Worked Example — Strata
Writing a Common-Area Scope for a Honeysuckle Waterfront Building
This is a worked example rather than a report on a named building. It covers a 78-lot mixed-use building on the Honeysuckle waterfront, Newcastle NSW 2300 — two residential towers over a shared podium, two lifts per core, a basement car park, a ground-floor cafe tenancy and a shared bin room off the rear service lane. Bin rooms and salt-exposed harbour glass are the two items that most often reach a general meeting agenda, and this is how we scope them. No client outcome is claimed.
Diagnosis: two problems the old scope never named
The contracts we replace are usually not badly executed so much as badly written. The items that matter most to owners are simply not in them:
- Bin presentation and return are not listed anywhere, so bins go out when someone remembers and come back whenever — with a cafe tenancy's waste making the room unpleasant in between
- Glass frequency is identical on every elevation, which ignores that harbour-facing glass at Honeysuckle carries salt haze within days of a clean
- Basement parking gets no machine pass at all, only a broom, so tyre marking and grit build up over years
- Podium-level leaf litter and wind-driven debris are treated as ad hoc rather than scheduled
- No visit record exists, so when an owner says the bin room has been filthy for a fortnight, nobody can contradict them
How we rebuild it
- Bin presentation and return written in as a named, timed line item tied to the collection calendar, with the bin room washed down weekly and the cafe's waste stream separated
- Harbour-elevation glass and lobby entries moved to double the frequency of the sheltered elevations, matching the actual salt exposure rather than a generic template
- Quarterly machine scrub of the basement and podium parking added as a separately fixed-quoted scheduled item
- Lift interiors, tracks and call panels, stair cores and handrails set as every-visit high-touch work across both cores
- Signed log left at every visit, plus a monthly photo audit of the same fixed set of locations sent to the strata manager and committee chair
- Out-of-scope events, such as a mattress abandoned in the loading bay, photographed and reported the same day rather than absorbed silently
What the owners corporation gets in writing
A scope where every recurring task is a named, timed line item rather than an assumption — including bin presentation and return against the collection calendar. Glass frequency set per elevation to match actual exposure. A signed log at every visit and a monthly photo audit of the same fixed locations to the strata manager and committee chair, so claims can be checked without a site visit. Out-of-scope events photographed and reported the same day. Cleaners are police-checked and directly employed, cover is $20 million public liability with the certificate of currency on request, pricing is fixed and itemised, and the agreement runs month to month with 30 days notice — deliberately shorter than the strata cleaning norm.
Questions about this scope
What kind of building does this cover?
A 78-lot mixed-use building on the Honeysuckle waterfront in Newcastle 2300 — two residential towers over a shared podium, two lifts per core, a basement car park, a ground-floor cafe tenancy and a shared bin room accessed from the rear service lane.
What do committees usually complain about?
Chiefly the bin room and the harbour-facing glass. Bins get cleaned inconsistently and are rarely presented on time, and lobby glass on a waterfront elevation carries a salt haze that makes a new building look neglected. Both tend to arrive as formal items at consecutive general meetings.
What does the rewritten scope change?
Bin presentation and return become a named, timed line item rather than an assumption. Glass frequency was doubled on the harbour elevation to match the salt exposure. Basement scrubbing moves to a quarterly machine pass, and every visit leaves a signed log, with a monthly photo audit to the strata manager and committee chair.
How is it priced?
A fixed monthly figure built from our standard $30 to $45 per hour band across five visits a week, plus a separately fixed-quoted quarterly basement scrub. Naming work the old scope left to chance adds hours, so we quote the new scope against the existing one line by line and the owners corporation can see exactly what the difference buys.
What does the committee actually receive?
A written scope with a named, timed line for every recurring task, a signed log left at every visit, and a monthly photo audit of the same fixed set of locations sent to the strata manager and committee chair. Out-of-scope events are photographed and reported the same day rather than absorbed silently, so the committee can verify the program without attending site.
Same argument in your building?
The full common-area specification is on our strata cleaning Newcastle page, with pricing on the cost guide and rates page. Ground-floor tenancies are covered under retail cleaning. For a different building type read the Hunter Street Mall office worked example, browse the worked examples index, or check the FAQ page. Portfolios extend to Charlestown and Kotara.
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