Looking for a maid agency near me? Read this first
What an agency charges, what the fee actually buys, where it goes wrong, and how to hire an ID-verified maid directly instead. Five minutes, no sales pitch.
What a maid agency does, and what it costs
A maid agency, placement bureau or domestic help agency keeps a roster of workers and sends you one. For that it charges a placement fee, most often about a month's salary, and promises a replacement if the first person does not work out. Some charge monthly instead. Many, quietly, also charge the worker.
The fee buys two things: someone else does the shortlisting, and there is a replacement clause. Everything else that agencies advertise, verification above all, is worth exactly as much as the paperwork they can show you, which is usually none.
This page is not an argument that agencies are always wrong. It is an honest account of what you pay, what you get, what the worker gets, and the alternative Sevetu offers: hire the person directly, with identity checks, in-app chat and a written agreement, and nobody taking a cut.
Your four options, side by side
Placement agency
Fee of about a month's salary, often repeated on replacement. You meet the maid on day one. Verification claimed, rarely evidenced. Replacement clause is the real product.
Local broker or dalal
A cut of the salary, sometimes every month, sometimes from both sides. The broker controls the relationship and the phone number. No checks of any kind.
WhatsApp group or classifieds
Free, and you talk to whoever answers, who is often a broker posing as the worker. No identity check at all.
Sevetu
Nothing. You pay only the salary, direct to the maid. You talk to her in the app, see an ID-verified profile, and record the terms in a digital agreement. Hire a maid →
Where agency hiring goes wrong
The worker pays too
Many agencies take a fee from the maid as well as from you, sometimes her first month. She starts in debt to the agent, and the resentment lands in your kitchen.
Replacement churn
The replacement clause cuts both ways: an agency can move a good worker to a higher-paying home and send you the next name on the list.
You never built the relationship
When everything runs through the agent, the maid answers to the agent. The day the agency loses interest, so does your arrangement.
Verification you cannot see
"Police verified" on a brochure is not a certificate in your hand. If you want a police check, do it through your city's official route and keep the paper.
The monthly markup
Where an agency bills monthly, the worker often receives well under what you pay. You are paying a full-time salary for a part-time loyalty.
Nothing in writing
Tasks, hours, weekly off and notice are rarely documented in agency placements, which is why the first disagreement becomes the last.
When an agency still makes sense
You need a live-in worker from another state within the week, and you have nobody to shortlist. You want somebody else to manage replacements and are willing to pay for it every time. Or you have used the same small agency for years and trust the people behind it. Those are real reasons, and if one is yours, insist on the fee, replacement and refund terms in writing and ask what the worker will receive.
For everyone else, the agency fee is buying an hour or two of your own time. Sevetu is built to make that hour easy.
How to hire a maid without an agency
Post your maid job
Share the role, your locality in your city, timings and budget. It takes about two minutes.
Review verified applicants
Compare experience, skills and ID verification at a glance. You always know who you are talking to.
Chat & agree on terms
Settle salary, hours, weekly off and duties over secure in-app chat. You decide the terms.
Sign a digital agreement
What you both agreed is recorded in a simple digital work agreement, clear for both sides.
Six questions to ask any maid agency
Why hire through Sevetu
ID-verified profiles
Every profile can carry a Verified badge from an identity (KYC) check against Aadhaar or a government ID, so you know who you are letting into your home. (It is an identity check, not a police background check.) How verification works →
Safe, in-app chat
Talk before you decide. Your phone number stays private and every conversation stays on record.
No commission, agreed in writing
You pay the worker directly. Sevetu never takes a cut. Salary, hours, weekly off, leave and notice are documented in a digital work agreement both sides accept.
Frequently asked questions
Most placement agencies charge a one-time fee of roughly one month's salary, sometimes repeated when they send a replacement. Some charge monthly instead, with their margin inside the amount you pay. Many also take a fee from the worker. Ask all three questions before you sign anything.
No. Sevetu is a marketplace. You post the job, ID-verified maids near you apply, you chat and meet, and you hire the person directly. Nobody is placed, supplied or employed by Sevetu, and nobody pays a commission, on either side.
Shortlisting done for you, and usually a replacement guarantee for a few months. That is real, and for an urgent live-in hire from another state it can be worth paying for. What you give up is knowing who is coming, the worker's full salary, and any relationship that is not routed through the agent.
Ask to see the certificate. Verification is claimed by almost every agency and evidenced by very few. On Sevetu the check is an identity (KYC) check with a Verified badge, and we say plainly that it is not a police check; each city guide links the official police route so you can do it yourself.
Get the fee, the replacement terms and the refund terms in writing. Ask whether the worker also pays a fee and what she will actually receive of what you pay. Ask to speak to the maid before day one. If any of those is refused, that is your answer.
Post the job on Sevetu with your locality, tasks and hours. Review ID-verified applicants, chat in the app, meet in person, do a paid trial, and record the pay and hours in the digital work agreement. It takes an hour or two of your own time, which is what the agency fee was buying.
You post again, free. There is no replacement guarantee on Sevetu because there is no agency holding a roster; that is the honest trade. In practice, maids hired directly on clear terms and full pay leave far less often than agency placements do.
Yes. Post with your locality and the hours. Maids who can reach you at that time apply, and for part-time work proximity is what decides whether the arrangement lasts.
Verified home help, from your phone
Sevetu is live on the App Store and Google Play. Download the app and post your maid job in minutes.
Skip the maid agency in your city
Each city guide covers local neighbourhoods, what sets pay there, and the official police-verification route you can use yourself.
Maids in Bangalore · Maids in Delhi · Maids in Mumbai · Maids in Hyderabad · Maids in Chennai · Maids in Pune · Maids in Gurgaon · Maids in Kolkata · Maids in Noida · Maids in Ahmedabad · all cities →