Three failure modes, one pattern
Strata and commercial cleaning contracts fail in predictable ways. After a decade of working in Sydney buildings, we have seen the same three failure modes repeat across contracts of every size and price point.
Understanding them is the first step to avoiding them.
Failure mode one: the scope was never written down
A verbal agreement about what gets cleaned and how often is not a contract. It is a conversation that both parties will remember differently in six months.
Without a written scope, there is no standard to hold the contractor to and no basis for dispute resolution when the work is not being done. The contractor will always have a reason why the area in question was not in scope. You will have no document to refer to.
The fix: insist on a written scope of works before the contract starts. If a contractor resists providing one, that is the answer you need.
Failure mode two: the reporting never happened
You cannot manage what you cannot measure. If there is no completion log, no check-in system and no reporting mechanism, you have no way to know whether the work is being done. You are relying entirely on visual inspection and resident complaints.
Resident complaints are the worst way to find out your cleaning contractor is not performing. By the time a resident complains to the committee, the issue has been visible for long enough to generate frustration. That frustration lands on the committee, not on the contractor.
The fix: require a completion log from the first visit. Review it monthly. If it stops, address it immediately.
Failure mode three: the contractor who quoted was not the contractor who showed up
This is the most common failure mode and the most frustrating. A senior operator attends the site inspection, understands the building, asks the right questions and produces a detailed quote. The contract is signed. A different person shows up on the first clean. Then a different person again the following week.
Within three months, a rotating roster of operators who have never been briefed on the building is attempting to clean to a standard they were never told about.
The fix: ask directly during the tender process who will be responsible for your building. Not ‘one of our team’. A name. If the contractor cannot give you a name, they are operating a roster model.
The pattern underneath all three
All three failure modes have the same root cause: the contractor was selling a price, not a standard. When price is the primary selling point, corners get cut on the things that cost money to maintain: trained staff, reporting systems and consistent operators.
The buildings that avoid all three failure modes are the ones that did not choose the cheapest quote.