For strata managers and committees
What to check before you appoint a strata cleaner
- ABN 69 251 424 351
- Maroubra NSW 2035
- Mon–Sat
Before a cleaning contractor goes to your committee, ask for eight things: a current public liability certificate, a workers compensation certificate, an ABN that matches the invoice, a written statement on police checks, two agencies you can ring, an itemised scope with a fixed monthly price, the term and notice in writing, and a sample invoice made out to the owners corporation. All eight are below, with Streamline Strata Care's answer under each. We clean, garden and maintain 38 strata buildings across Sydney from our base in Maroubra. Use the list on us and on everyone else quoting. Print it and take it to the meeting.
Nothing here is unique to us. It is the list a Sydney strata manager works through, in the order they work through it.
If you manage a portfolio, these six come first
A committee asks about price and insurance. A manager with 30 buildings asks about the six things that decide whether a contractor is workable day to day.
Reporting: will it land in my software?
We do not push reports into StrataMax, PropertyIQ or Urbanise, and we will not pretend otherwise. You get photos by WhatsApp or email after every visit. When something is wrong you get a report the same day, with a photo and a location, in a form you can attach straight to the building's file.
Insurance and WHS documents, before day one
You get all of it before the first visit, not after the first invoice: public liability certificate of currency, workers compensation certificate, safe work method statements for our tasks, and our written WHS policy. If your agency needs the certificate to name the owners corporation and the agency as interested parties, say so and it comes that way.
One contact for every building in your portfolio
You deal with Sam. One mobile, one email, whether we hold one of your buildings or six. He answers the phone himself and calls back the same business day. One contractor covers strata cleaning, gardening and lawns and property maintenance, so it is one induction and one set of certificates to chase instead of three.
Invoicing, one per scheme
One tax invoice per strata plan, monthly, addressed to "The Owners – Strata Plan No. XXXXX, c/- your agency". It shows the building address, the period and each service on its own line, with GST. Our ABN is on every invoice and matches the entity on our certificates.
Term and notice
Month to month, 30 days' written notice either way. A fixed monthly fee per building, quoted after we walk the building rather than from a photo.
The changeover plan
Five steps, set out below, ending with every compliance document in your hands before day one. The short version: you should notice one thing change, and it is the building.
The eight things a committee checks
Take these to any contractor. Tick what they can actually prove.
A current public liability certificate of currency, with your activities named
What to ask for. The certificate itself, not a claim on a website. Read the sum insured, the expiry and the activity wording – a policy written for "domestic cleaning" does not cover a car park pressure clean.
Streamline. Public liability insured to $10 million with AIG Australia Limited, expiring 28 April 2027. We send a certificate of currency naming your owners corporation and your agency as interested parties before the first visit, and again at every renewal without being asked. The policy covers the work on this site: common area cleaning, gardening and lawns, and minor property maintenance. Ask for the certificate and read the sum insured yourself, as you should with any contractor. Anything your building needs beyond that is named in the scope before you sign it.
A workers compensation certificate of currency
What to ask for. A current icare NSW certificate in the name of the entity that will invoice you. If a contractor says no policy applies to them, ask for the reason in writing, dated.
Streamline. Held, with icare NSW, in our trading entity's name. It goes out with the public liability certificate.
An ABN that matches the certificates and the invoice
What to ask for. Look it up on ABN Lookup yourself. The entity on the certificate, the ABN and the invoice header must match. A new trading name plus new bank details is what invoice redirection looks like to an accounts team.
Streamline. ABN 69 251 424 351, Streamline Stratacare Pty Ltd, trading as Streamline Strata Care and registered for GST. Expect the ABN Lookup entry to run longer than our invoice header: it lists the trust the company is trustee for. Match on the ABN, not on the name. The Streamline name has cared for Sydney buildings since 2007 and Sam Spry took it over in 2025 – the full ownership story is on our about page. An older Streamline invoice will show a different ABN, so check ours against our certificates.
