# Finding Maids



## Wibs (Apr 1, 2015)

Hi,

one of the things on my to-do list when I get to Spain is to find a maid to do a couple of hours of cleaning per week, including when I am not there.

Has anyone got any advice on how to go about this?

Are maids easy to find on the Costa del Sol?

Are they generally trustworthy?

Cheers

Wibs


----------



## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Very easy to find. Some people pay shamefully low wages as many women are desperate for any work.

As for 'generally trustworthy'....that is an unanswerable question, really.
Whilst not every woman is looking to rob 'wealthy' foreigners, of course there will be those who are less than honest. Times are hsrd.

No different to hiring a cleaner in the UK, or anywhere. You take a chance and hope for the best. Our experience of cleaners is that they never clean the house as well as we can.
Which is why we do it ourselves..


----------



## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

It took us five years to find a reliable, trustworthy gardener.


----------



## Anciana (Jul 14, 2014)

mrypg9 said:


> Our experience of cleaners is that they never clean the house as well as we can.
> Which is why we do it ourselves..


Lol, my experience with cleaners is quite contrary: even the worst of them clean the house better than I ever would, thus I never clean myself if I can avoid it and I have much higher expectations of hired help - as they are supposed to be professionals - than I have of myself.

I find hired help - in any country - generally trustworthy, but I have a habit of paying well, that is at least 20% over average.


----------



## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Anciana said:


> Lol, my experience with cleaners is quite contrary: even the worst of them clean the house better than I ever would, thus I never clean myself if I can avoid it and I have much higher expectations of hired help - as they are supposed to be professionals - than I have of myself.
> 
> I find hired help - in any country - generally trustworthy, but I have a habit of paying well, that is at least 20% over average.


Yes, we pay our gardener twice as much per hour as many stingy Brit immigrants say they do. He is 100% trustworthy.

When my OH took early retirement and sold her business she vowed never to do anything she didn't want to unless it was a matter of diré necessity. She said she had spent most of her life doing things she had to do.
Sadly, that turned out to include cooking, as she is a truly excellent cook. But she quite enjoys cleaning as she gets satisfaction from the end result.
So I cook which I do with more enthusiasm than skill.
Apart from when we have dinner guests when she returns to the kitchen.


----------



## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

We have a "lady who does" and she does a good job. Usually the best way is to ask around, the locals will often have a good idea as to who is trustworthy and can probably do with the work/income. Citizens' advice bureau is not an office in some back street, it is the neighbouring citizens/residents.


----------



## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Er, I think the term "maid" died out several decades ago. What you want is a cleaner (_limpiadora_ in Spanish).

Word of mouth is the best way of finding a good one. I do my own cleaning but some of my friends with have someone in for a couple of hours a week or after they've had guests. The going rate here is €10/hour and they are far more thorough than I would be!


----------



## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Alcalaina said:


> Er, I think the term "maid" died out several decades ago. What you want is a cleaner (_limpiadora_ in Spanish).
> 
> Word of mouth is the best way of finding a good one. I do my own cleaning but some of my friends with have someone in for a couple of hours a week or after they've had guests. The going rate here is €10/hour and they are far more thorough than I would be!


Yes, I thought the term 'maid' was a bit old hat, conjuring up visions of little black dresses, lace caps and aprons or something saucier.

Word of mouth is imo the only way to find reliable help. Our neighbour recommended our gardener. She and husband Juan have been friendly with his brother's family for years and although she doesn't like recommending people she had no hesitation in recommending our gardener who has looked after the garden, done odd jobs and generally looked after two helpless women for over two years now.


----------



## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

mrypg9 said:


> Yes, I thought the term 'maid' was a bit old hat, conjuring up visions of little black dresses, lace caps and aprons or something saucier.
> 
> Word of mouth is imo the only way to find reliable help. Our neighbour recommended our gardener. She and husband Juan have been friendly with his brother's family for years and although she doesn't like recommending people she had no hesitation in recommending our gardener who has looked after the garden, done odd jobs and generally looked after two helpless women for over two years now.


"helpless"??????????????????? who's kidding whom?


----------



## Anciana (Jul 14, 2014)

I just reserved an all year round apartment rental in a small beach town in southern Costa Blanca, to start living there in September. Since the apartment seems to be in an expat colony, I might not have many Spanish neighbors (oh, well, I like commanding views of the water). 

But I do have a Spanish hairdresser in town already (which was recommended to me by a friend who haves a vacation place in the area - and yes, the hairdresser well deserved to be recommended0. I intend to ask there for a household help recommendation.

The person does not need to know any English (I shall manage in my Boriqua (Puertorican)/Costa Rican/Mexican Spanish - whatever of it I still remember after 3 years of no use), but needs to be reliable and - if and as needed - more than a limpiadora. I am a diabetic, after a heart attack, living alone with two cats, so, come any cold or flu or other infection I usually need not only cleaning help but grocery shopping (for me and my cats), sometimes a cook, sometimes pet sitting etc. So quality and reliability of help is of importance to me. And as for price, I am for a so called liveable wage for a job well done.


