Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Washington

Re: how can I protect my cleaning business?

You can certainly have a contract that spells out your obligations and the obligations of your clients. However, nobody can contract around negligence. CANNOT be done.

You can try and a court will refuse to enforce it.

If you are licensed, bonded and insured that coverage is designed to make sure that you have an attorney in the event something unintended happens. You could register yourself with the state as a corporation and make yourself amenable to suit and save headaches that way.

Your clients either own or rent their homes. Owners have premises (homeowner's) insurance. That covers them in the event something unplanned happens.

These are decisions you should make with your very own attorney. Hire one.

The best way to protect your business from liability is to do good work promptly. You can't forsee accidents, so just get the protection of a license, a bond/insurance and let the lawyers sort out any accidents later.

Powell