My cleaner tripped in the bath at my flat – can she make a claim against me?

I have a cleaner who comes to my flat every Friday. A few weeks ago she was cleaning in the bathroom, stood in the bath with a shower over it and slipped, hurting her ankle. She broke the shower head as she fell.

I don’t think she was badly hurt, but she did have to take a day or two off work to recover. 

She’s decided she won’t be coming to clean my flat anymore and her last date will be at the end of this month. Her cleaning isn’t particularly thorough and I plan to find a replacement.

Am I at risk of being sued by my cleaner given she was injured in my flat? How easily could she make a claim and how much, if any, money could I end up having to hand over? Would my insurance help with this?

Jane Denton, of This is Money, replies: Cleaners can face a number of hazards while working in people’s homes. There have been incidents of cleaners being electrocuted, slipping on wet floors or getting skin conditions or burns via chemical-laden cleaning products. 

If your cleaner decided to make a claim, she would typically have three years from the date of the incident to do so. Ultimately, only your cleaner can decide whether she is going to make a claim or not. 

On the basis of what you have said, the scale of your cleaner’s potential claim could be limited, but this may depend on the full extent of her injury and if it continues to affect her ability to work. 

If you are concerned about a potential claim, you should consider contacting your home insurance provider. This is because many policies include clauses relating to public liability cover, which should cover you when you are being held responsible to a person or property, as the owner or occupier of your home. 

This could cover incidents like a visitor tripping up over a loose rug in your home. 

I asked two solicitors for their views on your cleaner’s potential case.  

Damian Bradley, a partner at Express Solicitors, says: Your cleaner will probably be an independent contractor rather than your employee, but this does not remove all potential liability.

Under the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957 you still owe a duty of care to your lawful visitors, which would include the cleaner. 

So, you need to take reasonable steps to ensure that visitors are reasonably safe when using your premises for the purpose for which they are invited.

You are not expected to remove all risks involved in carrying out the cleaning. However, if your cleaner was injured due to a hidden or unusual hazard that you knew about, and failed to fix or warn them against, then you may be liable if a claim was made.

For example, undisclosed leaks making the bath unusually slippery, surface defects, or spilled bath oils could create a trap for the unwary cleaner. 

However, liability is less likely where the risk arises from the ordinary task of cleaning a bath – especially where the cleaner controls how the work is conducted and is familiar with the flat.

Each claim is fact specific, but courts recognise that independent contractors assume responsibility for obvious risks inherent in their work.

If your cleaner did claim, then she would need medical evidence to support the injuries complained of. 

If she was off work for only a couple of days, then it sounds like her injuries were minor and I would expect it to be a small claim, probably a few hundred pounds. 

If she were to claim, subject to the medical evidence, she would likely be limited to the net loss of earnings that she would have been able to earn had she not been injured. 

So, it could be limited to two days’ pay lost from you and for any other clients that she was unable to clean for. Also, out of pocket expenses such as for pain relief and care and assistance provided to her.

You should consider notifying your home insurer that a claim may be made as a precaution. 

Ultimately it is your cleaner’s decision to make a claim. Claimants will usually need to issue proceedings within three years of the accident and, in this case, your cleaner would need evidence of your negligence causing her ankle injury. 

Realistically, it would probably be prohibitive to proceed as the value of this claim likely outweighs the costs, but if the injury was more serious then she may take advice from a personal injury solicitor. 

Tony Hannington, head of Lime Solicitors, says: The Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957 imposes a duty of care on homeowners to take such care as is sufficient to ensure that visitors, such as your cleaner, are reasonably safe. 

However, that duty extends only to dangers arising from the state of the premises or from things done or omitted to be done to the site, such as leaving a manhole uncovered or exposing electricity cables out of a wall socket. 

Therefore, a court would need to determine whether the injury arose due to the condition of your home or the cleaner’s actions.

Generally, a homeowner has no responsibility for obvious or self-inflicted risks. 

One possible argument the cleaner could pursue is that the bath was excessively slippery, and it wasn’t obvious to her. However, your description has no suggestion that the bath was anything other than normal in its construction. 

This situation is distinguishable from a guest using a hotel bathroom without an anti-slip mat or handrail, as the standard expected of a hotel is higher than a private dwelling.

From what you have said, there is no obvious reason why the cleaner would need to stand in the bath to carry out her work, and perhaps neither is this something you would anticipate her doing. 

It is therefore unlikely that you would be found to have breached your duty of care or have been negligent.

If a claim were nevertheless successful, damages could be awarded for the injury and any financial losses she sustained due to the injury. 

You indicate that the cleaner was not badly injured, although the extent of the injury and any long-term prognosis would be assessed by an independent medical consultant. 

By way of indication, judicial guidelines suggest that an ankle injury with complete recovery within one year would be unlikely to receive an award in excess of £6,710 plus any financial losses.

If a claim is made, I strongly advise you contact your household insurer, as many policies provide public liability cover for claims by visitors. 

There is no legal mechanism to prevent your cleaner from bringing a claim forward, which could be issued in the county court up to three years after the incident.

However, kindness and concern often go a long way, and many clients advise me that they would not have brought a claim against the defendant had they shown more compassion in the immediate aftermath of the injury.