Common property
Strata Cleaning Contractors in Sydney
A common-property cleaning contractor for Sydney strata schemes, engaged so the committee can compare it, the strata manager can budget it, and the building manager can live with it. Bin rooms, fire stairs and car parks on a documented rotation — photographed, not promised.
- Bin rooms, fire stairs and car parks on a rotation, photographed
- Bin presentation and retrieval written into the scope
- Monthly record to the building manager and strata manager
- Works scheduled inside the building's by-law hours
Engagement summary
- Roster window
- Weekday mornings
- Insurance
- $20m public liability, certificate on file
- Turnaround
- Written submission inside 24 hours
- Agreement
- Rolling, 30 days notice either way
What should a strata cleaning contractor be contracted to do?
A strata cleaning contractor is engaged by the owners corporation — usually through the strata manager, on the committee’s instruction — to clean the common property of an apartment building or strata scheme: the areas owned collectively rather than by an individual lot owner. The engagement should be defined by a written scope with a frequency band against every area, because the areas that generate complaints are precisely the ones an unwritten scope quietly stops covering.
Common property typically includes entry lobbies, lift cars and lift lobbies, corridors, fire stairs, bin and waste rooms, basement car parks, mail rooms, letterbox banks and shared amenities such as a gym or a pool surround. Bin presentation and retrieval on council collection days is frequently included and should be specified in the scope rather than assumed.
Clean Best prices strata cleaning after walking the whole property, including the fire stairs and the basement, and issues the scope and a fixed monthly figure in writing within 24 hours on 1300 494 983.
- Contract cleaning since 2015Holding scopes across Sydney since 2015
- Police-checked cleanersInducted for offices, warehouses, strata, clinics and campuses
- $20m public liabilityCertificate of currency supplied before the first shift
- Written submission inside 24 hoursScope, roster and fixed price, all in writing
The detail
A strata cleaning contractor committees can put in front of owners
What Sydney schemes end up arguing about with a strata cleaning contractor almost always follows the same script. The lobby is fine. The lobby is always fine — it is the first thing any contractor cleans, because it is the only area everyone walks through. Then an owner photographs the fire stairs, or the bin room, or the corner of the basement where the leaves have been accumulating since autumn, and emails it to the committee at eleven at night. Nobody can say when those areas were last done, because nobody ever wrote down that they were supposed to be.
So we start at the parts of the building nobody photographs for the sales brochure.
The bin room, the fire stairs and the car park
These three areas are where a strata cleaning scope quietly stops being performed, and they are the three areas that generate complaints. They go on a documented rotation with an interval against each, and the supervisor photographs them monthly. It is not glamorous, and it is the single change that takes a cleaning contract off the committee agenda and keeps it off. When somebody asks when the fire stairs were last done, the answer is a date and an image rather than a shrug.
Bins are presented on the day the council actually collects
It sounds too obvious to write down, which is exactly why it goes wrong. Collection days change, contractors do not notice, and bins sit on the kerb for three days or never go out at all. The collection days are written into the scope, presentation and retrieval are named tasks with somebody responsible for them, and the roster follows the council rather than habit. If the day changes, we change with it.
Three audiences, one document
A strata cleaning scope has to satisfy three different people. The committee wants something they can hold against a competing quote without needing a translator. The strata manager wants a fixed figure that will not produce a variation halfway through the budget year. The building manager wants to know who to call at seven on a Monday when somebody has left a mattress in the bin room. So the scope carries the frequency bands for the committee, the fixed figure for the strata manager, and the supervisor’s direct mobile number for the building manager. All three are in the same document.
Mixed-use buildings are two scopes, not one
Retail frontage, an arcade and a lift lobby serving shops carry a completely different traffic load to the residential core above them, and they usually need a different frequency and a different hour. We write them as separate bands under one contract, so the owners corporation can see which cost belongs to which use. That matters when common-property expenses are apportioned between residential and commercial lots, and it is a conversation far easier to have with two numbers than with one.
