How to choose a cleaning company in Perth (a buyer's guide for strata and facility managers)

The short answer

A good Perth cleaning company is fully insured ($20M public liability minimum), police-checks every cleaner, offers visible quality reporting, runs a no-lock-in agreement, and has at least two reference contacts in your sector. If a quote is materially cheaper than two others, they’re cutting one of insurance, supervision, or scope — find out which before you sign.

This guide is written for strata managers, facility managers and property owners running tenders for the first time, or refreshing one that’s been on autopilot for years. We use Perth pricing, Perth credentials and Perth examples throughout.

Why this guide exists

We’ve inherited dozens of buildings from outgoing cleaners. The pattern is always the same: the original contract was won on price, the cleaner trimmed scope quietly, complaints climbed, and the strata or facility manager spent six months chasing a result. The questions below are the ones we wished previous owners had asked.

The five non-negotiables

1. Insurance — and the certificate, not the claim

Ask for the certificate of currency for public liability ($20M minimum for commercial and strata work in Perth) and workers’ compensation. Don’t accept “we have insurance” — accept a PDF dated within the last 12 months that names the insurer, the policy number, and the cover amount. A reputable cleaner emails it within an hour.

Bonus check: ask for the certificate to be issued naming your strata or building as an interested party. This is free, takes the insurer 24 hours, and gives you direct standing if a claim ever arises.

2. Police checks for every cleaner

Every person who steps onto your site should have a current Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check (formerly called a police clearance). Ask:

• How recent is the check (we recommend within 12 months)?
• Is it held by the cleaning company, the individual, or a contractor agency? (Agency-held is fine, but you want a documented chain.)
• For schools / childcare sites: a Working with Children Check (WWCC) is mandatory in WA.

Get a copy of the policy in writing, not just a verbal assurance.

3. Cm3 prequalification — at least applied for

Cm3 is the de-facto prequalification standard for commercial cleaning in Australia. Most large strata managers, government tenders, and shopping centres require it. You don’t necessarily need a Cm3-certified cleaner for a small standalone building, but a cleaner that has never even applied is a signal they don’t compete in the upper tier of work.

Ask: “Are you Cm3-prequalified, and if not, are you working towards it?“

4. A no-lock-in contract (or a short break clause)

A cleaner that needs to lock you in for 24 months is admitting they’re worried you’ll leave. The Perth market standard now is:

• 30–90 day initial probation period with either side able to walk away on 7 days’ notice.
• Month-to-month after probation with 30 days’ written notice.
• No exit fee — exit fees are a hangover from the early-2010s “discount cleaning” era and have no place in a modern agreement.

A 12-month commitment with a 30-day exit clause is acceptable for tenders that genuinely need budget certainty. Anything stricter, push back.

5. Visible quality reporting

The single biggest shift in Perth cleaning over the last five years is the move to per-visit photo reporting. A cleaner that doesn’t email you photos of bin rooms, lift cars and lobbies after each visit is operating like it’s 2014. Photo reports:

• Stop the “did the cleaner come?” calls dead.
• Give committees evidence the agreed scope was delivered.
• Make scope creep impossible to hide.

Ask to see a sample report from a similar building. If they can’t produce one, they aren’t doing them consistently.

The ten questions to ask in every tender

Send these to every cleaner you’re considering. Sort the responses side by side.

1. What’s your base scope of works for our building type? (Get this in writing, line by line.)
2. What’s included in your rotating extras schedule (carpet steam, pressure wash, window detail, strip-and-seal) and at what frequency and unit cost?
3. What are your insurance limits and can you email the certificate today?
4. Is every cleaner police-checked? When were the checks issued?
5. Are you Cm3-prequalified — and if not, why?
6. What’s your lock-in / exit clause? Will you accept month-to-month after a probation period?
7. Will you send a per-visit photo report? Can I see a sample from a similar building?
8. What’s your complaint SLA — i.e. if my committee logs a complaint, how fast does someone respond and revisit the site?
9. Can you provide two reference contacts in our sector (strata / office / retail / medical) for buildings of similar size?
10. Who is the single named operator running our account day-to-day, and what’s their direct mobile?

