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Rhodes NSW 2138

A Rhodes roof terrace booked by residents and used by commercial tenants

A common roof terrace is the most attractive part of a building and the least clearly governed. It gets booked for functions, used casually, left in various conditions, and funded by every lot regardless of whether they have ever been up there.

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In short

A common roof terrace or recreation deck in a Rhodes tower is common property funded by the owners corporation. Use of it is typically governed by the scheme's own by-laws and booking arrangements, which determine who may use it, when, and what condition they are expected to leave it in.

Clean Best scopes shared terraces separately from internal areas, with a routine cycle and a distinct arrangement for post-function recovery. Who funds a recovery is a committee matter, and it works far better decided in advance than afterwards. Booking arrangements are a matter for the owners corporation rather than the contractor.

Casual use and booked use are different problems

Casual daily use of a terrace produces the ordinary load any outdoor common area receives: litter, leaf matter, marks on furniture and the effects of weather. A booked function produces something else entirely, concentrated into a few hours and usually finishing late. The two need different responses, and a single routine frequency will either be excessive for ordinary days or inadequate after an event. Neither situation is well served by a single fixed interval.

Separating them is the sensible structure. A routine cycle covers the ordinary condition, and a recovery attendance is triggered by a booking. That way the scheme is not funding event-level attention every week, and it is not left with a terrace in poor condition on a Monday morning because the routine visit is not due until Thursday. It also gives the booking process something concrete to attach a condition to.

Deciding who pays for a recovery before the function

Whether a recovery after a booked function is funded by the scheme or by the party who booked is a question the scheme's own by-laws and booking arrangements may address, and it is a matter for the owners corporation and its strata managing agent rather than for a contractor. What matters practically is that it is settled before the function rather than after it. Nobody wants that conversation on a Monday after a function.

Settled in advance, it is an administrative detail attached to the booking. Settled afterwards, it is a dispute between a committee and an owner about a cost neither expected. The cleaning arrangement should be able to support either answer, with a defined recovery attendance and a known price so the booking process can include it without further discussion. The arrangement should support whichever answer the scheme adopts.

Weather, drainage and the things that need doing anyway

Roof terraces accumulate problems nobody associates with cleaning. Drainage outlets block with leaf matter, planter beds shed material across paving, and exposed furniture deteriorates in ways that are gradual and easy to miss. A terrace that looks acceptable can be developing a drainage issue that will become expensive. Roof-level problems are expensive precisely because nobody sees them developing. By the time the symptom is visible from below, the cost has usually multiplied several times over.

Surface clearing of outlets can reasonably sit in a scope as a periodic item, and observations about furniture and planting are worth reporting. Anything below the outlet is drainage maintenance with its own contractor. Stating that boundary means the committee knows what is being looked after and what still needs somebody else's attention, which on a roof is not a trivial distinction. On a roof, that distinction is not a trivial one.

Roof terrace points for a Rhodes building

  • A routine cycle separate from post-function recovery
  • Recovery attendance defined with a known price
  • Funding of recoveries settled before bookings are taken
  • Surface clearing of drainage outlets as a periodic item
  • Below-outlet drainage maintenance excluded in writing
  • Furniture and planting condition reported to the committee
Clean Best supervisor reviewing office and strata cleaning quality in Parramatta NSW

Working in Rhodes and the Central West

Rhodes in the Central West holds corporate offices, retail and high-density mixed-use towers, with buildings that provide common roof terraces and recreation decks serving residential lots and commercial tenancies together. Areas of that kind are among the most valued parts of a scheme and among the least clearly governed, since they combine casual daily use with booked functions under arrangements the owners corporation sets. Every lot funds them regardless of use. Clean Best services Rhodes from Seven Hills and scopes terraces separately from internal common areas.

Questions about Rhodes

Who pays to clean up after a function on the terrace?

That depends on the scheme's own by-laws and booking arrangements, and it is a matter for the owners corporation with advice from its strata managing agent. What matters practically is settling it before bookings are taken. Decided in advance it is an administrative detail; decided afterwards it is a dispute nobody planned for. Attaching it to the booking form is usually the simplest mechanism.

Should a terrace be on the same cycle as internal areas?

Usually not. Outdoor areas load differently, are affected by weather and have a booking pattern that internal areas do not. A routine cycle for ordinary condition plus a defined recovery triggered by a booking is a better structure than one frequency trying to cover both situations. Weather alone justifies treating outdoor areas on their own cycle.

Are drainage outlets part of the cleaning scope?

Surface clearing can reasonably be included as a periodic item, which matters on a roof because blocked outlets create expensive problems. Anything below the outlet is drainage maintenance with its own contractor and should be excluded in writing, so the committee knows what is covered and what still needs arranging. Blocked outlets are among the more expensive problems a scheme can neglect.

Most owners never use the terrace. Should the service be reduced?

The committee can decide to, but the terrace remains common property and its condition affects the building's presentation and the value owners place on it. Pricing it as a visible separate line lets the committee see the actual cost and make a proportionate decision rather than treating it as an obvious saving. Terraces also carry disproportionate weight in how a building is perceived.

The furniture is deteriorating. Who deals with that?

It is reported to the nominated contact rather than dealt with by the cleaning contractor. Replacement or repair of common property furniture is an owners corporation decision funded from a different budget. What cleaning contributes is noticing it early, since exposed furniture deteriorates gradually and nobody else is looking closely. Early observation is often the difference between a repair and a replacement.

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