Ask the company for its certificate of insurance — the COI — and read three lines before anyone sets foot in your home: the general liability limits, the workers’ compensation entry, and the policy dates. A genuinely insured company can produce that one-page document fast; JAS publishes that most certificates are returned within 2 business hours.
“Insured and bonded” costs nothing to type into a website footer. The certificate costs the company nothing either — its insurance agent issues it on request — which is exactly what makes it a good test: the only company that struggles to produce one is the company with no policy behind the phrase.
The ask: one email, no justification needed
You do not need a booking, a reason, or any special wording. Our own published route, on the legal page, is one sentence: certificate of insurance available on request — email bookings@jascleaning.com with “COI” in the subject line and the entity name, and most certificates are returned within 2 business hours. The “entity” is whoever the certificate should be issued to — you, or your building. Any established company has an equivalent route, because buildings ask for this constantly. What you are measuring in the reply is not the paperwork — it is the hesitation. A company that stalls, or explains why you do not need one, has answered the question.
Reading the certificate: the lines that matter
- The insured’s name. It must match the company you are actually booking with. In Miami it is common to operate under a trade name that differs from the registered one; Florida’s Division of Corporations runs a free public search — Sunbiz — that shows you which entity sits behind the name. An insured that matches nothing traceable is the first red flag.
- General liability. These are the columns with the dollar amounts — per occurrence and aggregate. The best use of those numbers is consistency with the company’s own advertising: our legal page publishes “$2,000,000 general liability coverage · every cleaner background-checked”, so a JAS certificate showing anything lower would be a discrepancy you should call us on. Apply the same test to anyone: what the website claims and what the certificate says must be the same number.
- The workers’ compensation line. This is the one homeowners skip and buildings never do. If it is blank, ask why before the first visit — and you do not have to take the answer on faith: Florida’s Division of Workers’ Compensation maintains a public Proof of Coverage search where you can look the company up by name.
- The dates. Each policy’s effective and expiration dates must bracket your first visit. A COI is a snapshot of the day it was issued, not a subscription — if the arrangement is recurring, ask for a fresh one when the policy year rolls over.
Verify past the PDF
The certificate carries the name of the producer — the insurance agency that issued it — with a phone number. Calling that number is the strongest single check there is, because you are asking someone who is not the cleaning company whether the policy is active today. And ask to be the certificate holder: the commercial version of that promise is published verbatim in 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.” A homeowner can ask for exactly the same thing under their own name: a certificate issued for you is not a recycled PDF from a folder.
Questions about your place specifically? No need to finish the article — call, text, WhatsApp, or email us and we’ll take it from here.
“Bonded” is a different document — never infer it
A bond is not insurance: it is a separate product with its own paper and its own terms, and “insured” never implies it. We are specific here because we hold ourselves to the rule: JAS publishes a general liability figure and a background-check claim; we publish no bond, and you should not infer one from our pages. With any company you are vetting, ask which documents exist instead of parsing the tagline — our post on what “licensed, bonded and insured” actually means takes the phrase apart word by word.
Why the ten minutes are worth it
Without the paper, a company’s promises are worth whatever its bank account is worth. With it, a scratched countertop becomes a claim instead of an argument, and the question of who answers when a worker is hurt on your property has somewhere to land that is not your front door. The damage scenario has a post of its own — if a house cleaner breaks something, who pays — and the full four-check screen is in is it safe to hire a house cleaning service. The COI is the part of that screen you can hold in your hand.
FAQ
How fast should a cleaning company send a COI?
Same day to a couple of business days is normal — the insurance agent produces it, not the company. JAS publishes that most certificates are returned within 2 business hours. A company that stalls for a week, or asks why you want one, has told you what you needed to know.
Can I be the certificate holder if I’m just a homeowner?
Yes — give your full name as the entity when you request it. A certificate issued in your name was produced for you specifically, not pulled from a folder, and you can confirm any detail on it with the insurance agent the document lists.
Is a company that says “bonded” better than one that only says “insured”?
They are different documents, not ranks. General liability and workers’ compensation are the lines that cover the likeliest bad days; a bond is a separate product governed by its own terms. Judge the papers a company can actually produce, not the number of words in its tagline.