Due diligence
Strata Cleaning Contractor Insurance, Scope and Evidence
Cleaning is one of the few things an owners corporation buys where nobody watches it being performed. So the committee's protection is not the price — it is the certificates, the specification and the audit report. Here is what to insist on before a contractor is appointed.
- The two insurance certificates, and which one gets forgotten
- What a specification must name, area by area
- The reporting a treasurer can actually act on
- Police-checked cleaners: the register, not the claim
Operating since 2015
One documented cleaning standard, applied site by site across Sydney and regional NSW
- Police-checked cleaners
- Vetted and inducted before they set foot on your site
- $20m public liability
- Certificates of currency issued before the first shift
- Rolling agreement, no lock-in term
- Scope and price in writing within 24 hours
What should a strata committee check before appointing a cleaner?
Check three things. First, the insurance: ask for certificates of currency for both public liability and workers compensation, and confirm that the insured entity named on each is the same entity signing the agreement. Public liability covers damage to the common property; workers compensation covers the cleaner injured on site, which is the exposure committees most often overlook.
Second, the specification. It should name each common area — foyer, lift cars, every level’s landing, fire stairs, corridors, bin room and chute base, car park, mail room, pool surround, gym — with a frequency attached to each, and it should exclude lot interiors explicitly. Third, the reporting: establish who audits the building, how often, and whether findings arrive in a form that can be attached to a committee pack.
Clean Best Australia issues a written specification per building, carries twenty million dollars of public liability plus workers compensation, and audits each building monthly against its specification, sending the findings to the managing agent whether or not anything failed.
- Operating since 2015Trading continuously since 2015
- Police-checked cleanersWorkplaces, clinics, campuses, buildings and homes
- $20m public liabilityPlus workers compensation for every person on the roster
- Every site audited monthlyFindings and corrective actions issued in writing
How to assess the contractor
The evidence a committee should hold, before the levy is spent
Committees ask about strata cleaning contractor insurance because it is the one question everybody knows to ask. It is necessary, and it is nowhere near sufficient. The complaint that ends a strata cleaning contract has a very particular signature: the lift car is fine, the foyer is fine, and yet three owners are furious, because the bin room smells, the fire stairs have not been touched since autumn, and a mattress has been leaning against the car park wall for five weeks. The clean is not bad. The clean is undefined, so everybody has a different idea of what was bought.
That is a documentation failure, and no certificate of currency prevents it. A written specification per building does.
The specification is written for the committee, not for us
Every building gets a document listing each common area — foyer, lift cars, each level’s landing, fire stairs, corridors, bin room, chute base, car park, mail room, pool surround, gym — with the frequency attached to it. A treasurer can read it in two minutes and see exactly what the levy is buying. When an owner asks why the fire stairs look the way they do, the answer is a line in a document rather than an argument between two people who both remember the conversation differently.
Reporting that survives a committee meeting
The most valuable thing we produce for a strata managing agent is not the cleaning. It is the monthly audit: a supervisor walks the building against its specification and sends the findings in a form that can be attached straight to a committee pack. Agents holding nineteen schemes do not have time to translate a cleaner’s text message into something a committee can act on, and the absence of that document is why cleaning contracts get terminated at AGMs over problems nobody had recorded.
Bin rooms decide everything
Ask any resident what they think of the building’s cleaner and they will answer with the bin room. So it leads the specification. Bins are moved out for collection and returned, the chute base is washed and deodorised rather than hosed, the floor is cleaned properly, and overflow is photographed and reported to the agent instead of being quietly restacked. Where a scheme has a recurring dumping problem, we log it with dates and photographs, which is the only way a committee can ever do anything about it.
Lifts, stairs and the levels nobody visits
Lift cars are cleaned to the standard of the foyer, because they are the part of the building every resident sees twice a day. Landings are cleaned on every level, not on the levels that happen to be near the lift lobby. Fire stairs are in the specification with a stated frequency, because they are the single most reliably neglected space in Sydney strata, and they are also the space an insurer or a fire safety inspector will photograph.
