Written for owners of UK cleaning businesses: contract cleaners for offices, schools, healthcare and soft FM subcontracts, domestic cleaning firms, agencies and apps, and specialists in after-builders, end-of-tenancy, window, carpet and biohazard cleaning.
The short version
- Assume the cleaners come with the contract.When a cleaning contract changes hands, TUPE usually moves the cleaners assigned to it on their existing terms and service, whatever the tender says.
- Get staff details and price their terms.The outgoing contractor must send staff details at least 28 days before transfer (As of Oct 2026). Price their pay and pension, not your rate.
- Do not change terms because of the transfer.A change made for that reason is void even if they sign, with few exceptions. Send planned changes to the outgoing contractor to consult on.
A retender, a first outsourcing or a move back in house is usually a service provision change under TUPE. The cleaners assigned to the contract move to the new employer with their contract rights, continuous service, accrued holiday and past breaches, such as minimum wage arrears. A tender that says "TUPE will not apply" does not make it so.
When TUPE applies to cleaning
Immediately before the change there must be an organised grouping of employees in Great Britain, deliberately organised around the client's work, whose principal purpose is cleaning for that client; cleaners who just happen to spend most of their hours there may not be one. The client must not intend the work to be a single specific event or task of short-term duration, so a one-off deep clean or a 6-week event clean is outside. The work afterwards must be fundamentally the same. A grouping can be part-timers, and can be one person. The regulations cannot be contracted out of. Northern Ireland has its own regulations (SR 2006/177). As of Oct 2026.
TUPE 2006 (SI 2006/246) regs 3(1)(b), 3(2A), 3(3) and 18; Eddie Stobart Ltd v Moreman [2012] ICR 919 (EAT); Rynda (UK) Ltd v Rhijnsburger [2015] EWCA Civ 75
Who transfers
- Cleaners assigned to the contract, other than temporarily. Weigh hours, value, role and terms: 20 hours on this site and 4 elsewhere points to assignment, while a near 50:50 split needs advice.
- If the client splits the work between contractors, each cleaner goes with the part they mainly worked on, or no one transfers if the work fragments so far that no identifiable part goes to any one contractor. Price both outcomes.
- Pensions come with the work. Where the outgoing employer paid into an occupational scheme, you must offer one, and for a money purchase scheme that means matching employee contributions up to 6% of basic pay. NHS and central government staff under Fair Deal keep access to their public service scheme. Ex-council staff in England and Wales usually keep the Local Government Pension Scheme through an admission agreement, with a rate the fund actuary sets and a possible exit payment. Ask for a pass-through or capped rate before you price. As of Oct 2026.
The timetable
- At least 28 days before: the ELI.The outgoing contractor must give you employee liability information: identity and age, written particulars, 2 years of disciplinary and grievance records, claims and likely claims, and collective agreements. If it is late or missing, a tribunal can award you compensation of at least £500 per affected employee, unless a lower sum is just and equitable. For transfers on or after 1 October 2026 the complaint period is six months, so for a 1 November 2026 transfer it runs to 30 April 2027. As of Oct 2026.
- Before the transfer: measures and consultation.Send planned changes, such as new start times, to the outgoing contractor as measures so it can consult. Each employer informs and consults representatives in time for meaningful consultation. With no existing representatives, an employer with fewer than 50 employees, or where fewer than 10 transfer, may consult staff directly.
Changing terms after a transfer
A change is void if the sole or principal reason is the transfer, even if the cleaner agrees and even if it looks favourable, unless there is an economic, technical or organisational reason entailing changes in the workforce (numbers, functions or place of work), or the contract already allows it. A dismissal whose sole or principal reason is the transfer is automatically unfair; with an economic, technical or organisational reason entailing changes in the workforce it can be a fair redundancy. As of Oct 2026.
TUPE 2006 regs 4(4), 4(5), 4(5A), 7(1), 7(2) and 7(3)
A change made because of the transfer is void even with the cleaner's agreement, and a change of hours is not a change in the workforce.