A written statement on police checks
What to ask for. A dated statement naming who holds a check, who issued it and when. Do not collect copies – storing other people's checks is a privacy problem for your agency.
Streamline. Owner police-checked. Sam holds a National Police Check. Our crew do not hold checks and we will not claim they do. If your building requires a check for everyone who enters, tell us at the quote stage so you can decide with the full picture.
Two agencies you can ring
What to ask for. Two managers at two different agencies who have agreed in advance to take a call. A contractor who hands over numbers without asking first is telling you something.
Streamline. We work for buildings managed by BCS, Bright & Duggan, Civium, Clisdells, GK Strata, Netstrata, O'Neill Strata Management and Strata Choice. Ask, and we will ask two of those managers whether they will take your call.
An itemised scope with a fixed monthly price
What to ask for. Area by area – entry, lobby, lifts, stairs, corridors, car park, bin room, laundry, gardens, paths – with the task and a stated frequency against each. Never "as required": a vague scope is what turns a complaint into an argument at the AGM.
Streamline. A written scope per building with a fixed monthly fee, itemised by service so the committee can compare it line for line against the other quote. That scope is the checklist our crew works from.
The term and the notice period, in writing
What to ask for. The term, the notice each side must give, any termination fee, and what happens if you end one service and keep the others.
Streamline. Month to month, 30 days' notice either way.
A sample invoice addressed to the owners corporation
What to ask for. An invoice made out to "The Owners – Strata Plan No. XXXXX", not to your agency. An invoice addressed to the agency cannot be paid from the scheme's trust account and comes straight back.
Streamline. Ask and we will send a sample before you appoint us, formatted the way your agency needs it.
The longer list, for committees, mixed-use buildings and agency portals
Send the eight above with the quote. Keep this list for a committee that asks, a mixed-use building, or a portal upload.
Paperwork. Interested-party certificate naming the owners corporation and the agency. What needs no licence, and what goes to a licensed trade. A site risk assessment per building, and a SWMS for high-risk tasks. Safety data sheets and a chemical register. A signed induction record. Registration on your agency's compliance portal.
People. Uniform, photo ID and a signed vehicle. The same crew every visit, with a named lead. Employees or subcontractors, stated plainly. Working-at-heights competency, or a written policy that they do not work above 2 metres.
Service. A visit checklist and sign-in record. Building issues reported the same day. A missed-visit rule and a damage rule, both in writing. Never wedge a fire door. Bins tied to your council's collection day. A key and fob register. One contact with a call-back promise. A complaint process: log, fix, report back.
Commercial. A fixed monthly price per building, quoted after a site visit. Extras quoted and approved before the work is done. One invoice per strata plan. Term, notice and any exit fee. A price-review rule in writing. No commissions or gifts to managers. A quote itemised so you can compare like with like.
Trust. Agencies currently served, with permission to name them. Years trading, and under whose ownership. Buildings under care. Two managers who will take a reference call. A Google Business Profile with reviews. A local base and the suburbs actually serviced.
Print this checklist
Use the print control on this page. It drops the navigation and prints the checklist, our answers and the changeover steps on plain paper. Our phone number and this page's address sit in the footer, ready to attach to meeting papers. Nothing to download, no form first.
Changing your cleaner without a gap in service
The hard part of switching is not the cleaning. It is the notice letter, the overlap, the keys, and getting a decision the committee can circulate. Here is how we run it.
- We walk the building with you before we start. You tell us what the last contractor kept getting wrong, and we agree what "done" looks like.
- We write the scope from the existing contract, so nothing quietly drops off in the change.
- We start the day the outgoing cleaner's notice ends – no overlap month, no gap.
- We collect the keys and the bin schedule from the outgoing cleaner, if you authorise it, so you are not chasing them.
- All insurance and compliance documents are with you before day one, not after the first invoice.
