Strata cleaning

The Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW) and the Duty to Maintain

Under the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW), an owners corporation has an ongoing statutory duty to maintain and repair the common property of the scheme, and to keep it in a state of good and serviceable repair. This duty is a core obligation of the owners corporation as a whole — it does not fall to individual lot owners, and it does not stop at structural repairs. Keeping common areas clean, hygienic and free of hazards is part of maintaining property in good repair, because a build-up of grime, spills, rubbish or organic waste is itself a maintenance and safety problem, not a cosmetic one.

In practice, this means owners corporations cannot simply defer common area cleaning indefinitely or leave it to whichever lot owner complains loudest. A documented, regular cleaning programme is one of the clearest ways a strata committee can demonstrate it is meeting its maintenance duty if a dispute, insurance claim or NCAT matter ever arises. We describe this duty in general terms here rather than citing every clause of the Act, because strata law is detailed and scheme-specific circumstances vary — your strata manager or a strata lawyer can advise on the exact application to your by-laws and scheme.

Ever Clean Australia works alongside strata managers across Sydney to put a scheduled, documented common area cleaning programme in place that supports this duty — not as legal advice, but as the practical cleaning delivery that sits underneath it.

What Counts as Common Property (and Where the Lot Boundary Sits)

Common property is broadly everything in the scheme that is not part of an individual lot — the shared spaces and infrastructure every owner and occupier uses or relies on. For cleaning purposes, that typically includes building lobbies and foyers, corridors and stairwells, lifts and lift lobbies, bin rooms and garbage chute rooms, car parks and driveways, gardens and grounds, shared gyms and pools, and letterbox and mail areas.

The lot vs common property boundary matters because it defines cleaning scope and who pays for what. Generally, the internal surfaces of an individual apartment or office lot — floors, walls and fittings inside the unit — are the lot owner’s own responsibility, while everything outside that boundary and shared by the scheme is common property maintained by the owners corporation. Balconies, courtyards and some entry doors can sit in a grey area depending on the scheme’s registered by-laws, so we always confirm scope with the strata manager or committee before quoting, rather than assuming.

A common area cleaning scope that is clearly mapped to the common property boundary avoids disputes at AGM time about why a particular area was or wasn’t cleaned, and gives the strata committee a clean audit trail for what the owners corporation is paying for.

• Lobbies, foyers and building entries
• Corridors, stairwells, lifts and lift lobbies
• Bin rooms and garbage chute rooms
• Car parks, driveways and basement areas
• Gardens, grounds and shared outdoor areas
• Shared gyms, pools and amenity spaces
• Letterbox and mail collection areas

Bin Rooms, Garbage Chutes and Waste Management

Bin rooms and chute areas are consistently the highest-complaint area in any strata scheme, and one of the clearest examples of the maintenance duty in action — odour, pests and unsanitary conditions in a shared bin room are a common property problem the owners corporation is responsible for addressing. Our strata cleaning service includes chute hopper wipe-downs on each level, bin washing and degreasing to control odour build-up, and floor and wall sanitising inside the bin room itself.

We also work around the practical realities of council collection — bins presented and returned on the correct day, chute rooms left tidy after a collection, and any overflow or contamination reported to the strata manager promptly rather than left for the next scheduled visit. Getting this right protects the building against pest issues, odour complaints from residents, and the reputational cost of a bin room that looks neglected to visitors and prospective buyers.

Car Park Sweeping, Gutters and Awnings

External and semi-external common property carries its own maintenance obligations and its own hazards. Car park sweeping removes dust, leaf litter and oil residue that otherwise builds into slip hazards and drainage blockages, particularly in basement car parks with poor natural airflow. Regular sweeping also protects line-marking and signage from premature wear, which matters for schemes managing visitor and tenant parking allocations.

Gutters and awnings sit higher on the priority list than most committees expect — blocked gutters are a leading cause of water ingress claims in strata buildings, and awning cleaning affects both presentation and the lifespan of the structure itself. Any work at height — gutters, awnings, upper-level windows or external stairwells — is carried out with proper safe work at heights practices and equipment. We assess access, fall risk and the right method (extension equipment vs. elevated work platform vs. scheduled specialist access) for each site rather than defaulting to whatever is fastest, because a shortcut here creates liability exposure for the owners corporation, not just the cleaner.

Reporting to Your Strata Committee and AGM

Strata committees answer to their owners at AGM, and a strata manager reconciling accounts needs paperwork that holds up to scrutiny. We provide service logs for every visit, so the committee has a running record of what was cleaned, when, and by whom — useful evidence of the maintenance duty being actively met, and useful ammunition if a lot owner disputes whether common areas are being looked after.

Photo reporting flags issues as they’re found — a damaged light fitting in a stairwell, graffiti in a car park, a leak near a lift lobby — so the committee can action repairs before they escalate into a bigger maintenance or insurance problem. Invoicing is itemised in a way a treasurer can actually reconcile against the scheme’s cleaning budget line, rather than a single lump sum that raises questions at the AGM. We also support the multi-quote process most committees are required to run under their scheme’s by-laws or standard governance practice, providing a clear, comparable written quote rather than a vague verbal estimate.

What Strata Cleaning Costs in Sydney

Strata cleaning across Sydney typically runs $40–$60 per hour, though the right figure for your scheme depends on a handful of concrete factors rather than a flat per-lot rate. The number of levels and the total common area footprint set the base labour time. Lifts add both a cleaning task and, in older buildings, an access consideration for moving equipment between floors. Bin room size and chute configuration materially change the time needed for washing and odour control, especially in larger schemes with multiple chute rooms.

Cleaning frequency is the other major lever — a high-traffic CBD-fringe building with daily foot traffic through lobbies and lifts needs a different schedule to a quieter suburban walk-up cleaned weekly. Finally, committees generally choose between a caretaker-style model, where a cleaner is on-site regularly and picks up ad-hoc issues as they arise, or a scheduled visit model with a fixed, itemised scope each visit. Neither is inherently cheaper — the right fit depends on the building’s size, traffic and how hands-on the committee wants day-to-day oversight to be. We quote each scheme individually against these factors rather than applying a generic per-lot number, because two 60-lot buildings with different lift counts and bin room layouts can have genuinely different cleaning costs.