to the building and contents in your care: harm to premises and items you have been trusted to work around.
Claims that need defending: even an unfounded complaint means legal costs and lost time.
Public liability covers your business when you accidentally injure someone or damage their property in the course of your work. It is the essential cover for the cleaning trades, where the risk sits in other people's premises. If your business manages facilities or advises clients on how to run them, professional indemnity covers purely financial loss caused by a professional mistake.
Contracts and tenders often set a minimum public liability limit, and larger ones ask for employers' liability too.
What is Public Liability insurance? Cover for injury or damage you cause to others
How does public liability work? If a third party, such as a client or a member of the public, holds you responsible for an injury or for damage to their property, public liability insurance takes care of your defence costs and any compensation due.
What does it cover? Injury or property damage caused to others in the course of your work. You choose a cover limit of €1.25 million, €2.5 million or €6.5 million per claim, with €2.5 million as the standard option, and up to twice your chosen limit per insurance year. Employers' liability can be added as an optional cover if you have staff, at €13 million per claim. Employers' liability is not compulsory in Ireland.
Damage to premises and objects in your care. On the cleaning trades this cover is included as standard, up to €500,000 per claim and €1 million per insurance year, for the buildings and items you work around. On facility management and facility manager activities the limit is €5,000 per claim. The two figures belong to different activities on the same policy, so check which applies to yours.
Cover that fits your business. You describe your activities fully at sign-up, and your cover matches what you actually do: domestic and commercial cleaning, interior and exterior cleaning, carpet cleaning, window cleaning, façade maintenance, and facilities management.
Your excess. The amount you pay yourself towards a claim. Up to €500,000 annual revenue the options are €0, €250, €500 as standard, €1,000 and €2,500. Above €500,000 the options are €500, €1,000 as standard, and €2,500.
Is it mandatory? Public liability isn't required by law in Ireland. In practice many clients, letting agents, facilities managers, local authorities and public tenders ask for proof of cover before they let you on site. Cover starts from €7.55 per month.
Who needs it? Any business cleaning or managing other people's premises, whether you work alone or run a team.
What is Professional Indemnity insurance? Cover for financial loss from your professional work
Professional indemnity is sold on facility management and facility manager activities. It is not sold on the cleaning trades, where public liability is the cover you need.
Who is this for? Businesses that manage facilities for a client, or advise them on how their buildings and services should be run.
What counts as a professional mistake? Advice that turns out to be wrong, an error in a plan or a recommendation a client relied on, or an assessment that costs your client money. It does not cover injury or damage to property, which is public liability.
How does the cover respond? It is written on a claims-made basis: the claim must be made and reported to us while your policy runs.
Switching to us from another insurer? Work from up to 5 years back can be covered, provided your previous policy would have covered the claim.
Leaving? Claims about work done while you were insured must be reported before your policy ends, unless run-off cover is arranged.
Cover that fits your business. You choose a cover limit from €125,000 up to €1.25 million per claim, and up to twice that per insurance year. Cover starts from €10.80 per month.
Which cover do you need?
Most businesses are exposed to both. One covers injury and damage, the other financial loss from your work. You can combine them in one Insify policy. Cover limits, excess and exclusions apply. See the policy wording.
Public Liability insurance
Covers claims when your work injures someone or damages something that belongs to them. For example, someone trips over your equipment, or you damage a floor while working at a client's premises.
- Choose your cover: from €1.25 million up to €6.5 million per claim, and up to twice that per insurance year
- Excess from €0, depending on your turnover
- Staff? Add optional Employers' Liability with €13 million cover per claim
- Most relevant when your work brings you into contact with clients, the public, their premises or their belongings
Professional Indemnity insurance
Covers purely financial loss a client suffers through a professional mistake, oversight or wrong advice, with no injury or property damage involved. Think of work a client claims was unfit for purpose and cost them money.
- Choose your cover: from €125,000 up to €1.25 million per claim, and up to twice that per insurance year
- Excess from €0, depending on your turnover
- Most relevant when clients pay you for advice, programmes and plans
What's covered
Cleaning and facility management are covered differently. Your quote shows what applies to your activities.
Cleaning at a client's buildings or property, including exterior cleaning and façade maintenance
Facility management: advising clients, and consulting across strategy, organisation, change, IT, marketing, HR and recruitment
Facility management: auditing and certifying, market research, and recommending actions and helping put them in place
Facility management: coaching and training, running seminars and events, placing your own staff, and interim management
Working at client sites, and travelling for the job
The premises you work from
Cleaning industrial buildings or installations
Cleaning sewers, tanks or pipes, on general cleaning, cleaner and exterior cleaning activities
Damage to artwork, antiques and collectibles at a client's site
Facility management: mergers, acquisitions and due diligence, where the revenue from that work passed €250,000 in your last financial year
Facility management: financial services, such as arranging or selling insurance or investment products
Facility management: promising or guaranteeing a result, or a contract clause that increases your liability beyond what the law would impose
Cover and exclusions shown are indicative and non-contractual. Only the terms of your policy apply.
