Strata & Body Corporate Cleaning: What Sunshine Coast Committees Need to Know

Who's actually responsible for what

This is the question we get asked most by committee members and body corporate managers. In general terms, common property — the parts of a complex everyone shares and no single lot owner controls — falls under the body corporate's maintenance responsibility. That typically includes shared driveways and car parks, stairwells and breezeways, common walls and fences, lobby and entry areas, shared pool surrounds, and the exterior of the building itself where it's not part of an individual lot. What's inside a lot, including courtyards and balconies attached to a specific unit in many cases, usually sits with the owner. The exact split depends on the complex's registered community management statement, so for anything borderline it's worth checking that document rather than assuming — we're not lawyers, but we can tell you plainly whether a surface looks like shared or lot property based on how the complex is laid out.

What actually needs regular cleaning

In practice, the common-property surfaces that build up fastest and cause the most complaints if left are:

• Shared driveways, ramps and car park floors — oil staining, tyre marks, mould in shaded bays
• Stairwells and breezeways — dirt, mould and cobwebs in corners that get little airflow
• Common external walls, especially render and Colorbond cladding facing the weather
• Pool decks and surrounds — both a presentation issue and a slip-hazard issue
• Bin storage areas — often the single most complained-about area in a complex
• Entry statements, signage and letterbox banks — the first thing visitors and prospective buyers see

How often is "often enough"

There's no single legislated frequency for this, so it comes down to practical judgement and what the budget supports. Most Sunshine Coast complexes we work with land on a full common-property clean once or twice a year, timed around the wet season: one clean going into it (September/October) and, budget allowing, a second coming out of it (April/May) once storm debris and the worst of the wet-season growth has had a chance to build up. Complexes in shaded or heavily treed locations, or older buildings with render that's never been treated, often need more frequent attention on specific trouble spots — a shaded stairwell corner, for instance — without needing a full building clean each time.

Budgeting for it without surprises

The complexes that handle this best treat it as a planned line item rather than a reactive expense. A few things that help:

• Get a written quote ahead of the AGM so it can go into next year's admin fund budget as a known cost, not a mid-year special levy
• Ask whether a scheduled maintenance arrangement (e.g. twice-yearly, booked in advance) works out cheaper than one-off call-outs — it usually does
• Separate out anything that's genuinely a capital works item (like concrete sealing or repairs) from routine cleaning, since those may draw from different funds under your sinking fund plan
• Get photos documented at each clean — useful both for before/after proof to owners and for tracking whether problem areas are getting worse over time

What to check before hiring a contractor

For a body corporate specifically, insurance matters more than for a single residential job, since you're authorising work across shared property that affects every owner. At minimum, confirm the contractor carries adequate public liability insurance, can supply a Safe Work Method Statement if the job involves height access, and understands wash-water runoff management — letting dirty runoff flow straight into stormwater drains can be a compliance issue for the body corporate, not just the contractor.

See our commercial & strata cleaning page for what a typical scheduled clean covers, or get in touch and we'll come out, walk the common property with you, and put together a straightforward quote for the next AGM.