Block & Communal Cleaning
Service charge work you can show your leaseholders.
We clean the communal areas of blocks of flats in Wembley, Harrow, Willesden and Cricklewood, Kilburn and Queen's Park, Ealing and Acton. Entrance lobbies, stairwells, corridors, lifts, communal glass, bin stores and the approach to the front door. This work is bought by managing agents, freeholders and RMC and RTM directors, and it is paid for out of the service charge, which means it has to be visible as well as done.
Agnes has been cleaning since 2001. Every site runs to a written specification agreed before the first attendance: area by area, task by task, with a frequency set against each line. If you already run your own spec across a portfolio, send it and we will quote against your document rather than ask you to adopt ours.
Attendance runs from one visit a week up to daily, set against the size of the block and the footfall through it. The same supervisor and the same cleaners attend each site, so nobody is learning the building from scratch, and you have one named person to ring.
Who it's for
- Managing agents running a portfolio of blocks
- Freeholders with communal areas to maintain
- RMC and RTM directors answerable to leaseholders
Working to a written specification
Communal cleaning usually goes wrong in the same way. Nobody wrote down what the clean covers, so the cleaner does what seems reasonable, the residents expect something different, and the agent ends up arbitrating between the two. We start from a specification instead. Every area is listed, with the tasks under it and a frequency against each: the main traffic areas weekly, high-level work monthly, floor work quarterly or twice a year.
Once that document is agreed it becomes the measure. You can hold us to it, your site inspector can mark against it, and your leaseholders can read it. If your firm already runs a standard spec, we will price line by line against yours, and tell you where we think a line is priced wrong or missing. That is easier for you at tender stage than discovering the gap in month three.
What you and the residents can see
A dated sheet or logbook stays in the block, usually by the notice board or in the cleaning cupboard. Every attendance is signed and timed, with a line for anything found and reported. It answers the question that comes up as soon as a leaseholder queries the service charge: was the cleaner actually here?
Photographic reports come to you by email alongside it. Lobby, stairs, bin store and anything that needs your instruction: a failed light, bulk waste dumped in the lobby, a door closer that has given up, water tracking down a stairwell wall. Clearing or repairing those is not work we do, so each one comes to you with a photograph the day we see it, and you can instruct whoever deals with it.
Periodic work planned into the year
An attendance round keeps a block presentable. It will not restore communal carpets that have had several winters of wet feet through them, or hard floors that have gone dull under the traffic. That needs periodic deep cleaning, and it works far better planned into the year than ordered in a hurry before a sale falls through or a director walks the site.
We set those dates with you when the contract starts, so they sit inside the budget and you can tell leaseholders when they are coming. Carpeted corridors and stairs are hot-water extracted. Hard floors are stripped, sealed and polished where the floor covering allows it. Communal glass and high-level dusting are usually scheduled to the same visit, so the block is disturbed once instead of three times.
Room by room
Entrance lobby and main door
- Glazed doors, frames and door furniture cleaned
- Entrance matting lifted, vacuumed and the floor beneath cleaned
- Hard floor mopped, carpet vacuumed
- Notice board, signage and intercom panel wiped
- Leaflets and loose post cleared from the floor
Stairwells and handrails
- Treads, nosings and risers vacuumed or mopped
- Handrails and balustrades wiped through
- Stair carpets vacuumed and spot-cleaned
- Skirtings, risers and stringers dusted
- Cobwebs removed from corners and high points
Corridors and landings
- Hard floors mopped, carpets vacuumed
- Fire doors, closers and vision panels wiped
- Flat entrance doors and frames wiped on the communal side
- Light fittings, switches and sockets dusted
- Marks spot-cleaned from walls where the surface allows
Lifts and lift tracks
- Lift car floor cleaned
- Walls, mirrors and stainless panels cleaned and smear-checked
- Door tracks and runners cleared of grit and dust
- Call buttons and control panels wiped
- Lift lobbies cleaned on every floor served
Communal glass and windows
- Internal communal glazing cleaned
- Stairwell and landing windows cleaned where safely reachable
- Sills, frames and glazing beads wiped
- Vision panels and glazed screens cleaned
- External glass at ground level cleaned where it is in the spec
Bin stores and bin presentation
- Store floor swept and washed down on an agreed frequency
- Bin lids and handles cleaned
- Spillage and loose waste swept up
- Bins presented for collection and returned afterwards
- Fly-tipped or bulk items photographed and reported to the agent
External approaches
- Paths, steps and the approach to the main door swept
- Litter picked from the frontage and car park edges
- Entrance channels and drain gullies cleared of leaves
- Cigarette ends and debris cleared from doorways
- Communal bike and pram stores swept where included
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you clean to our own specification?
Yes. Send yours with the enquiry or tender and we work to it. If there is no spec for the building, we walk it and write one, and you sign that off before the first attendance. Either way the document is agreed before a cleaner turns up.
How often would you attend our block?
Between once a week and daily. A small block with low footfall and no lift is usually fine on one attendance a week. A larger block with a lift, a bin store and a through-route tends to need two or three. Sites with heavy traffic are cleaned every day. We will tell you what the building needs after walking it, not before.
Will the same cleaners attend our block?
Yes, and a named supervisor over them. Communal work only runs properly when the cleaner knows the building: which stairwell takes the dirt, which door sticks, what day the bins go out. Holiday and sickness cover is arranged from within the team, and the supervisor stays your point of contact either way.
How do we prove to leaseholders that the visits happened?
The record is in the building. A dated sheet by the notice board is signed and timed at each attendance, so when a leaseholder says nobody has been for a fortnight they can read it for themselves. The photographs come to you by email, so you have a second copy on file.
Do you put the bins out and bring them back?
Yes, where it is in the spec. Bins are presented for collection and returned afterwards, and the bin store is washed down on an agreed frequency. Bulk and fly-tipped items are a different job: we photograph them and report them to you rather than take them away.
Which areas do you cover for block work?
Wembley, Harrow, Willesden and Cricklewood, Kilburn and Queen's Park, Ealing and Acton. That is the whole patch, and we do not take block work outside it. If your portfolio has several blocks across it, they can usually be run under the same supervisor, which keeps the standard consistent across the group.