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What your Sydney outgoings already buy before your cleaning scope starts

A single-floor tenant writing their first cleaning scope usually starts with the floor plan. The better starting point is the outgoings statement, because it lists a good deal of cleaning you are already funding. This page covers reading that document before you write anything.

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In short

Before writing a Sydney tenancy cleaning scope, read the outgoings statement and the lease provisions covering building services. Common area cleaning, external glass, waste removal from a building collection point and often washroom servicing are frequently already recovered through outgoings, and scoping them again means funding the same work twice.

Clean Best asks what the building provides before pricing a tenancy and records the boundary during the walkthrough. The written proposal covers the demised area only unless otherwise agreed, and states the boundary explicitly so a tenant can see where the building's provision ends and their own arrangement begins.

The outgoings statement is a cleaning document

Most tenants read the outgoings statement as a list of charges and stop there. Read as a description of services, it tells you what the building undertakes to do: cleaning of common areas, external window cleaning on a cycle, waste removal, pest control, and often amenity servicing where washrooms sit outside the demise. Each of those is a line you do not need in your own scope.

The figures also indicate the level of service. A building recovering substantial cleaning costs is generally providing a substantial service in the common areas, and your tenancy scope can be written on the assumption that the lobby, lifts and corridors are handled well. Where the recovery is minimal, expect to compensate for that at your own entrance and reception. Comparing the recovery against what you observe in the common areas is a useful sanity check on both.

The three items that most often get paid for twice

External glass is the first. Many CBD buildings clean the facade on a cycle covering the outside of every window, and a tenancy scope that includes external glass is either duplicating that or asking for something physically impractical above ground level. Internal glass is your responsibility; external usually is not, and the scope should state which is which. Ask specifically about the cycle, since a facade cleaned twice a year presents differently from one cleaned quarterly.

Washrooms are the second, where they sit in the common area rather than inside the demise. Waste is the third and the most confusing, because the building typically collects from a floor holding point rather than from within the tenancy. Your cleaner takes bagged waste to that point; the building takes it from there. Scoping full waste removal duplicates half of that chain. Confirming the collection time is what determines whether your service window works or leaves waste sitting overnight.

Writing the tenancy side once the boundary is clear

With the building's provision established, the tenancy scope becomes short and specific: workstations, offices, meeting and focus rooms, reception, the kitchen or tea point, print areas, internal glass, any washroom inside the demise, and waste to the holding point. That is a genuinely manageable document and it prices accurately because nothing in it is contested. It also means the quotes you receive are comparable, because none of the bidders is guessing at the boundary.

Confirm the boundary in writing with building management where you can, even briefly. Verbal assurances do not survive a change of building manager or a change of the building's own cleaning contractor, and the tenant is the party who discovers the gap. A short email confirming what the base building covers is worth keeping with the lease documents. Keeping it alongside the outgoings statement means the whole picture sits in one place.

Before writing a Sydney tenancy scope

  • Read the outgoings statement as a list of services
  • Check lease provisions covering building cleaning
  • Confirm whether external glass is a building service
  • Establish whether washrooms sit inside the demise
  • Identify the waste holding point and who collects from it
  • Get the boundary confirmed in writing by management
Clean Best supervisor reviewing strata cleaning tasks in Parramatta NSW

Working in Sydney and the Sydney CBD

The Sydney CBD is dominated by offices, retail, hospitality and high-rise commercial buildings, where almost every occupier is a tenant within a professionally managed structure. That means two cleaning regimes operate in the same building, one funded through outgoings and one contracted directly by the tenant, and the boundary between them is described in documents most tenants never read for that purpose. Clean Best services Sydney CBD tenancies from 54 Columbia Rd, Seven Hills, and establishes what the building already provides before pricing the tenancy side.

Questions about Sydney

Where do I find out what the building already cleans?

Start with the outgoings statement and the lease provisions covering building services, then ask building management for a summary of the base building cleaning specification. Most will provide one even if the full contract is confidential. Reading the outgoings statement as a description of services rather than a list of charges usually answers most of the question.

Should our scope include external window cleaning?

Almost never in a managed CBD building. External facade cleaning is typically a building service performed on a cycle and recovered through outgoings, and above ground level it requires access equipment a tenancy contractor does not have. Internal glass is your responsibility. State which is which in the scope so there is no ambiguity. Ask about the facade cleaning cycle as well as whether it happens at all.

Who takes the tenancy waste out of the building?

Usually the building, from a floor holding point. Your cleaner takes bagged waste and recycling to that point and the building collects from there. Confirm the location and the collection timing, because your service window has to finish before collection or the waste sits on the floor overnight with no clear cause. Confirm the collection time before finalising your service window.

What if the washrooms are inside our tenancy?

Then they are yours to scope and they need proper detail: fixture counts, frequency, consumable supply and periodic work. Many single-floor tenancies have washrooms in the common core rather than the demise, which changes the scope substantially. Establish which arrangement applies before you write anything, since it is a large part of the eventual price.

Why confirm the boundary in writing?

Because verbal assurances do not survive a change of building manager or of the building's own cleaning contractor, and the tenant is the party who discovers the gap. A short email from management confirming what the base building covers, kept with the lease documents, resolves the question permanently at almost no effort. Keep the confirmation alongside the outgoings statement for future reference.

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