Skip to main content
Clean Best logo
Menu
Call 02 5839 30120485 000 860

Concord NSW 2137

A shared Concord reception used by four suites and staffed by one

Four suites share one entrance and one waiting area. One of them has staff at the desk and the others do not. Every visitor to the building forms an impression there, and the scheme rather than any single suite is responsible for how it looks.

Request a fixed quote Call 02 5839 3012

In short

A shared reception or waiting area in a Concord suite building is usually common property, funded by the owners corporation and controlled by the committee, even where one occupier's staff are the only people present in it during the day. That gap between who is present and who is responsible is where most of the confusion in these buildings begins.

Clean Best scopes shared entry and waiting areas separately from any individual suite, with attendance timed against the building's visitor pattern. Furniture, magazines and personal items belonging to a particular suite are handled by agreement rather than assumption. The proposal names the owners corporation as the client for the area so the position is unambiguous from the start.

Presence is not the same as responsibility

The suite with staff at the desk inevitably becomes the de facto custodian of the shared space. They straighten the chairs, they take the parcel, they field the question about which door to use. Over time that produces an assumption that the area is theirs, which is convenient for everyone until they want something changed or decide to stop. The arrangement is invisible until it stops, at which point the shared area declines and nobody can explain why.

Naming the area as common property in the scope, with the owners corporation as the client, keeps the responsibility where the funding sits. It also protects the occupier who has been quietly absorbing the work, because it makes clear that what they do is a courtesy rather than an obligation the scheme has come to rely on without ever agreeing to it. It also gives the committee the option of funding the work properly rather than depending on goodwill.

Whose chairs, whose magazines, whose parcels

Shared waiting areas fill up with items nobody has clear title to. Seating provided years ago by one practice, a water cooler that came with a different tenant, brochures for a business that left. A cleaner cannot sensibly decide what to move, discard or straighten, and every decision they make on the fly risks annoying somebody. A cleaner asked to use judgement in that situation will get it wrong roughly half the time.

The scope should record what is scheme property and therefore within the routine, and what belongs to a particular occupier and is left alone. It takes ten minutes at a walkthrough and it prevents a long run of small irritations. Where an item's ownership is genuinely unknown, the sensible instruction is to leave it and report it to the committee. Reporting it lets the committee decide rather than leaving the decision with whoever happens to be holding a bin bag.

Timing an entry area against visitors, not staff

A shared entrance serving healthcare and professional suites carries its heaviest traffic at appointment times, which are often clustered in the morning and again in the late afternoon. A service completed before the building opens presents well for the first arrivals and progressively less well for everyone after them, which is most of the day's visitors. The people forming the strongest impression of the building are the ones who arrive last.

Where the building can support it, a short mid-day attendance on the entry and waiting area does more for the impression than any increase in overall frequency. It is a common property decision funded by the scheme, so it needs to be quoted and put to the committee rather than requested informally by whichever suite is most affected. Framed as a specific costed item, it is a decision a committee can make in a couple of minutes.

Shared reception points for a Concord building

  • The area confirmed as common property in the scope
  • Scheme-owned furniture listed separately from suite items
  • Instruction on parcels, brochures and unclaimed items
  • Attendance timed against appointment patterns
  • A costed option for a mid-day entry area pass
  • The owners corporation named as the client for the area
Clean Best supervisor reviewing office and strata cleaning quality in Parramatta NSW

Working in Concord and the Inner West

Concord in the Inner West holds healthcare, schools, local retail and professional premises, with a number of small strata buildings where several consulting or professional suites share a single street entrance and a common waiting area. Buildings of that shape rarely have a building manager, so the shared space is looked after by whichever occupier happens to be present. The owners corporation funds it and the committee controls it, even when neither is ever in the room. Clean Best services Concord from Seven Hills and scopes shared entries separately from any individual suite.

Questions about Concord

Our staff tidy the shared waiting area. Should we keep doing it?

That is entirely your choice, but it is worth the committee knowing it is happening. Work absorbed informally becomes an assumption, and when the arrangement ends the shared area declines without anyone understanding why. Raising it means the scheme can decide whether to fund the attendance properly rather than relying on a courtesy that was never agreed.

Who decides what furniture stays in the shared area?

The owners corporation, since the area is common property. In practice much of the furniture arrived informally from individual occupiers over the years and its ownership is unclear. Listing what belongs to the scheme, and leaving anything else in place with a report to the committee, avoids a cleaner having to make that judgement on the spot.

Can one suite pay for extra cleaning of the entrance?

Usually only with the owners corporation's agreement, because the entrance is common property funded by every lot. Many committees are comfortable with it provided the arrangement is documented and does not create an expectation the scheme will later take over. A quoted proposal makes that a straightforward decision at the next meeting. It also avoids the arrangement quietly becoming permanent without anyone approving it.

What happens to parcels left in the shared area?

Nothing, unless the scope says otherwise. A cleaner should not move or handle deliveries addressed to an occupier. Where parcels are accumulating and creating a presentation or access problem, it is reported to the committee or the strata managing agent, who can decide whether the building needs a different arrangement for receiving them. That keeps the contractor out of any question about missing or misdirected deliveries.

Should the shared area be cleaned before or during the day?

Before opening sets the building up well, but most visitors arrive later and see a space that has been in use for hours. Where the scheme can fund it, a short additional pass around midday changes the impression far more than extra frequency at dawn. It is a common property decision, so it goes to the committee with a price.

Related pages

Get a fixed written quote for Concord

Free walkthrough, scope in writing, price back within 24 hours.

Request a quote
Call nowEmail us