Question 10 is the one that separates real cleaning companies from sales-led ones. If you can’t get a name and a number, you’re going to spend the contract chasing a ticket queue.

Red flags that predict a bad contract

Eight signals we’ve seen consistently before a contract goes sideways:

1. The quote is 25%+ cheaper than the others with the same stated scope. Usually means trimmed supervision, lower insurance, or a smaller crew per visit.
2. No supervisor named on the agreement. “Our team will be there” with no escalation contact = no accountability.
3. Insurance certificate “will follow” but doesn’t, or arrives weeks later.
4. Long initial commitment with steep exit fees. They expect you to want to leave.
5. Photo reports offered as an “add-on” line item. Should be in the base price.
6. No reference contacts offered — or the references are buildings the cleaner only started cleaning months ago.
7. Sales contact ≠ operations contact. You’ll get sold by one person and serviced by another, with no continuity.
8. Vague scope of works: “general cleaning of common areas” with no detail of which areas, how often, or to what standard.

If two or more of these are present, walk away — even if the price is good. It won’t stay good once you’re inside the contract.

The pricing-comparison move that actually works

Three quotes is plenty. Don’t ask for ten — you’ll just lose a week reading the same boilerplate.

To compare three quotes fairly, build a one-page matrix:

Cleaner	Base weekly visit	Carpet steam (quarterly)	Pressure wash (annual)	Insurance	Cm3	Lock-in	Photo reports
A	$260	$260	$480	$20M	Yes	M-to-M	Included
B	$195	$400	$620	$10M	No	24mo	Add-on $25/visit
C	$290	$240	$450	$20M	Yes	12mo, 30-day exit	Included

Cleaner B looks $65/week cheaper. Annualised with insurance gap and add-on photo reports, they’re actually $5/week more expensive and carrying half the cover if something goes wrong.

That’s the move: normalise every quote to total annual cost including extras, and weight the insurance and lock-in terms. Don’t compare base weekly numbers alone.

What a good Perth cleaning contract looks like in 2026

The agreement itself should fit on two pages, three at most. It should include:

• Named operator and direct mobile.
• Line-itemed scope with frequency and unit cost.
• Per-visit photo report stipulation.
• Insurance limits stated in the contract body, not as a separate attachment.
• Re-clean clause: if agreed scope wasn’t delivered, the re-clean is on the cleaner, not the building.
• Price-rise clause: usually CPI-only on a fixed annual review date.
• Termination: 30 days’ written notice either way after the probation period.
• Confidentiality clause if you’re a tenant in a sensitive site (legal, medical, finance).

Anything longer than three pages is usually padding to obscure terms that don’t suit you.

Common questions

How long does a Perth cleaning tender usually take?

Plan on three weeks end-to-end: one week to issue and receive quotes, one week for site walk-throughs and reference checks, one week for committee or facility sign-off and notice to the incumbent. Faster is possible — slower usually means stalling somewhere in the chain.

Should I always go to tender?

If your current cleaner is delivering and the price hasn’t drifted, no. Tender every 24–36 months as a market check, but a good cleaner-client relationship is worth keeping. Most committees we work with do a one-month “what does the market look like” exercise every two years to validate that they’re still on a fair number.

Can I tender with one cleaner only and use them as a benchmark?

You can, but you’ll lose negotiating leverage. Three quotes is the minimum for a fair comparison. If you genuinely want to test a single cleaner, frame it as a “site assessment and indicative quote” rather than a full tender — it sets the right expectation on both sides.

What if my existing cleaner won’t release the current scope of works?

It’s your scope, not theirs. The strata or facility manager owns the scope document. If your incumbent is gatekeeping, that’s a tell about the rest of the relationship.

Want a quote that fits this framework?

We line-item every quote we issue, send insurance and Cm3 documentation upfront, and offer 30-day exit terms after a 90-day probation. Request a strata or commercial cleaning quote or call (08) 6118 1818 — we usually reply same-day.