Body Corporate Cleaning: What a Committee Should Actually Ask For

A body corporate committee is, at the end of the day, a group of volunteers trying to keep a building running without it swallowing their evenings and weekends. Nobody signed up to become a facilities manager. So when it comes to the cleaning contract, the real goal is not the cheapest quote, it is the arrangement that gives you the least to think about and the fewest angry emails from residents. Here is what that actually looks like.

I set these contracts up for a living, and the ones that cause committees grief almost always fail on the same handful of points. Get these right and the cleaning quietly becomes a non-issue, which is the entire point of paying for it.

Get the scope nailed down

Common areas are exactly where vague contracts fall apart, because "common area" means something slightly different to everyone. Lobbies, lifts, stairwells, bin rooms, car-park common areas, letterbox banks, any shared amenity, all of it named individually, each with a stated frequency. "Clean the common areas" is not a scope, it is an argument with a delay on it. A proper scope leaves nothing to interpretation, which is precisely what you want when the person chasing it up is a volunteer treasurer, not a full-time building manager with time to litigate what counts.

The paperwork that protects the committee

Two things, and neither is negotiable:

• Current public liability insurance, with the certificate of currency supplied before you sign, not vaguely promised for later. In a shared residential building, the ways a cleaner can cause an expensive problem are many, and you want that covered in writing.
• A single named point of contact and a clear escalation path, so that when a resident complains about the lift smelling like a bin, someone actually picks up the phone and deals with it. Not a ticket number, not a call centre in another time zone. A real person who knows your building.

How to handle the term

Twelve months is pretty standard and perfectly reasonable, it lets the cleaner roster and price properly. But protect the committee anyway. Ask for a 30-day trial before you lock into the full term, so you can see the standard in your actual building before you commit a year to it. And make sure there are performance clauses written in, so you have got a clean, dignified way out if the standard drops and the reminders stop working.

A confident cleaner will not blink at either, because they do not plan on giving you a reason to use them. The committee that asks for a certificate of currency and a trial before shortlisting saves itself almost every headache a cleaning contract can cause, and probably a few tense AGM discussions along with them.

Frequently asked questions

How long should a body corporate cleaning contract run?

Twelve months is standard. Ask for a 30-day trial up front, and insist on performance clauses so the committee can exit if standards slip.

What should we check before signing?

A named scope covering every common area, current public liability insurance supplied before signing, and a single real point of contact for when something needs sorting.