Noise, by-laws and the hour the work happens
A floor scrubber in a basement at six in the morning is a noise complaint with a known address. Machine work and hard-floor programmes are scheduled into daylight hours, inside whatever works-hours by-law the scheme has adopted, and the roster is built around the morning commute rather than through the middle of it. If the by-laws restrict the hours, they go in the scope and we work inside them — rather than apologising afterwards.
What it costs to find out
A walk of the whole property, including the parts of it the committee has probably never seen. A scope with every area against a frequency band, the rotation schedule set out, and a fixed monthly figure the committee can put in front of owners — back within 24 hours. A rolling agreement on 30 days notice. Call 1300 494 983.
Strata manager portfolios
Eleven buildings, one supervisor, one format of audit
A strata manager holding a dozen schemes does not have the hours to manage a dozen cleaning contractors, and the moment one of them starts drifting there is no way to see it — every contractor reports differently, if they report at all. We would rather hold the portfolio: a separate scope per building because the buildings genuinely differ, but one supervisor across all of them and an audit that arrives in the same format every month.
That consistency is the point. When eleven audits land in the same shape, a scheme that is slipping is visible in about a minute rather than after an owner emails the committee. It is also considerably easier to defend a contractor at an AGM when the evidence for every building looks the same.
- A separate written scope per scheme, one supervisor across all
- Audits in one format, so a drifting building is visible immediately
- Consolidated or per-plan invoicing, whichever suits the agency
- One escalation number for every building in the portfolio
Scope of works
What sits in a strata cleaning scope
The shape a typical Sydney common-property scope takes. Yours is written from a walk of the whole building, basement and fire stairs included.
- Entry lobby: floors, entry glass, entry mats, letterbox bank, intercom panel and seating
- Lift cars: floors, walls, mirrors, tracks and the button panels everybody touches
- Lift lobbies and corridors on every level: floors, skirtings, handrails and light switches
- Fire stairs on a documented rotation, with an interval recorded against each flight
- Bin and waste room: floors hosed or scrubbed, walls spot-cleaned, chute base cleared, room left orderly
- Bin presentation to the kerb and retrieval after collection, on the days council actually collects
- Basement car park on rotation: sweeping, spot-scrubbing of oil, cobweb removal, stairwell access points
- Shared amenities where present: gym floors and equipment wipe-down, pool surround, BBQ area
- Glass: entry doors, lobby glazing and internal glass within reach from the ground
- Cobweb removal from ceilings, corners, external soffits and light fittings within reach
- Waste and recycling from common-area bins, liners replaced
- Photograph the rotation areas monthly and send the record to the building manager and strata manager
Outside this scope: high-reach external window and facade cleaning, pressure washing of external hard surfaces, pool chemistry and plant, landscaping, and anything inside an individual lot. Those are separate trades and we will say so rather than quietly subcontracting them.
Commercial terms
How a strata cleaning contract gets priced
Three bands by the shape of the scheme. The figure comes from the site walk and arrives in writing the committee can compare — there is no rate card, because a boutique block and a mixed-use tower share almost nothing.
Boutique block
A single lift core, roughly ten to thirty lots, a street-level bin room and no basement car park.
- Two or three rostered visits a week
- Lobby, lifts, stairwells and bin room every visit
- Bin presentation and retrieval on collection days
- One named operator who learns the building
Fixed figure, issued in writing before mobilisation.
Mid-rise scheme
Several levels, one or two lift cores, a basement car park and a bin room requiring a chute or a bin lift.
- Documented rotation for fire stairs, bin room and car park
- Monthly photographic record to the building manager
- Machine work on hard floors scheduled inside by-law hours
- Named supervisor with a written monthly audit
Fixed figure, issued in writing before mobilisation.
Mixed-use or portfolio
Residential over retail, multiple towers, or a strata manager holding several schemes they want under one contractor.
- Separate scope bands for residential and commercial common property
- One supervisor across every scheme in the portfolio
- Consolidated invoicing per plan or per portfolio, as you prefer
- Comparable monthly audits across all buildings
Fixed figure, issued in writing before mobilisation.
