Colorado Springs House
                  Cleaning Service, Inc.

                                                  Serving Colorado Springs, Monument, Black Forest, Woodland Park, Falcon
                                                                               and all surrounding areas since 1987



Some Commonly Asked Questions:

1. Do I really need a  maid service to do this for me?  In the past I have had an individual who has their own business and operates under a business name?  Why would that be a problem?

Yes, it's true there are independent cleaners out there, but most homeowners are totally unaware of the risks involved in hiring an independent maid to work for them. First there is the legal issue of the requirement by the IRS and Social Security Administration that you treat them as your "domestic employee" and withhold income taxes and FICA for wages paid to them and remit these to the IRS as well as include your matching Social Security contribution. This applies even if you only have them work for you once a week or every other week or monthly. This is the infamous "nanny tax" and if you just pay your housekeeper in cash and hope for the best you will have a rude surprise 10 or more years later when this person tries to retire with no Social Security and you get a cordial letter in the mail informing you that you owe the Social Security for this persons FICA plus penalties. Just not worth it in the long run.  Also don't be fooled by those claiming that they are doing it themselves .. it's your responsibility and it will come back to bite you if you don't do the right thing now. Most independents do NOT want you to withhold because they take less home that way ... but 10 or 15 years down the line when they have no social security coming to them or when they are audited by the IRS they will sing a different song .. they will blame YOU and all their other employers for their woes ... Just not worth the problems!

An even bigger concern is WHY many independents are going it alone. The fact is many "independents" are doing their own thing because no reputable cleaning company will hire them because of some past problem. There are individuals with criminal records that struggle to find work with any legitimate company. These people will go out and plaster a neighborhood offering to do house cleaning or landscaping or handy work, painting, etc., etc. How do you know who you are dealing with? Even if they have a trade name keep in mind that anybody can file a trade name and be in business in a few hours.Don't be fooled by the fact that your neighbor uses them and assume that you can trust them. How did your neighbor check this person out? We are not trying to scare you, but there ARE questionable people out there. Take a look at this article from the Cincinnati Enquirer and you will see how A NUMBER of people were taken in by this woman who operated a "company".  Click Here   Also here is another case of somebody else doing the same thing:   Click Here ... can you afford to go with just anybody? You can trust Colorado Springs House Cleaning Service with your home. We run thorough background checks on all our employees and will not take chances with questionable people in your home! Call us for your housecleaning needs in Denver, Aurora, Parker, Littleton, Highlands Ranch,Castle Rock, Colorado Springs and all surrounding areas.

2. How about somebody that previously worked for you or another company? If they were fine working for your company why would it be a problem for them to work for me?

There are two issues here. Firstly, any existing or former employee of ours who approaches you directly to work for you privately knows that they are violating the law and company policies. All of our employees are required to sign an agreement that limits them from having contact with our customers (as far as it relates to providing services similar to our services) after they leave our employ or on their own. This agreement spells out that fact that our company information on who our customers are and what we do for our customers is confidential company trade secrets and as our employee we are entrusting to them this confidential information. They are not permitted to use this information in any way for their own benefit. The bottom line is that before they came to work for us they had no knowledge of who our customers are and what we do for our customers and it is regarded as a "theft of trade secrets" for an individual to work for a company, find out confidential information and then use it to the detriment of the company for their own benefit. This in other words is THEFT and is a CRIMINAL OFFENSE. Here is some info about the trade secrets law: Click Here.  The bottom line is if this individual is willing to risk jail time to STEAL from our company, then what makes you think they will not steal from you? They are either honest or they are not ... don't be fooled into accepting their excuses as to why it is OK for them to do what they are proposing to do, ie steal from the company a customer we invested advertising dollars into getting  ... they will do exactly the same thing in justifying why it is OK to take from you something that is not theirs to take. Our customers are not theirs to take. They are free to spend the money, as we do, to advertise to get their own customers .. but a dishonest person just won't do that .. it's easier to steal than to do the right thing!

Secondly, as a company we are very careful who we hire and we constantly monitor our employees to ensure we have honest people working for us. We do thorough background checks and an ongoing assessment of each and every employee. We are careful to ensure that even if an employee is not charged with a crime, if we have an uneasy feeling about a person we will not hire them or we will let them go if we have an uneasy feeling about them and feel that they may have slipped through the cracks. Although that may mean that we occasionally pass up somebody that may have been OK, we would rather err on the side of caution and not take a chance in putting a dishonest person in your home. What do you really know about that independent cleaner? .... Very little I am sure!

The fact is that even if a person is honest today, it does not mean that they will continue to be honest. Many criminals become criminals when the opportunity arises or when they are desperate. An individual may have been a former employee  of our or another cleaning company and at that time they were honest, but then all of a sudden their circumstances change and they, in desperation, become thieves. Most individuals who are out there working alone often are not able to make ends meet and have nothing to fall back on when an emergency hits ... that is often when they will become desperate and do dishonest things! Our employees have no need to ever consider being dishonest in your home. We treat employees like family and our employees know that if they have an immediate need they can approach us to assist them. Individuals working alone just don't have those options open to them so they may be tempted in your home. Do you want to constantly be worried about the person who is in your home? Colorado Springs House Cleaning Service, Inc.take the GUESS WORK out of hiring a house-cleaner. If you have us clean your home you can be sure we will stay on top of everything that goes on with our employee so that you don't have to!