How to Verify a Carpet Cleaner's Insurance and Certification

What should I check before booking a carpet cleaner?

Three things, and you can do all of them before you commit to a date. Confirm the IICRC certification and whose name it sits under. Ask for a certificate of insurance sent to you by the insurer rather than forwarded by the cleaner. Look up the business tax receipt that shows they are registered to trade in Orange County. Ten minutes on the phone and a browser tab does more for you than an hour of reading reviews, because reviews tell you how a job went and these tell you what happens when one goes wrong.

It matters most in a house. The job means a hose running from a van in your driveway, through your front door, past your walls and around your furniture, and if something goes through a doorframe or a rug you cannot replace, who pays was decided before the van arrived.

Does IICRC certification belong to the person or the company?

Both exist, and they are not the same thing. The IICRC certifies individual technicians by subject, and it separately designates Certified Firms at a company level. A firm has to keep at least one active, unique certified technician on file and supply a current copy of its liability insurance, which the IICRC sets out in its own published FAQs.

So the word certified on a website means nothing until you ask a follow up. Is the owner certified, is a technician certified, or is the company a Certified Firm? All three are legitimate answers. A company that cannot tell you which applies to it has answered a different question.

How do I actually verify an IICRC certification?

Ask for the certificate number and the name it is registered under, then check a company claim against the IICRC's own Certified Firm verification page, or ask the IICRC directly about an individual one. Do not accept a logo on a website as the check. A logo is an image file.

Two habits catch most of it. Match the name on the certificate to the name on the quote, because a certificate belonging to a former employee or an old trading name is an easy thing to miss. And ask when it was last renewed.

What insurance should a carpet cleaner carry?

General liability is the one that matters to you. It is what responds if a hose catches a banister, a machine leaks onto a hardwood threshold, or a piece of furniture is damaged during a move. Ask for the limit rather than a yes, and ask whether care, custody and control is covered, because some policies exclude damage to the very thing the contractor was working on.

Then ask for the certificate to come from the insurance company or the broker, addressed to you. It is a normal request. A certificate forwarded by the cleaner is a snapshot of a day that has passed, and a policy that has since lapsed looks identical on paper.

If you have original floors in Winter Park or Baldwin Park, or anything you would struggle to match, say so on the call and ask how that item would be handled. You want a straight answer about what is covered, not a reassurance.

Does a carpet cleaner in Florida need workers' compensation?

Often not, and this is where a lot of homeowner advice goes wrong. Florida's Division of Workers' Compensation sets the threshold in the non-construction industry at four or more employees, and it notes that sole proprietors and partners are not counted as employees unless they choose to be included and file the form for it. Construction is different and starts at one.

So a solo owner operator working alone in your house without it is following the rule rather than dodging it, and treating its absence as a red flag rules out a lot of the good operators in Orlando. Ask instead how many people will be in the house. A crew of five with no coverage is a different conversation.

How do I confirm they are a registered business in Orlando?

Orange County issues business tax receipts, and the Tax Collector publishes information on them through its business taxes pages. Ask the company for the name the receipt is held under and confirm it matches the name on your quote and the name on the insurance certificate.

Three names should match: the quote, the insurance certificate and the business registration. When they do not, there is usually an innocent reason and occasionally there is not. Either way you want the explanation before the work, not after.

What to do in the three situations this usually comes down to

You found a very cheap quote from a company with no address, no certificate name and a website full of stock photography. Spend the ten minutes. If the certificate does not arrive from the insurer within a day, you have your answer and you have lost a phone call.

You are choosing between two similar quotes. Ask both for the certificate and the certification name. The one that answers plainly and quickly is telling you how the rest of the job will go, including what happens if you are unhappy with the result. That single signal separates them more reliably than the price difference does.

You already booked and the van is due tomorrow. Ask on the doorstep, before anything is unloaded. Walk the rooms with them first too, which is worth doing regardless: our note on what to check before the carpet cleaner drives away covers the other end of the same visit.

How HomeProud works

HomeProud Inc is owner operated. Adam Corbett does the work himself, there is no subcontracting, and the person who quotes your job is the person who cleans it. He is IICRC certified, and the business is licensed and insured.

That covers carpet cleaning, tile and grout cleaning, upholstery and leather across Orlando, Winter Park, Dr. Phillips, Maitland, Altamonte Springs and Winter Garden. Every job carries a firm quote before work starts, and if something is not right we make it right. You can ask for one by phone or through the free quote form.