OC · StrataCommon property cleaning for Melbourne owners corporations and body corporates
OC · StrataCommon property cleaning for Melbourne owners corporations and body corporates
G03Guide · Procurement
Choosing a strata cleaning company is easier than it looks once you know what to check. This guide gives committees a ten-point checklist, the documents worth sighting, the warning signs, a simple tender for larger schemes and a way to change contractors without residents noticing the gap.
Reviewed 27 September 2026For committees and managersAbout 9 minutes to read
This guide is for committees that are unhappy with their current cleaner, managers helping a scheme run its first proper selection, and anyone who has been asked to find three quotes before the next meeting. It is general, practical advice that applies to any contractor, including us. For the rest of the series, see our strata cleaning guides.
01Checklist
Ten things: strata experience, insurance, police checks, photo reporting, the quality of the written scope, crew consistency, complaint handling, price transparency, how compliance documents are kept current and the notice terms. A company that answers all ten clearly is usually a safe choice.
Two or three current owners corporations or managers you can actually contact.
The insurer's own certificate showing liability cover, in date on the day you sign.
For everyone who will hold keys, including relief staff.
An actual report from another building, timestamped, rather than a promise.
Every area listed with its tasks and frequency, not a single line.
Who will clean your building, and how often that person changes.
Who residents or the manager contact, and how fast they hear back.
Hours per visit shown, periodic jobs priced, GST separate.
Whether updated insurance and safety papers arrive without chasing.
How either side ends the contract, and whether it renews automatically.
It helps to split the ten between the committee. One member rings references, another checks documents, another reads the scopes side by side. Each brings a one-line verdict to the meeting, and the decision takes minutes rather than an evening.
The checklist deliberately puts price near the bottom. Price matters, but it only means something once the other nine answers show what that price buys. Committees that start with price tend to end up back at this checklist within a year.
02Evidence
At minimum: the liability insurer's certificate, evidence the business is registered for WorkCover, confirmation of police checks, a sample visit report and one or two strata references. For any work at height, add the safe work method statement they would use on your building.
Call the references rather than just reading them. Ask how long the company has cleaned their building, whether the same crew still turns up, how complaints were handled and what they would change. Two short conversations tell a committee more than any brochure.
Check the insurance certificate's dates and named insured against the business on the quote, and ask how renewals are sent. Registration with WorkSafe Victoria's WorkCover scheme means an injured cleaner is looked after by the contractor's cover rather than becoming a question for your building. Gutters and upper-storey glass bring a fall risk above the two-metre line WorkSafe uses for high risk construction work, so ask to see the written SWMS the crew would follow on your roof.
Sources: WorkSafe Victoria, WorkCover insurance; WorkSafe Victoria, SWMS. Checked 27 September 2026.
03The scope
A good scope table lists every area, the tasks in each, how often they happen and roughly how long a visit takes. A weak one says "general cleaning of common areas, weekly" and leaves everything else to interpretation, which is where most disputes begin.
Ask for it in writing before the walk-through ends, even in draft. A contractor that can describe the building clearly on paper after one visit has usually understood it.
Read the table as a resident would. Does it mention the fire stairs, the lift tracks, the bin room floor, the carpark lobby? Does it say what happens monthly as well as weekly? If an area you care about is missing, it will not be done, however good the crew is.
Watch for frequency words that sound precise but are not. "Regularly", "as required" and "periodically" give a contractor room to do very little. A good scope uses numbers: weekly, fortnightly, twice a year, with the months named for periodic jobs.
Compare hours as well as tasks. Two scopes that list the same tasks can still hide a big difference if one allows two hours a visit and the other three. For how those hours turn into a budget, see what strata cleaning costs: a committee guide.
04Switching
By reading the current contract's notice clause, giving notice in writing at the right time, agreeing a start date for the new contractor that follows the old one's last day, and planning a handover week. Most residents should only notice that the building looks better.
Find the notice period, any fixed term and whether it renews automatically.
Give written notice so the old contract ends as the new one begins.
Keys and fobs returned against a register, new crew inducted, a walk-through together.
Photo reports checked closely and a short review at the end of week four.
There is no general legal notice period for cleaning contracts; it is whatever your contract says. Thirty to ninety days is common. If the contract has lapsed and continues month to month, the committee can usually end it with reasonable written notice, but check the wording first.
Tell residents before the change, not after. A short notice in the lift and by email, naming the start date and who to contact, stops the first week's small teething issues turning into rumours. Most people only want to know that someone is in charge.
Time the switch around the AGM where you can. A new contractor starting a month or two after the budget is approved has a settled price and a committee ready to review the first three months before the next budget.
05Warning signs
Office cleaners pitching strata work without strata references, quotes with no hours, no reporting of any kind, verbal scopes, reluctance to show insurance and contracts that roll over for years automatically. Any one of these deserves a question; several together are a reason to walk away.
Office cleaning habits, such as noisy early machines and unreported visits, cause complaints in homes.
A verbal scope or a one-line quote means nobody can later show what was agreed.
"We'll send the insurance later" should mean no decision until it arrives.
Without dated photos, missed visits are invisible until residents complain.
A price with no hours behind it cannot be compared or held to account.
Long terms that renew themselves with a steep exit fee protect the contractor, not the scheme.
06Tenders
Write one scope, invite three or four contractors to walk the building on the same day or week, ask for responses in the same format by a set date, and score them against the ten-point checklist before looking at price. It does not need to be more complicated than that.
Every area, task and frequency, so all quotes price the same thing.
Every bidder inspects the site in person, escorted by whoever holds the keys.
Hours, prices by line, documents attached, notice terms stated.
Rank on the checklist first, then weigh price among the strongest two or three.
Keep the tender short. Contractors who are good at the work are not always good at long documents, and a ten-page request can scare off exactly the small, reliable firms a scheme might want. One page of scope, one page of questions and a site visit is usually enough.
Managers running tenders across several buildings can reuse the same documents each time. Our notes for strata and owners corporation managers explain how we respond to portfolio tenders.
07Fair test
Yes. Every point in this guide applies to us as much as anyone. Ask for our references, our certificate, a sample report and our hours, and hold our quote to the same checklist. A contractor who is confident in its service is happy to be tested.
Why do committees switch? In our experience the reasons are almost always the same: visits that quietly stopped covering the whole building, nobody answering emails, a different stranger every week, or a price rise that arrived without warning. None of those is about cleaning skill. They are about reliability and communication, which is exactly what the checklist tests.
You can read how we recruit, check and assign crews on our about us page. When you are ready to compare, get a quote against the same scope you have given everyone else.
08Quick answers
Three short answers.