Some examples
A cleaner working in an office in Cork left a floor wet after washing it, a client slipped and injured a wrist. Public liability covered the medical costs and the legal defence.
A cleaning product left permanent marks on a client's stone worktops and hardwood floor in a rented Dublin apartment. The refinishing cost was covered as damage to premises in the business's care.
A facility management company in Galway recommended a maintenance schedule that missed a servicing requirement, and the client had to pay for emergency repairs. Professional indemnity covered the financial loss.
A cleaner working in an office in Cork left a floor wet after washing it, a client slipped and injured a wrist. Public liability covered the medical costs and the legal defence.
A cleaning product left permanent marks on a client's stone worktops and hardwood floor in a rented Dublin apartment. The refinishing cost was covered as damage to premises in the business's care.
A facility management company in Galway recommended a maintenance schedule that missed a servicing requirement, and the client had to pay for emergency repairs. Professional indemnity covered the financial loss.
Examples are for illustrative purposes only. Compensation depends on the exact circumstances of the claim. No rights can be derived from these examples.
Your business insurance with Insify SmartGuide
Taking out insurance can be quick. Making sure you have the right cover is another matter. With Insify SmartGuide, you don't sign a contract blindly. You ask all your questions, and get clear, immediate and personalised answers, before you take out a policy.
Are you covered if you accidentally damage a client's equipment while working?
What excess should you choose?
Are you protected in the event of a dispute with a client?
Insify SmartGuide guides you step by step to understand what's covered, what isn't, and why. In just a few clicks, you build insurance that's truly tailored to your business, with complete confidence. Try Insify SmartGuide. Understand your insurance before you need it.
More than 40,000 entrepreneurs trust us
When I had to make a claim, I was amazed how quickly and efficiently it was handled. Within a few days I had a resolution.
Very friendly, quick and thorough. It gives me real confidence in taking out the cover. The company feels genuinely transparent, exactly what I look for. You don't find that often.
Very friendly, quick and thorough. It gives me real confidence in taking out the cover. The company feels genuinely transparent, exactly what I look for. You don't find that often.
When I had to make a claim, I was amazed how quickly and efficiently it was handled. Within a few days I had a resolution.
The cover itself was sorted quickly, and when I later needed support I got that fast too.
Very friendly, quick and thorough. It gives me real confidence in taking out the cover. The company feels genuinely transparent, exactly what I look for. You don't find that often.
When I had to make a claim, I was amazed how quickly and efficiently it was handled. Within a few days I had a resolution.
The cover itself was sorted quickly, and when I later needed support I got that fast too.
Answers to your questions about our insurance for cleaning and facilities businesses
Public liability isn't required by law in Ireland, but for a cleaning business it is usually the first cover to put in place. Clients, letting agents, facilities managers and local authorities frequently ask to see proof of cover before they let you work on their premises, and public sector tenders normally specify a minimum limit in the contract itself. Without cover you can lose work, and a single injury or property-damage claim could cost far more than the premium. Cover starts from €7.55 per month.
On the cleaning trades, yes, and it is included as standard rather than being an add-on you buy. Damage to third-party premises and to the items in your care is covered up to €500,000 per claim and €1 million per insurance year. That is the cover that responds when a machine catches a fitting or a cleaning product marks a floor in a building you were trusted to work in unsupervised. On facility management and facility manager activities the limit for this cover is €5,000 per claim instead, so check which figure applies to the activity you declare.
Facility management and facility manager activities can buy both covers, which is what separates them from the cleaning trades on this page. Public liability handles injury and property damage arising from the work. Professional indemnity handles purely financial loss when advice, a plan or a maintenance recommendation you gave turns out to be wrong and costs the client money. Cover limits run from €125,000 up to €1.25 million per claim on professional indemnity, and up to twice that per insurance year. If you both advise on and deliver facilities services, the two covers sit in one Insify policy.
Yes. Employers' liability can be added as an optional cover on any of the activities on this page, with a limit of €13 million per claim. It covers your legal liability if an employee is injured or becomes ill because of their work. Employers' liability is not compulsory in Ireland, unlike some other markets, but for a cleaning business with a team on client sites it is worth adding, and public sector tenders commonly specify it. You can choose it when you build your quote.
Public liability starts from €7.55 per month, and professional indemnity from €10.80 per month on facility management activities. Your actual premium depends on your turnover, the cover limit you choose and your excess, which is the amount you pay yourself towards a claim, so the final price is tailored to your business. Eligibility runs up to €10 million annual revenue and 30 staff. You can get a quote online and be insured within 2 minutes, ask questions before you commit, and there is no long-term commitment.