How to Choose a Maid for Your Home
Starting from the work rather than the hours, and what makes an arrangement last.
Knowledge · Maid Services
Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Maid
Someone will have regular access to your home and will work there largely unsupervised. That deserves a proper conversation rather than a two-minute call about timings. These are the questions worth asking, what to verify, and the answers that should prompt a second question — from both sides.
When this is useful
Before an Arrangement Is Agreed
A general checklist, whether you arrange through an agency or privately. If you have not yet worked out what the job actually is, how to choose comes first.
- Someone has been proposed and you want to check properly before agreeing
- You are arranging household help for the first time and do not know what to ask
- A previous arrangement ended badly over something that was never discussed
- You want the conversation to be fair rather than an interrogation
What households should know
Four Groups of Questions
Ask across all four. Households that only ask about availability are the ones most often renegotiating in month two.
1 · Verification — before anything else
These are yes-or-no questions: has identity been verified, and against what document; has the current address been verified; has a background check been completed, and when; who is accountable if something goes wrong. Be clear with yourself about what this establishes — who someone is, and that nothing adverse is on record. It is not a character reference, and anyone presenting it as a guarantee of honesty is overstating what any check can do.
2 · The work, described the same way by both sides
Go through the task list room by room and ask directly whether it is workable in the hours discussed. A person being honest with you at this point — saying that four rooms in ninety minutes is not realistic — is giving you the most valuable answer in the conversation. Someone who agrees to everything without pause has often not thought about it, and the disagreement simply arrives later.
3 · The practical arrangement
Settle timings and whether they are fixed or flexible; what happens on a day they cannot come; how much notice each side gives for a change; how festivals and leave are handled; whether anything is explicitly outside the work. These are the questions households skip because they feel awkward, and they are precisely the ones that end arrangements.
4 · What they ask you
The most revealing part, and it runs both ways. Someone who intends to do the job well will ask about the home, the family, when the house is busy, and what matters most to you. They may also ask their own questions about timings and expectations — which is entirely reasonable, and how someone responds to being asked questions tells you as much as their answers do.
Practical considerations
Answers Worth a Second Question
None of these means someone is unsuitable. All of them mean ask once more before agreeing.
"Yes" to absolutely everything
A long task list agreed instantly, with no questions and no pushback on timings, usually means it has not been thought through. The renegotiation still happens; it just happens later and more awkwardly.
"We can start immediately, no paperwork"
Verification takes time by definition. An arrangement that skips it has skipped the part that protects the household, and it is the household that carries that risk.
Vagueness about who is accountable
"We will sort it out" is not an answer. You want to know who to call, in what timeframe, and what happens if a replacement is needed at short notice.
Discomfort with an agreed task list
Some people would rather work their own way than to a list. That is a legitimate preference and a genuine mismatch with most households — better discovered now than in week three.
Reluctance about timings
If the proposed hours are only just workable for someone, they will not survive a changed routine. A frank conversation about what is realistic serves both sides.
Anyone guaranteeing character
An agency promising that a person is trustworthy is claiming something nobody can verify. Verification of identity, address and background is real; a guarantee of honesty is not.
General guidance vs our service
Where This Guidance Ends and Our Service Begins
Everything above applies however you hire. This is what we do when we place someone for household work — and you are entitled to put every question above to us.
What Quality Care can help with
- Identity, address and background verification, completed before anyone enters your home
- Going through the task list with both sides so the job is described the same way
- Telling you honestly when a task list is not realistic in the hours proposed
- Settling timings, notice and absence arrangements before the first day
- A local team you can reach if the arrangement needs adjusting
What we do NOT advise on
- Pay. We do not publish rates or suggest what anyone should be paid
- Employment law, contracts, notice periods or statutory obligations — ask a qualified professional
- What verification you should carry out yourself, or what any check legally establishes
- Guarantees about honesty or character. We verify identity, address and background. Nobody can guarantee the rest and we will not claim to
- Promising that a placement will work out
We place people into homes and brief both sides before a placement starts. Where a question is legal, contractual or financial rather than practical, we will say so and point you to someone qualified rather than guess in print.
Common questions
Questions Households Ask Us
What verification should be complete before someone starts?
Identity proof, address proof and background checks, completed before the first day rather than during the first week. Ask specifically what was checked and when. What that establishes is who someone is and that nothing adverse is on record — useful, but not a statement about how they will work.
Should we ask for references from previous households?
You can ask, and many people will offer them. Treat what you hear as one input among several rather than as decisive — households differ enormously in what they expect, and a mismatch in one home says little about how someone will work in another.
How specific should the task list be?
Specific enough that both sides would describe the job the same way. Room by room, task by task, and how often. Vagueness always resolves in someone's favour later, and whichever way it resolves, the other side feels the arrangement changed on them.
What should we agree about leave and absences?
Settle it before it happens: how much notice each side gives, what occurs on festivals, and whether cover is expected. We are describing a practical conversation, not the legal position — for anything contractual, speak to a qualified professional.