What to look for in a commercial cleaning contract

Why the contract matters more than the quote

A lot of businesses around Batemans Bay pick a commercial cleaner on price alone, sign whatever gets put in front of them, and only read the fine print when something goes wrong. By then the dirty kitchen has been left for a fortnight, the cleaner has gone quiet, and you find out the agreement locks you in for another ten months. The quote tells you what you pay. The contract tells you what you actually get, who is responsible when it falls short, and how you get out if it does.

We're Capital Coastal Cleaning, an Indigenous-owned local business based in Batemans Bay and working the Eurobodalla coast from Durras down to Moruya. Tyson started the business in 2023 and runs it day to day with Shanice and Lisa. We do a lot of commercial work, offices, council and facility cleans, end of lease, carpet clean, builders cleans, so we've read plenty of cleaning contracts and written our own to be plain and fair. This guide walks through what to look for before you sign one, written for someone who runs a real business on this coast, not a lawyer.

None of this is legal advice. It's the practical stuff we wish more clients asked us about up front, because the good questions almost always lead to a better arrangement for both sides.

The scope of work is the whole game

The single most important part of any commercial cleaning contract is the scope of work, and it's the part most agreements get lazy about. A line that says general clean of premises means nothing. It gives the cleaner room to skip whatever they like and gives you no ground to complain. A proper scope is a room-by-room, task-by-task list with a frequency next to each item.

For an office, that means spelling out the difference between daily, weekly, and monthly tasks. Bins, kitchen benches, and toilets are daily. Vacuuming traffic areas might be daily while edges and under desks are weekly. Internal glass, skirting boards, and high dusting might be monthly. If those frequencies aren't written down, you'll end up paying a daily rate for a weekly result and have no way to prove it.

Down here the scope should also name the coastal jobs that get forgotten inland. Salt builds up on window tracks and door frames near the water at Batehaven and Surf Beach. Sand walks in through every entrance from spring through to the end of the Easter holidays. If you run a shopfront on the Princes Highway or a cafe near the marina, make sure entry mats, glass doors, and floor edges are named tasks with a real frequency, not something the cleaner does when they remember.

Pricing, and the trap of hourly billing

Read very carefully how the contract sets out price. There's a big difference between a fixed price for a defined scope and an hourly rate with no cap. With an hourly arrangement, a slow cleaner is rewarded and a fast one is punished, and you've almost no way to argue the bill. We quote commercial work as a fixed price for an agreed scope and put the number in writing up front, so you know the cost before anyone starts, not after.

For comparison, our published guides for the smaller jobs show how we price. A bond clean is a fixed price by size, from $450 plus GST for a one bedroom up to $850 plus GST for a four bedroom, and carpet cleaning is a flat $50 per room plus GST. Commercial work is quoted on site because every office, clinic, and facility is different, but the principle holds, you get a fixed figure, not a meter running.

Then look at how price can change over the life of the contract. Many agreements allow an annual increase. That's fair, costs go up, but it should be capped, stated as a percentage or tied to something measurable, and you should get written notice well before it lands. An open-ended right for the cleaner to raise the price whenever they feel like it's a clause worth pushing back on. Also check what happens to price if your needs change, for example if you add a meeting room or drop a day, and make sure that's a simple variation in writing rather than a renegotiation of the whole deal.

Insurance, police checks, and who is actually turning up

Before anyone with keys is let loose in your premises after hours, you want to know two things. Are they insured, and have they been checked. A commercial cleaner should carry public liability insurance, and the contract should say so plainly. If a cleaner knocks over a server, floods a storeroom, or someone slips on a wet floor that wasn't signed, you don't want to discover the cover was never there. Ask for it in writing and ask for the current certificate, not a promise.

Police checks matter just as much for after-hours work. Your cleaner often has access to your building when no one else is around, near tills, records, stock, and client files. Everyone at Capital Coastal Cleaning is police-checked and the business is fully insured, and we're happy to show that before we start. If a contractor gets cagey when you ask, treat that as your answer.

Find out who is actually doing the cleaning too. Some larger operators sign the contract then subcontract the work to whoever is cheapest that week, so you never see the same person twice and standards drift. We're a small local team, Tyson, Shanice, and Lisa, so you get the same faces who know your building. The contract should name who is responsible and whether the work can be handed to a third party without telling you.

