Paying Cash For Your Domestic Cleaner?

Whats the problem with paying cash for my cleaner?

Cash in hand payments to your Nottingham cleaner may look like an easy and efficient transaction but such methods have their downsides. It is better to understand everything about cash in hand transactions for businesses such as cleaners and traders including all technical details and responsibilities as a reputable employer.

What is the cash in hand payment method?

This is when you pay the domestic cleaners in cash instead of bank transfers or direct debit methods. For example, if your cleaner comes in once in a fortnight, you can opt to pay directly by cash after each visit. These payments could pertain to commercial cleaning, home service cleaning and end of tenancy cleaning or domestic cleaning services.

Is it considered illegal when you pay cleaners in cash?

What will be the consequences if you are practising cash in hand payments? Cleaners or handymen are in the habit of offering lower rates to you in the United Kingdom if you decide to pay cash in hand. But is such a transaction considered illegal? No. It is not illegal for the party that pays. Cleaners, decorators or handymen frequently lower their service charges if they get paid in cash. There is an implied wink here which indicates that they can keep those payments off their books to escape paying taxes. The onus lies on the service providers and cleaning companies for declaring that cash that they receive for their work to HMRC. The legal implications for the paying party are none. The legal action, if any, would usually be against the service providers.

In some cases, cleaning service providers offer discounts for payments received in cash with intent to avoid banking or administrative charges. This is to deliberately avoid the HM revenue system and circumvent any tax liabilities when it comes to year-end.

What is the difference in terms of any recourse if you are not satisfied with a cleaner’s job when you pay cash?

Let us assume that you have paid the domestic cleaner in cash but the job done was not a satisfactory one. There are always implications when you fail to get a receipt or some evidence of payments that you make in cash to domestic cleaners. Without a receipt or evidence, it will place you in a vulnerable position if you are not satisfied with the quality of work provided by the cleaners at a later stage. In the event of low-quality workmanship, there would be no recourse available to you if the payments to the cleaners have been paid in cash. There will be no chance of seeking help from the trading standards if services are paid in cash informally without any distinct trail of a valid contract and terms and conditions of services received from domestic cleaners.

Home insurance

A very important point to make is that the liability insurers of traders would also deny covering claims if there are no receipts for payments made.

This kind of a situation will not arise with domestic cleaners such as NG1 City Cleaners. We are committed to their service contracts which are issued in writing to our customers and their staff is also not in the habit of receiving cash in hand. All of NG1 city cleaners payments are made using a bank transfer method for clear traceability. We are also insured with additional parts to our policy that cover us for items that are worked on, giving our customers extra piece of mind.

Professional integrity

If your cleaner is willing to accept payments under the HMRC radar, it does bring into question what they are willing to do under your radar. NG1 city cleaners are set up to ensure that we deliver our work to an excellent standard and it is audited regularly. We do not compromise on our service nor cut corners.

Covered by Consumer Rights Act of 2015

The Consumer Rights Act of 2015 offers full protection to consumers. It has set out certain implied terms that domestic cleaning service companies must follow otherwise they are liable to be held in breach of a contract. All services that they supply must be executed with reasonable skill and care and they must follow fixed costs and reasonable timescales. There are no rigid requirements of issuing a written contract before offering services to customers as the terms get implied by a statute, irrespective of whether they are agreed verbally or given in writing. It would be advantageous, however, to have paper trails available if you want to prove the existence of a service contract or agreed to terms and conditions.

Why do some business service providers prefer to receive cash in hand from their customers?

Consideration of cash flow is crucial with small business enterprises like domestic cleaning service providers. These companies have employee’s salaries to pay or pressing bills besides saving the time they waste in bank queues or in settling bank charges. They also have to pay upfront for all materials that they purchase. When they receive cash in hand payments from their customers, it helps them take care of various financial problems that may be caused by waiting for almost three days for cheques to be cleared by banks.

Ultimately, what is the cost of cash-in-hand payments to the Uk’s economy?

It has been estimated that more than two billion British pounds a year are lost as a result of servicing companies being paid cash in hand because invariably, they do not end up declaring their income and avoid paying relevant taxes. By paying your domestic cleaners cash in hand, you are actually contributing to the loss of billions of pounds from the nation’s economy. If you pay into the bank account of the domestic cleaners, you are creating a transaction record between you and the cleaner which can be tracked by the government.

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