Cleaning contract: the specification that prevents disputes

Cleaning is the number one complaint from owners and the worst-drafted contract in the building. The two are connected.

"The common areas are dirty." By far the most frequent remark at general meetings. It is also the one settled worst, because the cleaning contract often amounts to a single line: "maintenance of common areas, 2 visits per week".

With such wording, nobody can say whether the work was done. The provider turned up, so the contract was performed. The owner finds it dirty, so it was not. Both are right, for want of a definition.

The specification in four columns

A good specification fits on one page and reads as a table: for each area, what is done, how often, and to what expected standard.

1. The area, precisely named: entrance hall, stairwell A from ground to 5th, landings, bin store, level -1 car park, external surroundings.
2. The task: sweeping, washing, dusting handrails, cleaning glass, taking bins out and back in, disinfecting the bin store.
3. The frequency, per task rather than overall: the hall may be washed twice a week and the glass once a quarter.
4. The expected standard, in one verifiable sentence: "no marks on glass at eye level", "floor not sticky", "bins back in before 8 pm".

This grid serves twice: to obtain genuinely comparable quotes, and to establish a shortfall objectively. See requesting quotes from the manager and the comparison grid.

With no written expected standard, a cleaning contract is not checkable — only billable.

The points almost always missing

• Supply of consumables: products, bags, bulbs. Who pays, and are they included?
• Cover when the operative is absent: within what timeframe, and with what notice to the association?
• Exceptional visits after an event — works, a claim, a residents' party — and how they are billed.
• The contact point: a number that answers, not a switchboard.
• Term, renewal and notice period, noted at signature.

Checking without policing

Quality control is not about watching the operative, but about recording dated facts. Two or three photos a month, taken in the same place at the same point in the week, are enough to document a decline — the logic described in the issue log.

Three spaced observations are worth infinitely more than a general complaint at the meeting. They let you write to the manager about facts rather than impressions, and ask for a return to standard before considering a change of provider.

As the term approaches

Note the renewal date at signature: it drives the bidding calendar, and it always comes round faster than expected. The contract, its expiry and the year's observations belong in the condo board annual report and in the building maintenance log.

With CoproHarmony, contracts, expiry dates and photo records live in one place, and the renewal date no longer takes you by surprise. Create your space for free.

This specification becomes central if the building is weighing keeping the caretaker post.

Two other services compare the same way: grounds maintenance and the bin store.