Free site walk, then a written scope and fixed price inside 24 hours.
Mobilisation
How a strata scheme changes cleaning contractor
Four stages, and the whole property gets walked — not just the lobby.
- Stage 1
Send the plan and the pain point
Call 1300 494 983 with the level count, lift cores, car park, bin arrangement and whatever the committee has been complaining about.
- Stage 2
We walk the whole property
Including the fire stairs and the basement, which is where a scope is really tested. The lobby tells us nothing anyone did not already know.
- Stage 3
Scope the committee can compare
Within 24 hours: every area against a frequency band, the rotation schedule, and a fixed monthly figure that survives an owners meeting.
- Stage 4
First month, first audit
The operator is inducted on access and by-law hours before the first visit, and the supervisor photographs the rotation areas at month one.
FAQ
Strata cleaning contractors: what committees and building managers ask
The questions that come up before an owners corporation changes its cleaning contractor.
Who signs off a strata cleaning contract — the building manager or the committee?
Usually the strata manager executes it, on the committee's instruction, with the building manager living with the result day to day. That is three audiences and it is why we write the scope for all of them. The committee needs a document they can compare against another quote. The strata manager needs a fixed figure that fits the budget without a variation in month four. The building manager needs to know who to call at seven on a Monday, which is why the supervisor's mobile is in the scope.
Why does the bin room matter so much on a strata site?
Because it generates the complaints, and complaints are what put a cleaning contract on a committee agenda. Lobbies look after themselves — they are the area every contractor cleans first, because it is the area anybody notices. The bin room, the fire stairs and the car park are where a scope quietly stops being performed, and they are exactly the areas an owner photographs and emails to the committee at eleven at night. So those go on a documented rotation, and we photograph them.
Do you take the bins out and bring them back in?
Where it is in scope, yes, and it should be specified rather than assumed — bin presentation and retrieval on collection days is one of the most common sources of a strata dispute. We write the collection days into the scope, note who is responsible for moving them to the kerb and returning them, and log it. If council changes the collection day, we adjust the roster rather than continuing to present bins on a day nobody collects them.
How do you handle a mixed-use building with retail on the ground floor?
As two scopes under one contract, because the areas behave differently. Retail frontage, the arcade and the lift lobby serving the shops carry a completely different traffic load to the residential lift core, and they usually need a different frequency and a different hour. We write them as separate bands so the committee can see which cost sits with which use, which matters when the owners corporation apportions common-property expenses between the residential and commercial lots.
What do owners actually see of the cleaning record?
As much as the committee wants them to. Every month the supervisor walks the common property against the signed scope, photographs the areas on rotation, and sends the record to the building manager and the strata manager. Committees regularly forward it verbatim to owners, which stops the annual meeting turning into a debate about whether the fire stairs were ever cleaned. The record is yours — we are not precious about who reads it.
Can you clean common property at a time that does not wake the residents?
Weekday mornings, generally after the commute has cleared the lobby and well before an owner is entitled to complain about noise. Machine work on hard floors and the car park is scheduled to daylight hours specifically because a scrubber in a basement at six in the morning is a noise complaint with a fixed address. Where a building has by-laws restricting works hours, they go into the scope and the roster is built inside them.
How does a strata cleaning contractor price a Sydney scheme?
It is not on this page and it will not be. What drives a strata scope is the number of levels, the lift core count, whether there is a basement car park, whether the bin room is at street level or below, the amount of glass in the entry, and how much landscaping walks grit into the lobby. We attend the site, count it, and give the committee a fixed monthly figure in writing within 24 hours that they can put in front of owners.
Related scopes
Scopes strata schemes commonly hold alongside common property
Same supervisor, same audit format, one invoice.
Appoint a strata cleaning contractor owners stop raising at the AGM
We walk the whole property, photograph the rotation areas from month one, and give the committee a fixed figure in writing. Call 1300 494 983.