Whether your committee needs to vote depends on your by-laws and on what your agency has delegated to you – your strata manager will know. We work across the Eastern Suburbs, Inner West, North Shore, South Sydney and the city fringe: the suburbs we service are listed here.
Our credentials and portal registrations, in full
Everything below is a document we hold or a promise about when you get it. Nothing is ticked that we cannot produce.
| What | Detail | How you check it |
|---|---|---|
| Public liability | Insured to $10 million with AIG Australia Limited, expiring 28 April 2027. Certificate of currency naming your owners corporation and your agency as interested parties, sent before the first visit and at every renewal without being asked. | Ask for the certificate. Read the sum insured, the insurer and the expiry. The services covered are named in your scope. |
| Workers compensation | icare NSW policy in our trading entity's name. Certificate held. | Check the entity name matches our ABN and invoice header. |
| Police check | Owner only. Sam Spry holds a National Police Check. The crew do not. | Ask for the certificate – of us and of everyone else quoting. |
| Tickets held by Sam | Working with Children Check, White Card (construction induction), working-at-heights ticket, current first aid certificate. | Sighted on request. |
| WHS documents | Safe work method statements for our tasks, and a written WHS policy. | On request, before day one. |
| Compliance portals | Registered on Ebix Trades Monitor and ARM Contractor Compliance. | Search us on the portal your agency uses. |
| Entity and ABN | Streamline Stratacare Pty Ltd, ABN 69 251 424 351, registered for GST, trading as Streamline Strata Care. | Match the ABN, not the name – ABN Lookup lists the trustee entity behind it, so the name runs longer there than on our invoice. |
| Crew | 2–3 people, all directly employed. No labour hire, no subcontractors. Uniformed, English-speaking lead on every crew. | Ask who will be in your building each week. |
If your agency uses a portal we are not on – Cm3, Pegasus, Rapid Global or another – tell us early. A first assessment takes several weeks, not days, and no registration means no purchase order.
Questions managers ask
What insurance should I ask a strata cleaner for?
Two certificates: public liability and workers compensation, both current and both in the name of the entity that will invoice you. Read the activity wording on the public liability schedule and check it covers what your building needs – common area cleaning, gardening, pressure cleaning, minor maintenance. Ours covers the three services on this site, and your scope names what we do at your building. Streamline sends both certificates before the first visit and at every renewal without being asked.
Do strata cleaners need police checks?
There is no fixed rule we can point you to. Agencies and buildings set their own requirement. Asking for a check issued in the last 12 months is common practice rather than a regulator's rule, because a check is point in time with no standard validity period. At Streamline the owner is police-checked. The crew are not, and we say so rather than let you assume otherwise.
Do we have to get two quotes?
Two written quotes are compulsory only for expenditure above $30,000 for any one item. That is section 102 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015, applying to all schemes since 11 December 2023, with an exception for emergencies. Most cleaning contracts sit under it. Compare anyway – our quote is itemised by service and frequency, so it lines up against the other one.
Does our strata manager get anything for recommending you?
No. We pay no commissions, referral fees or gifts to strata managers, building managers or committee members, and we will put that in writing for your meeting papers. Since 3 February 2025 strata managers must disclose commissions and connections with suppliers in writing, so your committee is right to ask.
What happens when you miss a visit?
If we cannot make a visit, we tell you before the day.
What happens if we damage something?
We tell you the same day, with a photo, before a resident does. We fix it or pay for it.
It is 9pm and the lobby is under water. Can you help?
Call Sam. For buildings under contract we take the call after hours and attend first thing the next morning for spills, flooding clean-up, broken glass and bin room emergencies. We would rather say that honestly than promise a same-night attendance we cannot keep every time. Sewage, biohazard and fire clean-up are not ours – we will tell you who to call and clean up afterwards.
Ready for a written quote?
Tell us about the building: lots, levels, bins, gardens, and what the current contractor keeps getting wrong. We come back to you the same business day. Request a written quote for your buildingCall Sam on 0408 993 943.