Seven Clauses to Read Before You Sign a Commercial Cleaning Contract
Cleaning contracts are short, dull, and signed without much reading. That is fine until you want to leave, or the price goes up, or someone you have never met turns up with your keys. By then the clause that decides it was agreed a year ago.
Whether you run an office, a medical practice or a childcare centre in Melbourne, these are the seven clauses to read before you sign, and what a fair version looks like.
1. Term and automatic renewal
What to look for: a fixed term (12, 24 or 36 months) and a clause that renews it automatically unless you give notice in a narrow window before the end.
Why it matters: miss the window and you are committed for another full term. This is the clause most people only discover when they try to leave.
Fair version: month to month after an initial period, or no fixed term at all. We do not use term contracts.
2. Notice period
What to look for: how many days either side must give to end the arrangement, and whether you can end it early for poor performance.
Fair version: 30 days for either side, no break fee. Ninety days' notice with a fee is a contract designed to hold a client who wants to leave.
3. Price review
What to look for: how and when the price can change. Common forms are a fixed annual increase, a CPI-linked review, or a clause tied to Fair Work's annual wage review for the Cleaning Services Award.
Why it matters: the award does go up every July, and an honest provider will pass that through. But "the price may be reviewed at any time" is not a review clause; it is a blank cheque.
Fair version: one review a year, linked to a named index or the award increase, with written notice before it takes effect.
4. Subcontracting
What to look for: whether the provider can hand your site to another company, and whether you have to be told.
Why it matters: subcontracting is how the lowest quotes are built. The company you signed with wins the work; a smaller company does it; sometimes a third does it for them. By then nobody is sure who is in your building, what they are paid, or whether they are insured.
Fair version: no subcontracting without your written consent. Better still, a provider whose cleaners are its own employees.
5. Insurance and liability
What to look for: public liability cover, workers' compensation for their staff, and who is responsible if something is damaged or goes missing.
Fair version: the provider gives you a current certificate of currency before starting, and again each year. Ask for it; a good provider sends it without fuss.
6. Keys, codes and access
What to look for: who holds your keys, fobs and alarm codes, how they are recorded, and what happens to them when the contract ends or a cleaner leaves.
Why it matters: for a medical practice or a childcare centre especially, an unaccounted-for key is a genuine risk to patients, children and records.
Fair version: a key register naming each holder, notice before a new person is given access, and keys returned to you at the end, not handed to the next provider.
7. Consumables and extras
What to look for: whether toilet paper, hand towel, soap and bin liners are included, charged at cost, or charged with a margin; and how periodic work like carpet cleaning is priced.
Fair version: consumables itemised on the invoice so you can see what you are buying, and periodic work quoted as separate lines you can accept or decline.
The clause that is usually missing
Most contracts say nothing about how you will know the work was done. It is worth adding. Ours is simple: every visit is signed in and out on our app inside a geofence around your premises, with a photo, and a supervisor inspects every three weeks with the score shared with you. Whatever your provider offers, it should be written down and it should be something you can check without ringing them.
Before you sign
Ask for the contract with the quote, not after you have accepted it. Read these seven clauses first. If a provider will not move on any of them, that tells you how the relationship will go.
For the scope that sits alongside the contract, see our office cleaning scope of work template. For clinics, switching your cleaner without a gap in your records; for centres, eight questions to ask a childcare cleaner. Or go straight to office cleaning Melbourne, medical cleaning Melbourne or request a quote.