Short answer
Check the licence first — cleaners are not licensed in Australia, so check qualifications and public liability insurance instead. Then check that the business is who it says it is: of the 2,425 Australian cleaners in this directory, only 8.3% publish an ABN you can confirm, and 4.5% list a phone number that contradicts the one on their own website.
Cleaners handle regular domestic cleans, end-of-lease and bond cleans, deep cleans and commercial work. This is what to check before you give someone a key to your home, and what the evidence says about the category as a whole.
There is no cleaner licence — so check something else
There is no cleaning licence anywhere in Australia. Anyone can start tomorrow. That makes public liability insurance the single most important thing to confirm, because a cleaner works unsupervised in your home around your possessions, and without cover a broken heirloom or a flooded floor is simply your loss.
There is no register to check, because there is no licence. Ask for the public liability insurance certificate instead — it names the insurer, the policy number and the expiry date, and an insurer will confirm a policy is current if you ring them. An ABN check on the national register tells you the business is at least registered.
What 2,425 Australian cleaners actually publish
We check every business in this directory the same way, and publish the result whether it flatters the trade or not. For cleaners:
| What we checked | Cleaners | All trades |
|---|---|---|
| Publish an ABN we could confirm | 8.3% | 9.8% |
| Listed phone matches their own website | 40.6% | 39.2% |
| Listed phone contradicts their own website | 4.5% | 4.8% |
| Website responded when we checked | 66.1% | 64.7% |
| Corroborated by two or more sources | 92.7% | 94.1% |
| Median number of Google reviews | 23 | 29 |
What goes wrong with cleaners
- No public liability insurance, discovered after something is damaged
- A bond-back guarantee that turns out to have no written terms
- Different people sent each visit, so nobody learns the place
- Cash-only arrangements that leave you no record if something goes missing
What to ask before the work starts
- Do you carry public liability insurance, and can I see the certificate?
- Is the same cleaner sent each time, or does it vary?
- If this is a bond clean, what exactly does the guarantee cover and for how long?
A cleaner who answers all three of those without hesitating is telling you something useful. One who is vague about a licence number is telling you something too.
The median matters more than the average
The median cleaner in this directory has 23 Google reviews. That is the number to hold in your head when you see a perfect five-star rating: five stars from four reviews and 4.6 from three hundred are not comparable, and the second is almost always the safer hire.
It is also why the ranking here weights review volume more heavily than review score. A business cannot buy its position, and a handful of glowing reviews does not move it far.
Where the cleaners are
Melbourne (196), Sydney (193), Brisbane (114), Perth (99), Gold Coast (84), Adelaide (66). A shortlist for your own area is more useful than a national ranking — the best cleaner in the country is no help if they are four states away.
Where to check a licence, by state
There is no national register. Search the licence number with the regulator for the state where the work is happening.
- NSWNSW Fair Tradingbuilders, electricians, plumbers and specialist trades
- VICVictorian Building Authority, and Energy Safe Victoria for electricalbuilding practitioners and plumbers; electricians are Energy Safe Victoria
- QLDQueensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC)building and most trade contractor licences
- WABuilding and Energybuilders, electricians, plumbers and gas fitters
- SAConsumer and Business Servicesbuilding work contractors and supervisors
- TASConsumer, Building and Occupational Services (CBOS)building and occupational licences
- ACTAccess Canberraconstruction occupations licensing
- NTNT Government building practitioner registrationbuilding practitioners and electrical workers
Common questions
- Do cleaners need a licence in Australia?
- No. There is no cleaning licence anywhere in Australia. Anyone can start tomorrow. That makes public liability insurance the single most important thing to confirm, because a cleaner works unsupervised in your home around your possessions, and without cover a broken heirloom or a flooded floor is simply your loss.
- How do I check a cleaner's licence?
- There is no register to check, because there is no licence. Ask for the public liability insurance certificate instead — it names the insurer, the policy number and the expiry date, and an insurer will confirm a policy is current if you ring them. An ABN check on the national register tells you the business is at least registered.
- What percentage of Australian cleaners have a verifiable ABN?
- 8.3% of the 2,425 cleaners in this directory publish an ABN we could confirm against the national register, against 9.8% across all trades.
- How many reviews should a cleaner have?
- The median cleaner here has 23. Treat a five-star rating from a handful of reviews with more caution than a slightly lower rating from hundreds.
Compare cleaners near you
2,425 cleaners, ranked on the evidence described above rather than on advertising.
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