----------



## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

baldilocks said:


> "helpless"??????????????????? who's kidding whom?


----------



## Eddie1875 (May 29, 2013)

Maids????....Hired help????....you guys have been watching to much "Upstairs Downstairs"!


----------



## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

Eddie1875 said:


> Maids????....Hired help????....you guys have been watching to much "Upstairs Downstairs"!


No, we are providing employment and wealth redistribution while enabling the beneficiaries to retain some respect.


----------



## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

baldilocks said:


> No, we are providing employment and wealth redistribution while enabling the beneficiaries to retain some respect.


Whilst paying a decent, living wage, most of us.


----------



## Eddie1875 (May 29, 2013)

baldilocks said:


> No, we are providing employment and wealth redistribution while enabling the beneficiaries to retain some respect.


Cash in hand?


----------



## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Eddie1875 said:


> Cash in hand?


Funny, it's all gone quiet ...


----------



## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Alcalaina said:


> Funny, it's all gone quiet ...


I've said before that as a principle we use companies that give Invoices. But I pay our gardener cash in hand and have said so before on this forum.
The reason is simple: some months he gets paid as little as €20 as all he has to do is sit on the tractor thingy and cut the grass. That and a bit of pruning in season is all there is to do. Our large garden isall trees andgrass. I look after our pool. He has a job which pays the minimum wage and with a non- working wife and two children comes well under the tax threshhold. His old car broke down, for months he couldn't afford to have it repaired so we lent him one of ours.

For every other service we receive we use companies or small local firmsmthat give invoices with IVA.
I have just paid a bill for work done to the Freelander which included €125 of IVA. No discount for cash was either offered nor expected.


----------



## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

To further display my 'virtue' I should add that last week we sent awáy a guy who came to instal a satellite box and wanted cash in hand and bought from a company with invoice plus 
IVA.
If we paid our gardener asubstantial regular monthly wage I would expect an invoice as we have received in the past from gardening service companies.


----------



## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

We pay cash in hand to everyone who does work on the house. I've never seen a tax invoice and never asked for one. It's up to them whether they declare it - I don't want to know. With work so scarce and wages so low, along with the punitive social security charges for the self-employed, I wouldn't blame them if they didn't.


----------



## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

One problem is that many small local traders don't have card facilities. I try to pay by card or bank transfer wherever possible but sometimes you have to hand over cash with no idea whether it's going to be declared.
In the case of our grass cutter (on reflection, 'gardener' is a tad too elevated for what he does) I wonder how hacienda would evaluate things like loan of a car, gifts, such as a laptop given to him by my son amongst other things, and set against little jobs done in return as reciprocity

Incidentally, the legit company we used charged€12.50 an hour to cover IVA but aren't that interested in the low volume of work we require.


----------



## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Eddie1875 said:


> Cash in hand?


Almost always as I'm sure you know. Most cleaners etc don't want to be paid on contract, although there are some special kind of contracts now for this kind of worker. Find out at the local SEPE


----------



## Isobella (Oct 16, 2014)

The problem paying cash in hand is if they have an accident. There was a story in the expat papers last year wher a couple were getting sued by their cleaner. House insurance wouldn't pay up because she was doing paid work. Having said that I pay a neighbour for doing odd jobs as we are not there all the time. We pay our Gardener and cleaner in the hand in the UK too. Don't know if we would get one if doing it officially as they are much in demand. Our cleaner is Italian and she is great, her singing drives me mad though.


----------



## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

Alcalaina said:


> We pay cash in hand to everyone who does work on the house. I've never seen a tax invoice and never asked for one. It's up to them whether they declare it - I don't want to know. With work so scarce and wages so low, along with the punitive social security charges for the self-employed, I wouldn't blame them if they didn't.


I am a bigger sinner than you - we had part of the outside of the house painted last week and not only did I pay an unemployed guy cash in hand to do the work, I didn't apply for a licence to do the work either. I must be more "integrated" than I thought because that's exactly what all my neighbours do.


----------



## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

Lynn R said:


> I am a bigger sinner than you - we had part of the outside of the house painted last week and not only did I pay an unemployed guy cash in hand to do the work, I didn't apply for a licence to do the work either. I must be more "integrated" than I thought because that's exactly what all my neighbours do.


but did you use pintura plastica garantizada 15 años or did you use Cal that needs redoing every year and ensures employment in the future?


----------



## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

baldilocks said:


> but did you use pintura plastica garantizada 15 años or did you use Cal that needs redoing every year and ensures employment in the future?


I bought the most expensive pintura para fachadas they had in the shop

With a house with 3 street-facing sides and a 4 sided patio (most of it 3 storeys high) employment is ensured in the future anyway, it gets done on a rolling programme as there's too much to do all at once.

The man from the paint shop delivered it to us after work that evening (no charge) as we don't have a car. All part of the lousy customer service in Spain that people often moan about. If that's bad customer service I'm all for it.


----------