Price it before you bid
| Pay gap: 39p x 120 hours x 52 weeks (6 cleaners at £13.10 against your bid rate of £12.71) | £2,433.60 |
| Employer National Insurance on the gap | £365.04 |
| Employer pension on the gap | £73.01 |
| Extra cost a year | £2,871.65 |
Assumes each cleaner already earns above both thresholds. Also price the risk you inherit: up to 13 weeks' pay each for the outgoing contractor's failure to consult, 6 x 13 x £262.00 = £20,436.00 on 20-hour posts at £13.10 (a week's pay is the cleaner's own pay, not your bid rate). The late ELI award runs the other way: you claim it from the outgoing contractor, so it is not a cost.
You can inherit the outgoing contractor's failures
Failure to inform or consult can cost up to 13 weeks' pay per affected employee, and as the incoming contractor you are jointly and severally liable for the outgoing contractor's failure. Ask for its consultation record and an indemnity. As of Oct 2026.
TUPE 2006 regs 15(9) and 16(3)
What the contract should say
- On the way in: ELI warranties, and indemnities for pre-transfer liabilities and inaccurate ELI. Have the client warrant the ELI it passes on.
- On the way out: cap your liability to your own breaches. An uncapped indemnity to the next contractor is a red flag.
- Termination for convenience on 30 days after you have taken on TUPE staff: ask for a longer minimum term and a client indemnity for staff costs on exit.
When you lose a contract, assigned staff transfer out, so redundancy cost lands on staff who are not assigned, such as relief cleaners and supervisors. A winner who says TUPE will not apply because it will deliver "a new specification with fewer hours" is wrong if the cleaning is fundamentally the same: the cut in hours is its question after the transfer.
Before you price any contract, ask: did someone else hold this work before you, or will someone after?
If you also clean homes
Online, phone and doorstep bookings
Send the cancellation information before the booking is made. The customer has 14 days from the contract to cancel. If they ask you to clean sooner, get that request on a durable medium, such as an email or the booking form, and they pay for the work done before they cancel. Without the cancellation information, the cancellation period runs up to 12 months longer and the customer may owe nothing for work already done. As of Oct 2026.
Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 regs 10, 13, 30, 31, 36(4) and 36(6)
Asked in Greymill
Do this instead: tell the outgoing firm about the 5am start now, so it can consult the cleaners, and get an employment solicitor's plan first.
Price their real pay, not your bid:
Pay gap: 39p x 120 hours x 52 weeks = £2,433.60
Employer National Insurance and pension on it (As of Oct 2026): £438.05
Extra cost: £2,871.65 a year
Hidden risk: if the old firm failed to inform or consult, you share liability: up to 13 weeks' pay each (As of Oct 2026). Six at £262 a week: up to £20,436. Ask for its consultation record and an indemnity (a promise to cover you).
Next, I can mark up your contract's TUPE clauses.
Ask it about your own business
Paste this into Greymill with your own figures, and Contracts & Disputes works it through for your business.
I run a cleaning business in the UK. I am [bidding for, have won, or am losing] a contract at [site], with a transfer date of [date]. The other contractor is [name]. The ELI shows [number] cleaners on [hours] at [hourly rates], with [pension or other terms]. I want to [describe any changes, such as new start times]. Tell me who is likely to transfer, cost the takeover against my bid rate of [rate], list the TUPE dates I must diarise, and mark up the TUPE terms I need in the contract.
More for cleaning and facilities in the UK
- Pricing a cleaning contract that still pays after holidays, on-costs and next April's riseBuild a contract cleaning price up from the specification, so holiday weeks, employer costs, supervision, margin and next year's wage rise are paid for rather than absorbed.Read the lesson
- Paying cleaners every week while clients take 45 days to payWhy a growing contract cleaner runs short of cash, how much working capital the wage gap needs, and the forecast, payment terms and funding that close it.Read the lesson
- Why the builder took tax off my sparkle clean, and the VAT scheme that costs cleaners moreAn after-builders clean is a construction operation, so the main contractor deducts CIS and may need a reverse-charge invoice, and a labour-only cleaner on the Flat Rate Scheme usually pays more VAT, not less.Read the lesson
- The safety, waste and key rules that apply on every cleaning siteThere is no licence to clean in the UK, but chemicals, work at height, sharps, asbestos, waste and keys all carry rules, and an accident or a lost key is when you find out whether you followed them.Read the lesson
- Paying cleaners for every minute the minimum wage countsTravel between houses, unpaid set-up minutes, uniform deductions and the wrong kind of holiday pay are how cleaning firms underpay without meaning to.Read the lesson
- Bidding for school, council and NHS cleaning when the tender is scored, not just pricedPublic and facilities work is won on a scored tender: registration on the Central Digital Platform, social value you can prove, the standards buyers check and an answer library kept ready.Read the lesson
- HMRC says VAT is due on the whole fee, and a cleaner says she was a workerA domestic cleaning agency or app that sets the price, takes the money and promises the clean is usually the principal and often the employer, whatever the paperwork says, and the VAT and pay bills follow.Read the lesson
Open the interactive lesson · Every cleaning and facilities lesson · What Greymill knows about the trade
Sources
The primary sources behind this lesson, checked Oct 2026.
