What a Newington strata committee should ask before approving a cleaning quote

The single most useful thing a committee can do happens before any bidder is contacted. Write down the areas to be cleaned, the tasks in each and the frequency you expect, and send that same document to everyone. It does not need to be elaborate; a two-page list covering entry, lobby, lifts, corridors, stairs, bin room, car park and any shared amenity is enough to make the responses comparable.

Without a common document, each provider proposes their own version of the work. One includes the car park, another does not. One collects and presents bins, another leaves them. The totals then differ for reasons nobody at the meeting can identify, and the discussion turns into an argument about price when the real difference is scope. Writing the document once also means it can be reused at the next tender without starting again.

What areas does each quote exclude. Who supplies consumables and bin liners. What periodic work is included and on what cycle. What happens to bin presentation and return on collection days. How often is a supervisor on site. And what notice applies if the committee wishes to end the arrangement. Six answers, obtained in writing before the meeting, will do more for the decision than any amount of discussion on the night.

Circulate the answers with the agenda rather than presenting them at the table. Committee members who have read a short comparison in advance ask better questions and reach a decision faster. It also protects the person who assembled the quotes from being asked to defend a recommendation they have had no opportunity to explain properly. It also gives the strata manager a record of what was considered, which is useful if an owner questions the decision later.

A cleaning arrangement in a residential or mixed building is one of the few contracts every occupant experiences daily. The entry, the lift and the corridor are the building's public face and the most common subject of complaint. Deciding on price alone tends to produce a saving that is spent within a year on complaints, inspections and eventually a replacement provider. A building that presents poorly also affects how owners feel about every other decision the committee makes.

That does not mean choosing the highest quote. It means checking that the offer covers the work the building needs at a frequency that matches its use, and that the provider can evidence insurance and screening. Where the committee wants to reduce cost, reducing scope deliberately and recording the decision is far better than accepting a low figure that achieves the same reduction without anyone agreeing to it.