OC · StrataCommon property cleaning for Melbourne owners corporations and body corporates
GGuides
These strata cleaning guides answer the questions committees and owners corporation managers ask us most: what the work covers, what it costs, how to choose a contractor, how to write a scope and who is responsible for which parts of a building. Each one deals with a single decision and ends with a clear answer.
Most people who sit on an owners corporation committee never planned to become experts in cleaning contracts. They volunteered, or were voted in, and now have to make decisions that every owner will notice. These guides are written for them, and for the professional managers who explain the same things to committee after committee. They are free to read, print and pass around at a meeting. For our services, rather than general advice, see strata cleaning Melbourne.
01Start here
It depends on the decision in front of you. New to the committee? Start with the definitions. Preparing the budget? Read the cost guide. Unhappy with your current cleaner? Go to the choosing and switching guide. Writing a tender or a new contract? Use the scope template.
| If your question is | Read |
|---|---|
| What exactly are we paying a strata cleaner to do? | What is strata cleaning |
| How much should we put in next year's budget? | The committee cost guide |
| Our cleaner is not working out. What now? | Choosing or switching a company |
| We need to write down what we want cleaned | The scope and schedule template |
| Is the balcony glass our job or the owner's? | Who pays for what |
Managers often send a link to one guide ahead of a committee meeting, so members arrive with the same understanding. That tends to shorten the discussion and keeps it on the decision rather than the definitions.
Committee members who join partway through a term find them useful too, because they explain decisions the committee made before they arrived.
Each guide stands on its own, so there is no need to read them in order. Where one topic leads naturally into another, the guide says so and links across.
02Basics
They explain the language and the boundaries: what strata cleaning is, why Victoria says owners corporation where other states say strata, and where common property ends and a private lot begins. Get those right and most later disagreements never happen.
The definition, the Victorian terms, every scope a strata cleaner covers and how schemes hire one.
Best for new committee members
Common property versus lots, the balcony and window grey zones, and how schemes settle them.
Best when owners disagree
A zone-by-frequency checklist, sized for walk-ups to towers, ready to adapt for a tender.
Best before asking for quotesIf you only have time for one, read the responsibilities guide. Most of the arguments we hear about cleaning are really arguments about who owns what, and that guide settles most of them in a few minutes.
The definitions guide also works well as a handout for new owners. People buying into their first apartment often do not know what their levies pay for, and a short, plain explanation saves the committee many emails.
03Money and contractors
Two guides cover the money and the hiring. The cost guide explains how cleaning is priced and walks through a year's budget for a 20-unit building. The choosing guide sets out what to check, which papers to ask for and how to move between contractors without residents noticing.
Pricing logic, a worked yearly budget and how to compare quotes at the AGM.
Best before the budget is set
The checklist, red flags, notice periods and a simple tender for larger schemes.
Best when changing contractors
Once you know what you want, a quote for your own building turns the guides into numbers.
Free, fixed and itemisedNeither guide will tell you what your building should cost, because that depends on its layout. What they give you is a way to test any figure you are offered: the hours behind it, what it includes and what it quietly leaves out.
A practical tip for committees: agree the scope before you talk about price. When the committee decides first which areas matter, how often and to what standard, every quote that follows can be compared directly. When price comes first, the conversation drifts to the cheapest number, and the building pays for it later in missed stairs and bins.
Read the cost guide before the choosing guide if your committee is mainly worried about price, and the other way round if the worry is quality. Both end up in the same place: a clear scope, compared like with like.
04How they are written
You will find a review date near the top of each one, and every legal or regulatory point is linked to its official source, usually Consumer Affairs Victoria, the Victorian legislation site or WorkSafe Victoria. Those links are re-tested twice a year, with the date moved forward each time.
The guides draw on the practical side of our work across Melbourne schemes: what committees ask on walk-throughs, where disputes usually start and which parts of a contract cause trouble later. They are general information, not legal advice. Where a question depends on your own plan of subdivision or rules, the guide says so and suggests who to ask.
We deliberately keep sales messages out of the guides. They mention our services only where a practical example helps, and the advice would be the same whichever contractor you choose. A committee that understands the work makes a better client for any cleaner.
A few terms appear in almost every guide, so here they are once, in plain words:
Victorian owners corporation law changed significantly in December 2021, when the tier system replaced the old prescribed owners corporation rules. Material written before then, or written for other states, can be misleading. Our guides are written for Victoria as it stands now.
The 2021 tier system is summarised by Consumer Affairs Victoria; link checked September 2026.
05Beyond the guides
When the committee knows what it wants cleaned and roughly how often, a quote is the fastest way to turn that into a real figure for the budget. It is free, fixed and itemised, so it also works as a benchmark against your current contractor.
A quote is also a good way to check the guides against your own building. The walk-through shows which parts of a scope template apply, which cost drivers matter and where the grey zones are on your plan of subdivision.
Bring along any notes the committee made while reading; they help us focus the visit on what matters to you. You do not need to have read every guide first. Tell us the building and the question you are stuck on, and the walk-through will cover it. Whenever the committee is ready, you can get a quote online.
06About the guides
Two short answers.
