Who pays for parking during cleaning jobs? The house cleaner, maid, the cleaning business owner or the homeowner? Fair question – who pays for parking during cleaning jobs if a parking pass is needed?
Paid parking is common in uptown areas and parking isn’t free at all apartment complexes.
The cleaning company usually pays and builds the cost into cleaning fees, with some exceptions.
Listen: Who Pays for Parking During Cleaning?
Watch: Who Pays for Parking During Cleaning?
Hey there, I’m Angela Brown, and this is Ask a House Cleaner. This is a show where you get to ask a house cleaning question, and I get to help you find an answer. You can find this and 400 other answered questions in this series on our YouTube channel.
Who Pays for Parking When it Isn’t Free?
Who pays for parking when parking is not free at a housecleaning job?
A house cleaner asks; “Who pays for parking if parking is not free at a house cleaning job? Should the company pay, or should the customer pay? What are your thoughts?”
Alrighty. Who pays for parking? Now, we know that there are certain areas where parking is not free.
Like if you go uptown in the heart of a city, most of the parking will not be free.
Ask the Customer about Parking
So I would recommend that you ask the customer while scheduling the initial walkthrough. Ask them, “What is the parking situation where you live?”
Because if you know it’s in the uptown area, most likely there will be a parking situation.
Customers Might Have a Solution
They might say, “Well, there’s parking free on this street.” Or, “You can come in, and you can use my space,” because usually, people that live in an apartment complex have an assigned parking space that they pay for.
And so they may have two spaces, or they may have one space, but they may say, “My space is open. It’s lot 241,” or whatever, and then you just make sure you pull into a parking spot.
Ask for Advice
Now, what if parking is not free? Ask, “Where are the most inexpensive or the most affordable parking lots near you?”
They might say, “Well, one block down, there’s one for $5 a day.” They will guide you and direct you where you should park. Because they live there, they know.
How to Pay for Parking
Now, if you have to pay for parking, let’s say that it’s $5 or $8 per day. What you may want to do is build that into the cost of your house cleaning.
Now you know what the parking situation is because you have already asked the customer. So when you arrive for the walkthrough to give them a quote, you can include that expense per visit in your quote.
Don’t Nickel and Dime the Customer
I don’t recommend saying, “Well, it’s going to be X amount of dollars for your cleaning, and then it’s going to be an extra $8 for parking.” That’s just annoying, and that’s nickel-and-diming them.
If a repair person comes to the house, you can expect to pay a service charge. But you don’t expect to pay for their parking. You will pay for it without knowing that you are. It will be built into the cost.
Don’t Even Bring Parking up
I wouldn’t bring it up like, “Oh, hey, and I’m going to charge you for parking.”
That just makes them feel like, “Ugh, and now I got to dig deeper into my pockets to give you more money.”
If it’s just part of the cost, it’s just part of the cost.
Who Pays for Parking When You Work at a Complex
Now, if you have a complex that you work at, let’s say that you do many places there. It might benefit you to go ahead and get a parking permit for the month so that you’re not paying per visit or per cleaning.
If that’s the case, what you may want to do is just make sure that you have some kind of budget.
Parking is Tax-Deductible
If you work in an uptown area or an area where the parking is not free, make sure that you have some kind of parking budget.
Parking will be tax-deductible as a small business owner at the end of the year.
Independent Contractors Pay for Parking
If you’re an independent contractor, you taking care of the parking is going to be on you.
You do not work for the cleaning company.
You work for yourself, so you would pay for the parking yourself or you would bill that to your customer.
Business Owners Sending Out Employees
Now, if you are the cleaning company, and you’re sending cleaners out there, they are your employees.
It is then your responsibility as the business owner to make sure that that parking is paid for.
So you either want to pay for that upfront, get a monthly parking pass, or build that into the cost of your cleaning.
*** Resources From This Episode ***
Independent Contractor, Sole Proprietor, and LLC Taxes Explained in 100 Pages or Less – https://amzn.to/2JJJ8ww
Working for Yourself: Law & Taxes for Independent Contractors, Freelancers & Gig Workers of All Types – https://amzn.to/2l2POI7
Consultant & Independent Contractor Agreements – https://amzn.to/2y1DbWV
Working with Independent Contractors – https://amzn.to/2MhpNBk
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