Choosing a strata maintenance company comes down to five checks: current insurance you have actually sighted, fixed written quotes, documented completion of every job, one accountable contact, and honest scope (what they do not do matters as much as what they do). Here is how to run those checks before your committee signs anything.
1. Sight the insurance, do not just ask about it
Every contractor says they are insured. Ask for the certificate of currency and check the expiry date and the public liability amount. For strata common property, $10M public liability is a floor and $20M is standard. A company that hesitates to produce the certificate is telling you something.
2. Fixed written quotes, formatted for the minutes
Committees cannot approve verbal estimates. A quote you can table should itemise the scope by task and area, state a fixed price, and note what counts as a variation. If the quote arrives as a text message with one number in it, expect the invoice to be a surprise.
3. Ask how completion is documented
The most common strata complaint about maintenance contractors is not bad work, it is invisible work: the levy pays, and nobody can tell whether anyone attended. Ask directly: what do we receive after each visit? The right answer is time-stamped photos, sent without being chased. If the answer is “you can call us any time,” keep looking.
4. Count the contractors you are replacing
A scheme that runs separate contractors for cleaning, gardens, repairs and waste carries four insurance certificates to track, four invoice formats, and four versions of accountability. Consolidating to a multi-service contractor cuts the admin and puts one name against every outcome. The question to ask a multi-service company: who actually turns up? A consistent crew that knows the building keeps accountability in one place.
5. Respect the honest “no”
No maintenance crew does everything. Major electrical, hydraulics, fire systems and structural work belong with licensed specialists. A contractor who says “that is not ours, but here is how to scope it” is more trustworthy than one who says yes to everything. Ask about a job you know is specialist and see what they say.
Questions to put on the agenda
- Can you email your certificate of currency today?
- What does your quote format look like? Send a blank example.
- What do we receive after each visit, and without asking?
- Will the same crew attend each visit?
- What do you not do?
- How fast is a make-safe response for an urgent hazard?
Blox Maintenance Worx answers all six on one phone call: 0435 221 335. One in-house crew across 20 services, fixed written quotes within 24 hours, photo sign-off on every visit. See strata maintenance for the full scope.