- reg 1 (commencement) (TUPE: the rule that decides contract cleaning)
- reg 3(1)(b), 3(2A), 3(3)(a)(i), (ii) (TUPE: the rule that decides contract cleaning)
- Eddie Stobart Ltd v Moreman [2012] ICR 919 (EAT) (TUPE: the rule that decides contract cleaning)
- Rynda [2015] EWCA Civ 75 (TUPE: the rule that decides contract cleaning)
- reg 2(1); reg 4(1) (TUPE: the rule that decides contract cleaning)
- reg 4(1), (2); reg 10 (TUPE: the rule that decides contract cleaning)
- 2026-27 rates (Pricing and margins: worked in pounds)
- ASHE occupation tables (Pricing and margins: worked in pounds)
- reg 16(3) (a week's pay) (Pricing and margins: worked in pounds)
- HMRC, Class 1 National Insurance thresholds and employer rate; DWP 2026/27 threshold table; GOV.UK, How much you must pay (Pricing and margins: worked in pounds)
- s.73(1); SI 2024/716 reg 5(3), (4)(a) (Hard cases: TUPE, CONTRACTS and TENDERS)
- reg 36 (Hard cases: TUPE, CONTRACTS and TENDERS)
- Employment Rights Act 2025 Sch.12 para.13; SI 2026/954 reg.4 and Schedule table 2; TUPE reg.12(2) and (6) (Hard cases: TUPE, CONTRACTS and TENDERS)
- s.113 (Contract red flags)
- reg 18 (Pitfalls that embarrass the product)
- reg 2 (definition of work at height) (Pitfalls that embarrass the product)
- reg 16A (Pitfalls that embarrass the product)
- s.3 (Pitfalls that embarrass the product)
- Gangmasters Licensing (Exclusions) Regulations 2013 Sch Part 1 para 3 (Pitfalls that embarrass the product)
- Service Provision Change (Protection of Employment) Regulations (NI) 2006 (Read the user, which nation and switch rules)
- whole Act; SSI 2015/446 (Read the user, which nation and switch rules)
- Fair Work First criteria (real Living Wage) (Read the user, which nation and switch rules)
- start date (Read the user, which nation and switch rules)
- whole Act (Read the user, which nation and switch rules)
- current Bank Rate and MPC dates (Read the user, which nation and switch rules)
- ss.1, 5A, 9; SI 2002/1675 (Contracts and payment: commercial and domestic)
- ss.68(1), (2), 73(1), (6), 84, 88; SI 2024/716 reg 5(3), (4)(a), (c); SI 2015/102 reg 113(2)(c), (6)(c) (Contracts and payment: commercial and domestic)
- ss.49, 50, 52, 54 to 56, 62 (Contracts and payment: commercial and domestic)
- Sch 20; Part 4 Ch 1 (Contracts and payment: commercial and domestic)
- Part 4 Ch 2 (Contracts and payment: commercial and domestic)
- reg 11(6) (Who must sign off: time-critical steps first)
- reg 13(4) (Who must sign off: time-critical steps first)
- www.legislation.gov.uk (Who must sign off: time-critical steps first)
- s.51 (Who must sign off: time-critical steps first)
- s.15 (Who must sign off: time-critical steps first)
- regs 10 and 13 (Who must sign off: time-critical steps first)