How to choose a window cleaner for your home

When a homeowner calls us on 01 89 19 68 69 about their windows, the first three questions are almost always the same: how much does it cost, when are you available, and do you also clean bay windows. Then come the equipment questions: do you bring everything, do I need to provide a bucket — that last one comes up more often than you would think.

These are fair questions. The problem lies in the ones almost nobody asks: are you insured, is your personal services registration valid, do I genuinely qualify for the tax credit, what happens if your cleaner falls in my home, and who replaces them if they are ill. That is where the real difference between two similar-looking quotes is decided. Here is what we suggest checking, in order, and why it matters.

The five checks to make before signing

None of these five checks takes more than two minutes. Together, they eliminate almost every unpleasant surprise we see among clients who come to us after a bad experience.

1. Personal services (SAP) registration. This is the legal condition for the 50% tax credit. Without it, your invoice simply is not eligible, however competent the provider may be.
2. A professional liability insurance certificate. Ask for it and check the validity dates. A serious professional sends it without hesitation — often before being asked.
3. A SIRET number and a business address. A mobile number alone, with no SIRET and no address, is not an identifiable business. You would have no recourse if something went wrong.
4. A written, itemised quote before the work. Not a range quoted over the phone: a document listing the number of panes, what is included (frames, sills, both sides) and the price.
5. The URSSAF immediate advance. Not every company offers it. It changes your cash flow entirely: you pay only the net amount instead of fronting the full sum for more than a year.

SAP registration: the check worth several hundred euros

Many homeowners assume that any cleaning invoice qualifies for the tax credit. It does not, and this is by far the most expensive misunderstanding in our trade. To be eligible, the company must be registered as a personal services provider for that specific activity. Our registration number is SAP no. 2023-433.

We have taken on several clients who expected to recover half their invoice and discovered, sometimes months later at tax return time, that they would recover nothing. The reaction is always the same: "if I had known, I would have picked another company." They had saved twenty or thirty euros on the quote. They lost several hundred euros of tax credit.

How to check in two minutes

Three methods, from fastest to most reliable:

• Ask directly for the SAP registration number. A registered company knows it by heart and shares it immediately.
• Check that window cleaning actually appears among the registered activities — some providers are registered for general housekeeping but not for glazing.
• Consult the official directory of registered personal services organisations, which lists providers and their approved activities.

The URSSAF immediate advance, to ask about before signing

The principle is simple: you approve the request, URSSAF pays the tax credit portion directly, and you settle only the remaining balance. On a €200 job, you pay €100 on the day rather than fronting €200 and waiting for the following year's tax return. Not every window cleaning business offers this scheme, so ask before signing the quote, not after.

Insurance: what actually happens if the cleaner is injured in your home

This is the least discussed point and the one with the heaviest consequences. Our own teams have never had a serious accident in a client's home. We are, however, aware of two cases among fellow professionals, and they illustrate why this check is not administrative box-ticking.

First case: a properly insured independent

An independent professional falls from a step ladder in a client's home. Fractured wrist, several weeks off work. Because he held proper professional liability and income protection cover, the client paid nothing and was never contacted about it. That is exactly how it should work.

Second case: a provider with almost no cover

An upper-floor window, again in a private home. The provider was barely insured. For several months, the homeowner was asked to explain the circumstances of the accident, describe the working conditions and produce evidence. His liability was ultimately not established — but he went through a long, extremely stressful process for something he had objectively done nothing wrong about.

One point that is often misunderstood: if you hire a company, you are not the cleaner's employer, and the company carries responsibility for its employees' safety. If you employ someone directly, under a domestic employment arrangement, the logic changes and part of that responsibility falls to you. This is a substantive legal distinction, not a billing detail.

Independent or company: the honest comparison

We are a company with salaried staff, so we are hardly neutral. We will still give you the analysis we would give a friend — because in a fair number of cases, the right answer is not us.

What an independent genuinely does better

Independent professionals have real advantages, and it would be dishonest to gloss over them:

• The same person every time. They know your home, the window that sticks, the bay with the fragile seal. That continuity is worth something.
• Often lower rates, because their cost structure is lighter.
• Considerable flexibility on scheduling and last-minute requests.
• Strong responsiveness: an available independent can come round very quickly.

What a company adds

Conversely, there are four situations where structure makes a concrete difference:

• Continuity. If the usual agent is ill, another one comes. With an independent, a bout of flu pushes your appointment back two weeks.
• Long-term follow-up. If you move within the area, the company follows. If you add a service, it joins the same contract.
• Heavy equipment. A pure water pole, an osmosis system, a professional step ladder: these are investments not every independent has made.
• Someone to talk to if there is a dispute. You speak to a quality manager, not to the person who did the work.