Portfolios, and telling agents the truth
For a managing agent holding many schemes, one agreement across the portfolio replaces a dozen relationships that all drift apart. Each building keeps its own specification and its own price. What is shared is the vetting, the insurance, the audit cycle, the contact and the invoice. And where a scheme’s levy genuinely will not carry the frequency the building needs, we say so in writing and quote both options rather than take the work and let the committee discover the gap in six months.
What it costs to find out
A supervisor walks the common property at no charge — every landing, the fire stairs, the bin room, the car park — because none of those areas are visible from a strata plan. Within 24 hours the managing agent has a written specification and a fixed price per building, in a form the committee can consider at its next meeting. The agreement is rolling, thirty days notice, however many buildings it covers.
Call 1300 494 983 and tell us which building the committee is angry about.
Reporting
The document a treasurer can actually read
Strata cleaning is bought by a committee of volunteers and managed by an agent with dozens of other buildings to think about. Neither has time to interpret a contractor's account of its own performance, which is why most cleaning disputes in strata are really disputes about evidence.
So the monthly audit is written to be forwarded, not filed. It lists the areas inspected, what met the specification, what did not, what has been rectified and what needs a committee decision — with photographs where a photograph settles the argument faster than a paragraph.
- Audit findings formatted for the committee pack
- Photographic record of dumping, damage and overflow
- Rectification completed before the next scheduled visit
- Items requiring a committee decision flagged separately
The written specification
What a strata specification usually covers
The common property scope for a typical Sydney lift building. Yours is written per building from the walkthrough.
- Clean and present the entry foyer: floors, glass, matting, seating and signage
- Clean lift cars fully — floor, walls, mirrors, doors, tracks and control panels
- Clean lift landings and corridors on every level, not just the lobby levels
- Sweep, mop and spot-clean fire stairs and stair landings on the agreed cycle
- Wash the bin room floor, clean and deodorise the chute base, degrease as required
- Move bins out for collection and return them, and report overflow with photographs
- Clean the mail room and letterbox bank, and remove accumulated junk mail
- Sweep or blow car park circulation areas and remove litter and debris
- Clean common laundries, pool surrounds and gym rooms where the scheme has them
- Disinfect touchpoints: intercom panels, door handles, lift buttons and handrails
- Clean entry glass, internal glazing and common area mirrors
- Report damage, graffiti, dumped goods and lighting faults to the managing agent
Common area carpet extraction, car park scrubbing, external pressure washing and high-level window cleaning are quoted as periodic programmes and presented to the committee separately.
Commercials
How a strata cleaning price is built
We price lot count, lift count, the number of levels, the amenities the scheme carries and street exposure — never a per-square-metre figure, which tells a committee nothing useful.
Walk-up scheme
Smaller residential schemes without a lift — entry, stairwell, corridors, bin room and a small car park.
- Scheduled visits two or three times a week
- Bin room, chute base and bin presentation for collection
- Written specification the committee can read
- Monthly audit report the managing agent can forward
Fixed figure, issued in writing before anyone starts.
Lift building
Mid-size residential and mixed-use buildings with lifts, a foyer, multiple levels and shared amenities.
- Five or six day cycles covering foyer, lifts, landings and stairs
- Pool surrounds, gym rooms and common laundries where present
- Periodic programmes: carpet, entry glass, car park scrub
- Photographic reporting of dumping and damage
Fixed figure, issued in writing before anyone starts.
Agent portfolio
Managing agents holding multiple schemes who need one standard, one contact and reporting a committee can act on.
- A specification per building, one agreement across the portfolio
- One account manager who has walked every building
- Buildings added or removed without renegotiating
- Consolidated invoicing and consolidated monthly reporting
Fixed figure, issued in writing before anyone starts.
Site inspection at no charge, then a written scope and price inside 24 hours.
The process
How a strata changeover runs
Four steps, timed so the committee can make the decision at a scheduled meeting rather than an emergency one.
