Many cleaning companies are currently charging extra on top of what their customers have already paid for so-called “service cheques”. Service cheques are vouchers that can be purchased to pay for services such as cleaning or ironing. Each household can purchase up to 500 service cheques per annum. Each cheque can be exchanged for one hour’s work carried out by a person employed by a company that is registered to accept payment with the cheques.
Service cheques
Service cheques cost 9 euro each in Flanders and Wallonia. In the Brussels-Capital Region they cost 10 euro each for the first 300 bought in a given year. The price increases to 12 euro/cheque from the 301st to the 500th cheque purchased.
In Flanders the cheques are 20% tax deductible for the first 1,720 euro spent on the cheques. This equates to the value of just over 191 services cheques.
In the Brussels-Capital Region the first 163 service cheques bought during a given fiscal year are tax deductible to the tune of 1.5 euro/cheque.
Many cleaning companies are currently charging extra costs on top of the amount you have paid for your service cheques. The way they go about this varies from company to company.
Some companies levy an additional charge for administrative that is payable monthly or once every three months. There are also some cleaning companies that are charging a “subscription fee”. Meanwhile, some other cleaning companies are charging an additional fee for each service cheque used.
But is this legal? VRT News investigated and discovered that the answer is yes.
Cleaning companies may charge extra on top of the amount paid for service cheques. The law allows this, provided that the total price that will be charged is made clear to customers. This means that as a customer you should always be provided with information regarding any additional charges well in advance to their implementation so that that you can choose to cancel you contract with the cleaning company if you see fit.
Many complaints
The Consumer Affairs Ombudsman Service has received many complaints and questions about the levying of addition charges by cleaning firms.
Its 2022 annual report contains a passage specifically about this issue. However, given that it is not illegal and there is a big shortage of cleaners, customers are left with the choice to either take it or leave it.