A Complete Guide for New Owners and Body Corporate Members
Joining an owners corporation or body corporate committee for the first time comes with a steep learning curve, and cleaning is one of the areas new members understand least. Whether the building sits in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane or on the Gold Coast, most incoming committee members have never read a cleaning contract, sat through a tender, or had reason to think about what a strata cleaning company is actually responsible for. This guide covers the basics: what is in scope, how the work is specified, what good reporting looks like, and how to tell the difference between routine servicing and specialist work.
What areas does a strata cleaning company cover?
A strata cleaning company is contracted to maintain the common property of a building, which is everything the owners corporation is responsible for rather than what sits inside individual lots. In a typical high-rise or medium-density strata building, that includes the lobby and entry areas, lift cabins and lift lobbies, corridors and stairwells, car parks and driveways, bin rooms and waste chutes, and the external building envelope such as glass, cladding and balustrades. Many buildings also have amenities like gyms, pools or rooftop terraces that fall under the same contract. What is covered should be spelled out precisely in the scope of works, not left to assumption, because ambiguity here is where disputes usually start.
How is the work actually specified?
A properly written strata cleaning contract is built around a service specification: a detailed document listing every task, the area it applies to, the frequency it is performed, and the standard it must be delivered to. A specification for the lobby, for example, might list daily vacuuming, glass door cleaning and bin emptying, weekly high-touchpoint disinfection, and quarterly deep cleaning of hard floors. If your building’s contract does not have a specification this detailed, that is usually the first sign the incumbent contractor has not been held to account.
What should SLAs and QA reporting look like?
Service level agreements set out response times, escalation paths and the consequences of missed service, while quality assurance reporting is how a committee actually knows the work happened. The industry standard has moved well past a supervisor’s signature on a paper sheet. Reporting should now include digital checklists completed on site, geo-tracked attendance so you know staff were physically present, and photographic evidence for anything out of the ordinary. Havencab’s live dashboard reporting, built on Amplex tracking, gives building managers and committees this level of transparency in real time, rather than a summary emailed weeks after the fact.
How do you read a cleaning schedule?
A cleaning schedule breaks the specification down by frequency: daily tasks such as the lobby, lifts and high-touch surfaces, weekly tasks such as corridors, stairwells and car park sweeps, and periodic tasks such as window cleaning, facade washes, carpet care and hard floor sealing that might run monthly, quarterly or annually depending on the building’s exposure and traffic. A good schedule also flags seasonal adjustments, since buildings in coastal or humid locations need periodic tasks more often than those in sheltered inland positions.
Routine cleaning versus specialist and reactive work
Routine strata cleaning services keep a building presentable day to day. Specialist and reactive work is different: post-construction cleans, biohazard and trauma cleaning, water damage and mould remediation, rope access facade work, and emergency response after a flood or an incident. These jobs sit outside the standard contract and should be quoted and approved separately, with a company that can mobilise quickly and has the WHS credentials to do the work safely at height or in hazardous conditions.
Understanding what is in scope is the first step to getting real value from a cleaning contract, and the next tender is a good time to put it to the test. Havencab has supported owners corporations and body corporate committees across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and the Gold Coast for more than 40 years, with directly employed, trained staff and live dashboard reporting that shows exactly what is being done and when. Download our new committee member cleaning checklist below, or get in touch to talk through your building’s scope of works.