Insured means an insurer issued a policy and will confirm it to you in writing — that document is the certificate of insurance. Bonded means the company separately bought a bond, and the bond document itself defines what it covers. Licensed means whatever it means to whoever is asking you for it. Three words, three different pieces of paper.
The full sentence shows up on nearly every website in this industry because typing it costs nothing. What costs something — and what actually separates one company from another — is producing the document when somebody asks for it. So the useful test is not whether a company says it is insured. It is how fast the certificate arrives, whose name it arrives in, and what dates it carries.
Insured: the certificate is the proof, the sentence is not
A certificate of insurance — a COI — is issued by the insurer or its agent, not by a cleaning company’s marketing. It names a certificate holder: the person or entity the insurer confirms the coverage to. It lists the policies in force, and it carries effective and expiration dates. Those dates are the half of the document almost nobody reads.
A certificate that expired in July is a PDF, not coverage. And the lines that do — or do not — appear on it are the answer to the question you are actually asking. Read them. If your lease or your building requires a line you cannot find there, put the question to the agent named on the certificate rather than to the salesperson.
Here is what we publish, and where: $2,000,000 general liability coverage · every cleaner background-checked, with the route to the document written on the same page — email bookings@jascleaning.com with your subject line “COI” and the entity name. Most certificates are returned within 2 business hours.
“Nobody has to take a cleaning company’s word for this. The certificate is issued by a third party — that is the whole reason it counts.”
Bonded: the word we do not use about ourselves
A bond is not insurance. It is a product a company buys from a surety, and what it covers, who may claim on it, and under what conditions are written on the bond itself — and they vary from bond to bond. That is why the word “bonded” on its own tells you nothing checkable. If a company mentions one, ask in the same email for the surety’s name, the bond number and the amount, alongside the certificate of insurance.
And here is the part an article written by a bond salesman will never give you: JAS does not publish a bond. What we publish is general liability coverage and background checks on every cleaner, on the page linked above. We do not imply what we have not written down, and you should not infer it from anyone else either. If a website says all three words, make all three arrive as documents.
Licensed: a word that depends on who is asking
“Licensed” is not one document. Different entities — a city, a county, a building’s management office, a company’s procurement team — ask for different things, and each keeps its own list. We are not going to summarize anybody’s rules here: a summary written by a cleaning company is not a source, and getting that summary wrong is worse than not publishing it.
The move is to ask two questions: ask the company which registration they mean and whose name it is in, and ask the entity that requires it whether its answer changes anything for you. Everything else is a word in a footer. And do not confuse the two kinds of requirement: your building’s vendor rules are the building’s, not a public registry — and in Miami they are usually the ones that actually decide whether a crew gets in.
In a Miami building, the paperwork is the appointment
In a house with a driveway, the certificate is a precaution. In a tower it is the condition of entry. Buildings want vendors registered at the front desk, many associations require a certificate of insurance on file before a crew passes the lobby, and some assign the service elevator by reservation and time slot. How that plays out visit to visit is in our Miami apartment and condo guide.
This is why “we’re insured” is not enough: the management office wants the certificate in the building’s name, as the holder. Send us the association name exactly as it appears on your paperwork — a certificate holder spelled almost right comes back rejected and costs you a week of calendar. With the published route — an email with “COI” in the subject, most returned within 2 business hours — that is usually the difference between cleaning this week and cleaning next.
One calendar detail that costs people real money: certificates expire on the policy’s schedule, not on your booking schedule. If your building re-verifies vendor files, do not find out in the middle of hurricane season — June through November — that the certificate on file expired in July. Ask for a current one when the season opens and file it with the rest of the building paperwork.
If the one hiring is a business
For an office, the vendor file is not optional and usually arrives as a list. Ours is published on our FAQ: $2M general liability, a COI naming your building as certificate holder within 2 business hours, a W-9 on request, and background-checked teams. How the service itself is scoped and priced lives on the office cleaning in Miami page.
Before you request anything, get the exact legal name of the entity that has to appear as certificate holder — the one on the lease, not the one on the door — and confirm whether your landlord requires any specific line. That detail is what turns a COI request into a document accepted on the first try.
