Glossary

Workers' compensation

Workers' compensation insurance covers medical expenses and lost wages for employees injured on the job. If housekeeping or maintenance staff are hurt at work, workers' comp responds. It is required in most states once a business has employees.

By Andrew Bate, Co-founderReviewed by Stuart BateUpdated September 14, 2026

Why this matters for property managers

Cleaning and maintenance are physical work in homes the manager does not own, and injuries happen. Workers' comp is company-level coverage — part of the same stack as E&O and the BOP — and is frequently a condition of owner contracts.

Worked example

A housekeeper tears a shoulder flipping a mattress at a managed home. Workers' compensation pays her medical bills and two months of lost wages. Without it, the owner's homeowners policy and the manager's general liability both decline, and the company pays the bills and the lawyer.

Workers' compensation for cleaning and maintenance crews

Housekeeping and maintenance are physical work in homes the company does not own, and the claims are real: back injuries from mattresses, falls on stairs, cuts from broken glass. Employees are covered once you hold the policy, but many managers run crews on 1099 contracts and assume the contractor is on their own. In most states an uninsured contractor injured on your job is treated as your employee for compensation purposes, and the claim lands on you. Two habits fix that: collect a certificate of workers' compensation from every cleaning and maintenance company you use, and buy a policy of your own the moment you have W-2 staff. Owner management agreements and city permit offices increasingly ask for the certificate.