Term, lock-in, and how you get out

This is where people get burnt. Look hard at the length of the contract and how it ends. A twelve month term is common and reasonable. A long lock-in with a steep break fee and an automatic rollover isn't your friend. Auto-renewal clauses are the sneaky ones, the contract quietly renews for another full term unless you cancel inside a narrow window, and most people miss the window because they forgot the clause existed.

Check the notice period for ending the agreement, for both sides. Thirty days is normal. Anything longer should make you ask why. Just as important, check whether you can exit early if the cleaner simply isn't doing the job. A good contract gives you a way out for repeated poor performance after written warnings, not just a flat lock-in that traps you with a cleaner you no longer trust.

Watch for the difference between you cancelling for convenience and you cancelling for cause. Cancelling for convenience might fairly carry a short notice period. Cancelling because the work has been bad shouldn't cost you a break fee, provided you've given the cleaner a chance to fix it in writing first. If the agreement doesn't separate the two, that's worth raising before you sign.

Quality, complaints, and a real make-good clause

A contract that only describes the cleaning is half a contract. The other half is what happens when the cleaning isn't good enough. Look for a clear process, you report the problem, the cleaner has a set time to come back and fix it at no charge, and there's a record of it. We use a simple make-good approach, if something has been missed or done poorly and you let us know promptly, we come back and put it right rather than arguing about it.

For specific jobs this is worth nailing down. Our end of lease cleans are done to the REINSW exit standard and carry a bond-back guarantee, which means if the agent flags a cleaning issue at the final inspection we return to address it. That guarantee only works because the standard is written down and agreed in advance. A vague promise to clean well is impossible to hold anyone to. A named standard with a return commitment is something you can actually rely on.

Ask how communication works day to day as well. Who do you call when the bins weren't emptied on a Friday before a long weekend, and how fast do they respond. A real phone number that a person answers beats an online ticket that disappears. Ours is 0479 184 498, we're open seven days, and we'd rather you ring us about a missed task than stew on it until the contract is up.

Products, supplies, and who pays for what

Sort out supplies before they become an argument. Some contracts have the cleaner supply all chemicals and equipment, others expect you to provide consumables like toilet paper, hand soap, and bin liners. Neither is wrong, but it needs to be written down so you aren't caught short, and so you aren't paying twice for the same thing.

Pay attention to the products themselves, especially if you run a clinic, a childcare room, a cafe, or anywhere with food and kids. Harsh chemicals leave residue and fumes that linger in a closed building overnight. We use low-tox products as standard, which matters in tight indoor spaces and for anyone on staff with sensitivities. If that's important to you, get it named in the scope rather than assumed.

Think about equipment storage and access too. If the cleaner keeps a vacuum and a mop bucket on site, where do they live, and who is liable if they go missing or cause damage. If you're handing over keys, an alarm code, or a swipe card, the contract should record that and set out how it's returned at the end. Small details, but they're exactly the things that turn into a dispute when an agreement ends badly.

A quick checklist before you sign

Run through this before you put your name on anything. Is the scope of work a real task list with frequencies, not a vague paragraph. Is the price fixed for that scope, with any increase capped and notified in advance. Does it confirm public liability insurance and police-checked staff, in writing. Do you know who is actually doing the work, and whether it can be subcontracted without telling you. What is the term, is there an auto-renewal, and what notice do you need to give to leave.

Then the back half. Is there a clear complaints and make-good process with a return commitment. Are products and consumables sorted out so it's clear who supplies what. Is key and alarm access recorded, with a plan for handing it back. And can you exit early if the work is repeatedly poor after you've raised it. If a contract covers all of that in plain language, you're dealing with someone who has thought about the relationship, not just the sale.

We work with offices, councils and facilities, holiday lets and rentals, builders cleans, and NDIS and home care package clients right across the Eurobodalla, and we're happy to walk through any of this before you commit. If you want a fixed quote for a commercial clean from Durras to Moruya, or just a second set of eyes on a contract another company has handed you, give Capital Coastal Cleaning a ring on 0479 184 498. We would rather you understood the deal than felt rushed into one.