Common area cleaning for owners corporations.
Driveways, foyers, stairwells, corridors and the bin store nobody wants to talk about. Fixed scheduled pricing that goes into your budget as one line, written scopes so the committee is not arguing, and the liability issues most contractors skip.
Strata, body corporate, owners corporation.
In Victoria it is an owners corporation, under the Owners Corporations Act 2006. Strata is the New South Wales word and body corporate is the Queensland one, and in Pakenham people use all three because half the corridor moved here from somewhere else. We do not particularly care what you call it.
The tier rules matter more. The Owners Corporations and Other Acts Amendment Act 2021, in force from 1 December 2021, sorted Victorian owners corporations into five tiers by lot count: Tier 1 is more than 100 lots, Tier 2 is 51 to 100, Tier 3 is 10 to 50, Tier 4 is 3 to 9, and Tier 5 is two lots or services only. The larger tiers carry the real obligations around maintenance plans and funds. Nearly every development we clean in the Cardinia Shire is a townhouse site of six to twenty lots, which lands in Tier 3 or Tier 4, so the legal burden is light. What that actually means is that your cleaning is a committee decision and a budget line, not a compliance exercise, and it should be quoted that way.
What common property cleaning covers here.
The developments through Officer, Pakenham and Clyde North are mostly townhouse sites of six to twenty lots rather than towers, so the scope is fairly consistent:
- Shared driveway and visitor parking. Swept, litter picked, and the oil-spot conversation had honestly rather than pretended away.
- Entry, foyer and letterbox area. The first impression, and the thing owners judge the whole service on.
- Stairwells and shared corridors. Where they exist. Handrails, treads, cobwebs.
- The bin store. This is the one. It generates more complaints than every other area combined and it is where a cheap contract shows first.
- Common glass and light fittings. Reachable ones. See the height note below.
Scope is the thing worth being pedantic about, because almost every owners corporation dispute we have seen about cleaning was a scope argument, not a quality argument. Somebody thought the bin store was included, the contractor did not, and now the committee is angry at a cleaner who did exactly what they quoted. We put it in writing, area by area, frequency by frequency, before anyone signs. Our commercial and office cleaning runs on the same principle.
The liability nobody on the committee raises.
Here is one worth knowing, because we have never once been asked about it and we probably should be. Entry and lobby tiles have a slip-resistance rating. New pedestrian surfaces are classified under AS 4586, and AS 4663 covers testing surfaces already in place. That rating is not permanent. Over-polishing a floor, or using the wrong product on it, can drop its slip resistance below what it was specified at, especially on a wet Pakenham morning when everyone walks in off the driveway with wet shoes.
If someone slips on common property because the cleaning made the floor slippery, that is an owners corporation problem before it is a cleaner problem. So ask any contractor what they are putting on your entry floor and why, and be suspicious of a shiny result on a surface that was never meant to shine. It is not a trick question, it is just one nobody asks.
The other one is height. WorkSafe Victoria's rules on working at height apply on your common property, and AS 1657 covers fixed platforms, walkways and ladders. We do reachable glass and light fittings from the ground. We do not do a stairwell void light off a ladder balanced on a landing, and any contractor who says yes to that cheerfully is a risk to your owners corporation, not a bargain.
Worked example: a 10-lot townhouse site in Officer.
Ten townhouses, a shared driveway, a small entry and letterbox bank, no lift, one bin store. Fortnightly visit of about three cleaner-hours: driveway swept and litter picked, entry and letterbox area cleaned, common glass, cobwebs, bin store washed out and deodorised, bins returned. At $55 per cleaner-hour that is $165 per visit, so about $4,290 a year, or roughly $429 per lot per year.
Most committees would rather see that as a fixed schedule price than an hourly one, and we agree, because a fixed number goes into the annual budget and the AGM without an argument. Hourly invites a slow drift upward that nobody notices until the fees rise.
Where we would tell a committee to spend less: if your site has no internal corridor and no lift, you almost certainly do not need weekly. Fortnightly holds it. Where we would tell you to spend more: if the bin store is the thing owners complain about, put it on weekly on its own and leave everything else fortnightly. That is usually about forty dollars a visit and it solves eighty percent of the complaints. Full rates are on our pricing guide, and if you also manage rentals within the development, our landlord and rental property cleaning covers the turnover side. If the development has only just been handed over by the builder, expect construction dust through the common areas for the first few months, which our builders clean for a new home page explains.
Developments we service.
The full list is on our service areas page. Comparing contractors? How to choose a cleaner in Pakenham covers what to check before the committee signs anything.
Committee questions.
Is it called strata or an owners corporation in Victoria?
In Victoria it is an owners corporation, governed by the Owners Corporations Act 2006. Strata and body corporate are the terms used in New South Wales and Queensland, and people in Pakenham use all three interchangeably because they moved here from somewhere else. It matters for one practical reason: the Victorian tier rules introduced in 2021 set what your owners corporation is legally required to plan and budget for, and they use lot counts, not the word strata.
What does common area cleaning cost for a Pakenham owners corporation?
We quote common property either at $45 to $60 per cleaner-hour or as a fixed price per scheduled visit, and most owners corporations prefer the fixed schedule because it goes into the annual budget as one predictable line. A small townhouse development of eight to twelve lots in Officer or Pakenham typically needs two to three hours a fortnight, which is roughly $110 to $180 per visit, or about $2,800 to $4,700 a year.
How often should common areas be cleaned?
Fortnightly suits most small Pakenham townhouse developments. Weekly is worth it where there is a shared internal corridor, a lift, or a bin store that gets used hard, because those go bad quickly and complaints follow. The bin store is usually the deciding factor rather than the lot count. If your owners corporation gets more complaints about the bin area than everything else combined, that is a weekly site.
Can the wrong cleaning product create a liability for the owners corporation?
Yes, and it is the risk committees never think about. Over-polishing or using the wrong product on a lobby or entry tile can reduce its slip resistance below what it was rated at under AS 4586, and AS 4663 covers testing existing surfaces. If someone slips on a common-property floor that was made slippery by the cleaning, that is an owners corporation problem, not just a cleaner problem. Ask any contractor what they put on your entry floor and why.
What should an owners corporation check before hiring a cleaner?
Three things in writing before you appoint anyone. Current public liability insurance, because they are working on common property the owners corporation is responsible for. A written scope listing exactly which areas and how often, so the committee is not arguing about whether the bin store was included. And confirmation that anything above about two metres is either excluded or has a proper method, because WorkSafe Victoria height rules apply on your property, not somewhere else.
Taking cleaning to the next committee meeting?
We will quote a written scope, area by area, as a fixed annual figure. Free, no obligation.