Most complaints a condo board hears about cleaning trace back to a contract that never said what "clean" meant. The stairwell nobody listed, the amenity room done weekly when residents use it daily, the extra cleanup after a move that the vendor billed and the board didn't expect. A good cleaning contract settles those questions before the first visit. This is a checklist for boards and managers writing or renewing one.
It's a practical checklist, not legal advice. Your bylaws, your management agreement and the contract itself decide who can sign and what the corporation is committing to, so have your property manager, and a lawyer where the contract warrants it, review the final version.
1. The scope, area by area
List every common area and what gets done in it. "Clean common areas" can't be priced, checked or enforced.
- Lobby and entrance: floors, mats, door glass, mailroom, furniture.
- Elevators: floor, walls, mirrors and button panels.
- Corridors on each floor: vacuuming, spot cleaning, baseboards, door frames.
- Stairwells: sweeping, mopping and handrails.
- Garbage and recycling rooms: floors, and what happens to overflow.
- Amenity spaces: party room, fitness room, guest suite and their washrooms.
- The parkade vestibule and elevator lobby, which take the worst of the winter.
Then list what's excluded, so nothing falls between vendors. In-suite cleaning, exterior windows above ground level, parkade sweeping, snow clearing and landscaping are often someone else's job. Say whose.
2. A frequency on every line
"Vacuum corridors" daily, weekly or monthly is three different contracts. Put a frequency next to each task, and check it against how the building is really used. The lobby and elevators usually need daily attention; upper-floor corridors often don't. Our guide to setting a cleaning schedule includes a sample schedule for multi-tenant common areas.
Give the periodic work its own schedule too: corridor carpet deep cleaning, stairwell scrubbing, high dusting, entrance glass. And write in the seasonal work. In Calgary, extra entrance care from November to April belongs in the contract, not in a request after every storm.
3. The building's rules for contractors
- The hours cleaning can happen, and quiet hours when it can't.
- Elevator use, and how the service elevator is booked.
- Fobs and keys: how many, who signs for them, and how they come back when a cleaner leaves the vendor.
- Notices: what residents are told in advance, such as a corridor carpet clean that closes a hallway for the evening.
- Products: whether the building wants scent-free or particular products, and where supplies can be stored.
4. How the board will know it's done
- A checklist or log for each visit, kept where the manager can see it.
- A regular walkthrough with the manager, monthly or quarterly.
- How residents report a problem: through the manager rather than by stopping a cleaner in the hall, so issues are logged and fixed instead of lost.
- How quickly a missed task gets put right.
- Itemised invoices that match the scope, so the board package shows what was paid for.
5. Extra work, priced in advance
Some work can't be scheduled: the elevator and lobby after a messy move, a leak in a corridor, the cleanup after a common-area renovation. Agree in the contract how that work is requested, who can approve it and how it's priced. Your management agreement may already let the manager approve work up to a set amount. If it does, line the contract up with it, so nobody is waiting for a board meeting while water sits in a hallway.
6. Paperwork before the first visit
Ask for a certificate of insurance naming the condo corporation (and the management company, if your manager asks for that) and a WCB Alberta clearance letter, and note when each one expires. The questions to ask a cleaning company before you sign explains why both matter.
7. Term, price and the next board
- The term, the notice period, and whether it renews automatically.
- When the price can change. Tying any increase to your fiscal year makes the operating budget easier to set.
- How the scope changes when the building does: a new amenity, a renovated lobby, a decision to do something more or less often.
- Termination terms the board can live with, including what happens if the vendor isn't meeting the scope.
Boards change at the AGM. A contract with a written scope and frequencies is something the next board can pick up and understand without the history.
We work with Calgary property managers and condo boards on cleaning in occupied multi-tenant buildings, scoped area by area the way this checklist describes, with routine visits set up as scheduled janitorial service. Our commercial cleaning overview covers the rest.