Most Perth complexes get their bin area seen to weekly and a proper bin wash monthly, with the grounds swept or blown on the same weekly visit and a heavier tidy up each season. Strata grounds maintenance in Perth is one of those jobs where the right frequency depends far more on the weather and the bin collection day than on the size of the building, and getting the timing right is usually cheaper than getting the frequency up.
What counts as grounds in a strata scheme?
Under the Strata Titles Act 1985 (WA), common property is everything owned by all the owners together rather than sitting inside any one lot. Landgate lists gardens and driveways among its examples, alongside roofs, external walls and shared pipes. So the lawn, the garden beds, the paths, the driveway, the visitor bays and the bin store are all shared property, and the strata company carries the duty to keep them properly maintained.
In practice that duty gets split across two or three different contractors, and the gaps between them are where things go wrong. The gardener mows and prunes. The cleaner sweeps, empties and washes. Nobody has quite been asked to deal with the leaf litter in the car park or the bin that has been left out since Tuesday.
How often should the bin area be cleaned?
A reasonable pattern for a mid sized Perth complex looks like this.
- Weekly: bin store tidied, loose rubbish picked up, spillage cleared, bins straightened and the floor swept
- Monthly: a proper wash down of the bin store floor and the bins themselves where there is drainage to allow it
- Quarterly: walls and doors of the bin enclosure, and a check of the drain
The single biggest improvement most buildings can make costs nothing. Time the weekly visit for the day after collection, not the day before. A bin store cleaned while the bins are full and in the way gets a fraction of the job done, and the floor underneath them never gets touched at all.
Why does this matter more in a Perth summer?
Perth’s long dry summers are hard on bin areas. Heat accelerates everything unpleasant about a bin store, and an enclosure that is perfectly fine in July can become the thing owners complain about at the AGM by February. Buildings that go to fortnightly bin washing over summer and back to monthly in winter usually spend less across the year than buildings that hold a single frequency and then pay for an emergency deep clean in the middle of it.
The wet season brings the opposite problem. Winter storms move a lot of leaf litter and green waste around, drains block, and paths that were fine in November get slippery. A building with mature trees over its car park needs more attention between about May and August than its annual average would suggest.
What should the grounds work actually cover?
Separate from the gardening, the cleaning side of grounds work normally includes:
- Paths, entries and the car park swept or blown, with rubbish removed
- Leaf litter cleared from drains, downpipe outlets and garden bed edges
- Cobwebs taken off external walls, eaves and letterbox banks
- Visitor bays and the driveway checked for oil marks and rubbish
- Bin enclosure, as above
- Common gates, railings and external doors wiped down periodically
High pressure cleaning of the driveway and the paths sits outside the routine visit. Most Perth complexes book it once or twice a year, and it is worth scheduling it rather than waiting for someone to notice, because the point at which a driveway obviously needs it is well past the point at which the staining becomes hard to shift.
Is grounds maintenance the same thing as cleaning?
No, and this is the distinction that causes most of the disputes. Mowing, pruning, weeding, fertilising and reticulation are horticultural work. Sweeping, washing, rubbish removal and bin areas are cleaning work. Some contractors do both, some do one, and plenty of strata companies assume they have bought both when the contract only covers one.
It is worth reading the scope with that question specifically in mind. If the contract says grounds maintenance without listing what is in it, ask whether leaf litter in the car park is included, because that is the task that falls between the two more often than any other.
Who pays, and how is it decided?
It comes out of the levies owners already pay, and the strata company decides the scope and frequency, usually on the strata manager’s advice. Because it is a budget line rather than a special levy, the frequency tends to get set once and then left alone for years, which is why it is worth revisiting when a building’s circumstances change. More tenants, a new tree, a change of collection day or a run of hot summers are all reasons the old frequency may no longer fit.
Talk to us about your grounds and bin areas
Cleanbright looks after grounds and bin areas for strata and commercial properties across Perth’s western suburbs, and we will put the frequencies in writing area by area so the strata council can see exactly what is covered and when. There is more detail on our grounds and yard maintenance page.
If you would like someone to walk the property and quote against a written scope, call 1300 059 691 or email info@cleanbright.com.au.
This article is general information and not advice. What applies to your scheme depends on its own by-laws and circumstances.
