· 6 min read
Switching cleaning companies: notice periods, TUPE and a smooth handover
How to change commercial cleaning contractor without a gap in service, from reading your notice period to what TUPE means for the cleaners on your site, with a week-by-week handover plan.
Most businesses that switch cleaning companies have put up with a problem for months before they act. Bins get missed, the washroom is never quite right, and the supervisor stops answering emails. When you finally decide to change, the worries are practical. How much notice do we have to give? What happens to the cleaner who has been coming in for three years? Will there be a week when nobody turns up?
This guide answers those questions for businesses in England, Scotland and Wales. It is general guidance, not legal advice. If your contract is large or the wording is unclear, ask an employment or commercial solicitor, or call the free Acas helpline on 0300 123 1100.
Step one: read your current cleaning contract
Before you contact a new provider, find the signed agreement with your current one and check four things.
- The term. Is it a rolling agreement or a fixed term that ends on a set date? Leaving a fixed term early can mean paying for the remaining months.
- The notice period. One month and three months are both common. Check whether notice has to expire on a particular date, such as the end of a month or a quarter.
- How notice must be given. Some contracts require written notice to a registered office address, so an email to your account manager may not count.
- Any TUPE or staffing clause. Some contracts include indemnities that say who pays staff-related costs when the contract ends.
Also look for a right to end the contract early for poor performance. These clauses usually require you to have reported problems in writing and given the contractor a fair chance to fix them. If you have been complaining by phone, start putting it in writing now. Our guide to what to do when your office cleaner is not doing a good job covers that stage.
What TUPE means when you change cleaners
TUPE is the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006. Most people link it with the sale of a business, but it also covers a "service provision change". Acas uses our industry as its example: another company taking over a contract for office cleaning.
In practice, if your current contractor has a cleaner or a small team organised mainly to work on your site, they will usually move to the new contractor on their existing terms, with their length of service intact. According to Acas, this applies when:
- there is an "organised grouping of employees" whose main purpose is the work for that client, which can be a single person
- the client stays the same
- the work after the change is mainly the same as before
TUPE does not usually apply to a one-off job, such as a single deep clean. It also only protects employees who can be clearly identified as working on the service, so a cleaner who covers your site occasionally as part of a mobile team may not transfer.
Who is responsible for what
TUPE duties sit mainly with the two employers: your outgoing contractor (the transferor) and the incoming one (the transferee). As the client, you are not the employer, unless you bring the cleaning in-house. In that case you become the new employer and the duties fall on you.
The outgoing contractor must give the new one employee liability information at least 28 days before the transfer date. That covers each person's name, age and written terms of employment, their disciplinary and grievance records from the last two years, and any claims they have made or might make. If it does not arrive on time or is wrong, Acas says the new employer may be able to claim compensation of at least £500 for each employee affected.
Both employers must also inform, and sometimes consult, the affected staff. Where there are no existing employee representatives, an employer with fewer than 50 employees, or one transferring fewer than 10 people, can consult the staff directly. Failing to inform and consult can cost either employer up to 13 weeks' pay for each affected employee, which is why experienced contractors plan for it.
What this means for you
Two things follow. First, the timetable depends on information your old contractor has to supply, so give notice early enough for the 28-day deadline to be met comfortably. Second, if your problem was one particular cleaner, changing company may not remove them, because that person may transfer. What changes is who manages and trains them, and the specification and supervision they work to.
Staff can also choose not to transfer. Acas explains what happens if employees do not want to transfer: unless the old contractor offers them another role, their employment ends on the transfer date and the new contractor recruits for your site instead.
A handover plan without a gap in cleaning
This timeline suits most office contracts with a one-month notice period. If your notice is longer, start earlier.
Eight weeks before. Choose your new provider. Ask them to visit and write a cleaning specification with you. Our guide to writing an office cleaning specification is a good starting point.
Six weeks before. Give written notice in the way your contract requires, and ask your current contractor to confirm the end date in writing. Pass the date to the new contractor so they can request staff information.
Four weeks before. This is the 28-day deadline for employee liability information. Ask the new contractor to confirm they have it. Agree which consumables, equipment and cupboard stock belong to you and which belong to the old contractor.
The final week. Arrange the return of keys and fobs, and change any alarm or door codes the old team knew. Check that the new team has building access and knows any rules set by your managing agent.
Day one. Walk the site with the new supervisor after the first clean, note anything missed and agree the date of the first formal inspection.
The first month. Check in every week. Small problems are easiest to fix while the new team is still learning the building.
Common questions about changing cleaners
Can we switch cleaning companies in the middle of a contract?
Only on the terms the contract allows. On a rolling agreement you can give notice at any time. On a fixed term, you may need to wait for the end date, rely on a poor-performance clause or negotiate an exit with the contractor.
Will the cleaning stop during the handover?
It should not. Your old contractor's obligations run until the notice period ends, and the new contractor starts the next working day. Ask both of them to confirm the last and first visit dates in writing.
Should we tell our own staff?
A short note is enough: the date of the change and who to report cleaning issues to from then on. Leave anything about the cleaners' employment to the two contractors.
Questions to ask your new contractor
- Have you taken over contracts with a TUPE transfer before, and how did it go?
- Who will supervise our site, and how often will they inspect it?
- How do you cover holidays and sickness?
- What notice period will our new agreement have?
For a longer list, read 15 questions to ask a commercial cleaning company before you sign and what a commercial cleaning contract should include.
Switching to JJ Prime Clean Solutions
JJ Prime Clean Solutions works on rolling agreements with an agreed notice period, so you are not tied into a long fixed term. When we take over a site, we write the specification with you first, deal with the outgoing contractor over staff information, and brief our team before their first visit. Book a free site visit and we will plan the handover around your current notice date, or read more about our office cleaning service.