- 01
Send the building list
Call 1300 494 983 with the schemes, the lot counts, the amenities each building has and what the committee is unhappy about right now.
- 02
Walk the common property
A supervisor walks each building — foyer, lifts, every landing, the fire stairs, the bin room and the car park — rather than pricing from the strata plan.
- 03
Specification and price
Within 24 hours the agent receives a written specification per building, priced, in a form the committee can consider at its next meeting.
- 04
Start, then report monthly
Cleaners are inducted per building, the compliance pack goes to the agent, and the first monthly audit lands four weeks after the roster starts.
FAQ
What agents and committees ask before appointing a cleaner
What managing agents, treasurers and committee chairs settle before putting a recommendation to owners.
What should a strata cleaning specification cover?
Common property, area by area, each with a frequency attached: entry foyers, lift cars and lift landings on every level, stairwells and fire stairs, corridors, bin rooms and chutes, car park circulation areas, the mail room, letterboxes, common laundries, and pool surrounds or gym rooms where the scheme has them. Lot interiors are the owner's business and should be excluded explicitly. If the document does not name each area and its frequency, the committee cannot see what the levy is purchasing.
How does a strata managing agent report the work to the committee?
With the document we send them. Each building is audited monthly by a supervisor against its written specification, and the findings go to the managing agent in a form that can be attached to a committee pack without rewriting. That is the single most requested thing we do for agents: not cleaning, but evidence of cleaning that a treasurer can read at a meeting without a translator.
Can one agreement cover a portfolio of buildings?
Yes, and for a managing agent it is the only sane arrangement. Every building on the portfolio gets its own specification — a fifty-lot walk-up in Wolli Creek and a two-hundred-lot tower in Zetland are different jobs — but the vetting, insurance, audit cycle, account manager and invoicing are shared. Buildings are added and removed as the portfolio changes without renegotiating anything.
Who deals with the bin room and the chute?
We do, and honestly it is the area that decides whether a building thinks its cleaner is any good. Bins are moved for collection and returned, the chute base is cleaned and deodorised, the floor is washed rather than swept, and overflow is reported to the agent with a photograph rather than quietly stacked in a corner. Where a scheme has recurring dumping, we log it so the committee has something to act on.
Do you handle rubbish left in common areas by residents?
We remove and report it. What we will not do is silently absorb it forever, because that turns a resident behaviour problem into a permanent line in the cleaning budget and the committee never finds out. Items too large for the bin room are photographed, logged and raised with the managing agent so the scheme can decide whether to pursue the owner or pay for removal.
What insurance should a strata cleaning contractor carry?
Ask for two certificates of currency, not one: public liability, and workers compensation. Public liability covers damage done to the common property or to a third party; workers compensation covers the cleaner injured in your fire stairs, which is the exposure a committee rarely thinks about until it arrives. Check that the insured entity named on each certificate is the same entity signing the agreement. Clean Best carries twenty million dollars of public liability and issues both certificates to the managing agent at mobilisation.
How often should common areas be cleaned?
Lot count and lift count drive it more than floor area. A small walk-up scheme is usually well served twice a week. A tower with two lifts, a foyer that fronts a busy street and a gym is a five- or six-day job, and anything less shows in the lift car within a fortnight. We recommend a frequency at inspection, tell the committee plainly if the levy will not carry what the building needs, and put both options in writing.
What happens when the committee changes its mind about the scope?
The specification is amended and reissued, which takes a phone call. Because the scope is a document rather than an understanding, adding a weekly pressure clean of the entry or dropping the car park to fortnightly is a small, visible change with a price attached, rather than an argument at the next AGM about what was allegedly agreed with someone who has since left.
Keep reading
The rest of the due diligence
What a contractor should be able to evidence in each setting, and the documents to ask every one of them for.
Ask us for the certificates before you ask us for a price
Free walkthrough of the common property, the compliance pack on request, and a written specification and fixed price within 24 hours. Call 1300 494 983.