And if something breaks
This is the question worth asking before you hire, not after. Our Terms publish the whole route: if something is damaged during a clean, tell us within 24 hours at support@jascleaning.com — damage is documented in your CleanCheck and resolved through our insurance. Watch the documentation step: on eligible completed visits the CleanCheck report already carries the checklist status and customer-safe photos, and that is what turns a disagreement into a claim somebody can process.
The same Terms publish the limits, which is the part that usually surfaces only when it is too late: to the maximum extent Florida law allows, our total liability for any claim is limited to the amount you paid for the service giving rise to it, and disputes we cannot resolve between us belong in the courts of Miami-Dade County. We would rather you read that today, in the calm.
And one clarification no policy replaces: a cleaning visit is not remediation. The Terms reserve the right to refuse service in cases of unsafe conditions (mold, infestation, biohazard). Being insured does not make us the right company for a problem that needs a different specialist.
How to verify us, point by point
Our transparency page publishes four routes, and not one of them runs through taking our word for it: read customer reviews; search “JAS Cleaning Miami” on Google Business Profile; request the insurance certificate by email with “COI” in the subject, which we send within 2 business hours; and email transparency@jascleaning.com if you spot a discrepancy with any number we publish. That last one is the one that matters: a company that invites an audit is a company that can afford one.
The rest of what is worth demanding from any company before you hand over a key — a published price, a written checklist, photo proof — is in how to choose a house cleaning service. On the service side, residential cleaning in Miami publishes its own starting point: starting at $225, a 2–3 hour visit with a 2-person team, 28 items verified by photo, and a CleanCheck Report after. That page is the source that gets updated; this one only points at it.
Quick answers
Should I ask a cleaning company for a certificate of insurance?
Yes, and ask for it addressed to you, your landlord, or your building rather than as a generic PDF. With JAS the route is published: email bookings@jascleaning.com with your subject line "COI" and the entity name. Most certificates are returned within 2 business hours. Time that turnaround with any company you are considering — it tells you whether a live policy and an agent are actually behind the sentence on the website.
What is the difference between bonded and insured?
They are two different purchases with two different documents. Insurance is a policy issued by an insurer, and the certificate of insurance is how that policy is confirmed to you in writing. A bond is bought separately from a surety company, and the bond document itself defines what it covers, who may claim, and how. JAS publishes $2,000,000 general liability coverage and background-checked cleaners on its insurance page; it does not publish a bond, so please do not read one into our pages.
A company says it is "licensed". What should I actually ask?
Ask which registration they mean, who issued it, and what name it is under — then ask the entity that requires it, because that entity is the only one whose answer binds anyone. We are not going to summarize anybody’s licensing rules for you here; a summary written by a cleaning company is not a source. The documents you can actually check are the certificate of insurance, the company name on it, and your own building’s vendor requirements.
What happens if a cleaner breaks something in my home?
Our Terms publish the route: if something is damaged during a clean, tell us within 24 hours at support@jascleaning.com — damage is documented in your CleanCheck and resolved through our insurance. The same Terms publish the limit, which is the part most companies leave for later: to the maximum extent Florida law allows, our total liability for any claim is limited to the amount you paid for the service giving rise to it.
What if a cleaner is injured while working at my business?
That question is answered by the certificate, not by a tagline. A certificate of insurance lists the policies in force on the date it was issued, so request it, read which lines appear on it, and put the question to the agent named on the certificate if a line your lease requires is missing. What JAS publishes on its own pages is $2,000,000 general liability coverage and background-checked cleaners; the certificate is the authority for what is in force on the day of your visit.
My condo association wants the certificate in its own name. Can you do that?
Yes — that is what the entity name in the request is for. Send us the association or building name exactly as it appears on your lease or association paperwork, because a certificate holder spelled almost right gets bounced back by a management office and costs you a week. For offices and buildings, our FAQ publishes the same package: $2M general liability, a COI naming your building as certificate holder within 2 business hours, a W-9 on request, and background-checked teams.
The short version
Insured is proven by a certificate in the right name with current dates. Bonded is proven by the bond — and JAS does not publish one. Licensed depends entirely on who is requiring it, so ask which registration is meant and verify it with the entity that asks for it. What we publish is $2,000,000 general liability coverage, background checks on every cleaner, and a written route for damage. Ask for the paperwork; a sentence is not paperwork.
This guide is part of the JAS operating playbook — written to answer in public the question the rest of the industry prefers to answer on a phone call.