Nine warning signs of a provider to avoid

Here is what tells us, reading a competitor's advert or quote, that things are likely to end badly. No single signal proves anything on its own. Two or three together are reason enough to walk away.

• No SIRET number displayed anywhere: not on the advert, the quote or the invoice.
• A mobile number as the only point of contact, with no business address or professional email.
• Payment demanded exclusively in cash. No invoice means no tax credit, no proof and no recourse.
• Refusal to issue a written quote. This is a deal-breaker: the quote is your only protection on what is included.
• No insurance documentation, or a certificate promised "later on".
• A flat rate that is obviously impossible — "all your windows for €25" when you have forty of them.
• Refusal to give any price range before arriving. An experienced professional can frame a price from photos.
• No identifiable business address, not even an approximate one.
• Google reviews all posted in the same week, often written in the same style.

Real case: €120 paid, €210 to redo the job (Paris 16th)

A 95 m² flat in the 16th arrondissement. The client had found someone through a Facebook group and paid €120. The result: streaks across much of the glazing, frames and sills never wiped, two bay windows simply skipped. And from the next day onwards, no answer on the phone.

We came two days later and redid all the glazing, frames and sills included. Invoice: €210. The client therefore paid €330 in total for work worth €210. He now calls us twice a year.

Spotting a professional by their equipment

Contrary to a common belief, residential window cleaning does not always require heavy equipment. What matters is that the kit is suited to your home — and that there is some. Here is what we actually use, and when.

The traditional squeegee: around 90% of jobs

This is the main tool in a private home, and the one that gives the best result on accessible glazing. Window cleaning is a craft of technique far more than of product: mastery of the squeegee, the applicator and the angle of attack is what separates streak-free glass from glass that shows lines against the light. A worn rubber blade leaves a line on every pass, which is why it is replaced regularly.

The telescopic pole: conservatories, glass roofs, high windows

It comes out whenever glazing cannot be reached safely from the ground or from inside: a glass roof, a conservatory, a high transom, an awkward window. Its value is not just convenience — it is what allows the cleaner to avoid climbing onto a window ledge.

Pure water: useful, but not essential everywhere

Demineralised, osmosis-filtered water dries without leaving deposits. We reserve it for large glazed façades and for panes that cannot be reached from inside. In a standard Paris flat it adds little to a well-handled squeegee. Be wary of a provider charging it as a premium option on three ground-floor windows.

The thirty-second test, when the cleaner arrives

You do not need to be an expert to assess a professional: just look at what comes out of the bag. A properly equipped window cleaner arrives with:

• several squeegees of different widths, not one universal size;
• several applicators, suited to small panes as well as large surfaces;
• clean microfibre cloths — and spares, because a cloth dropped on the floor must never go back onto glass;
• a professional scraper, used only where the type of glazing allows it;
• a tool belt, which avoids equipment being placed on your furniture;
• floor protection, often the first detail that separates a professional from an amateur in a home;
• a professional step ladder if the layout calls for it — never your kitchen chair.

The process you should expect

A well-run professional follows the same process from one client to the next. If they improvise in your home, they will improvise on the price too. Here is ours, which you can use as a benchmark.

Standard flat: remote quoting

A few photos by WhatsApp, the address, the number of windows, the floor and the access arrangements are enough. We issue a quote the same day, and the work usually takes place within 48 to 72 hours. Insisting on a site visit for six windows is, in most cases, a waste of your time and ours.

House, conservatory or large glass roof: site visit

Here we prefer to come out. A glass roof, a conservatory or a glazed façade raises questions of clearance, access and safety that a photo does not convey accurately. A provider who prices a glass roof without seeing it is taking a risk — and that risk always comes back to you, as a supplement or as rushed work.

Final inspection: two pairs of eyes

On larger jobs we work in pairs: one cleans, the other handles the finishing and checks the result against the light. And without exception, before leaving, we walk through the home with the client. It is the best way to avoid misunderstandings: a point raised on the spot is fixed in two minutes, while the same point raised by phone the next day becomes a dispute.

What a serious professional must be willing to refuse

This is rarely written down, yet it is an excellent indicator. We turn down certain jobs:

• windows opening straight onto a drop, with no safety device and no anchor point;
• older buildings where reaching the outer face would mean climbing fully over the railing — as distinct from the standard Haussmann layout, where the casement opens inwards and the window bar allows the work to be done safely;
• very high glass roofs where no pole or suitable scaffolding can be used.

We also decline requests where the client insists we work while taking risks, including when they offer to pay more. A provider who accepts everything, under any conditions, is not an accommodating provider: they are one with no safety rules. No window is worth an accident.

Summary table: what to check, what to ask

Worth keeping to hand when comparing two quotes. Read the columns left to right: the point to check, the exact question to ask, what should worry you in the answer, and what is actually at stake.