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The demarcation schedule in a Sydney lease and what it actually settles

Most CBD leases attach a schedule dividing responsibility for the building between landlord and tenant. It is written by lawyers, read once at signing, and then relied on for a decade by facilities people who were not involved in drafting any of it.

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In short

A demarcation schedule allocates responsibility for building elements between a landlord and a tenant. It resolves most questions about who cleans what, but it is written in categories rather than in the specific areas a cleaning scope has to describe. Facilities teams inherit the schedule rather than negotiate it, and have to translate it themselves.

Clean Best works from the schedule where one exists and identifies the points it does not resolve. Those are taken back to the building manager or the landlord's agent rather than being settled on site by whoever is asked first. The resolved position is then attached to both the tenancy and base building scopes.

Categories in the lease, spaces in the building

A schedule speaks in terms of structure, services, finishes and fixtures. A cleaning scope speaks in terms of the lift lobby, the shared corridor on level six and the kitchen at the north end. Translating between the two is usually straightforward and occasionally is not, because the schedule was drafted before the floor was configured and never anticipated the space that now exists. The translation is usually quick and the exceptions are what matter.

The points where translation fails are worth identifying early rather than at the moment somebody complains. A shared amenity on a part-let floor, a lobby finished by one tenant, a store room that serves two tenancies. None of those maps cleanly onto a category, and the answer has to come from the landlord's agent or the building manager rather than from a reasonable reading of the document.

What the schedule does not decide

A demarcation schedule allocates responsibility. It does not set a standard, a frequency or a timing, and it says nothing about what happens when one party's activity affects the other's area. A tenant can be entirely responsible for their own premises and still have a legitimate view about a lobby they cross twice a day, and the schedule offers nothing on that at all. That is not a defect in the schedule; it was drafted to answer a different question.

Those questions are settled by the base building specification and by whatever arrangements the building has for tenant requests. Knowing that the schedule does not answer them saves a great deal of pointless re-reading. It also directs the question to the right place, which is the building manager rather than a lease clause that was never intended to address it. Re-reading a clause will not produce an answer it never contained.

Reading it before writing a scope, not after

Facilities managers new to a building frequently write a cleaning scope from the floor plan and discover the demarcation afterwards. That produces a scope covering areas the landlord is already servicing, or leaving out areas the tenant is responsible for, and both errors cost money before anybody notices them. Both errors cost money quietly for months before anybody notices them. Facilities teams inherit these documents rather than write them, which makes the sequence easy to get wrong.

Half an hour with the schedule before the scope is drafted avoids both. It also produces a document the tenant can hand to a contractor with confidence, and a clear list of the handful of items that genuinely need confirming with the building. Clean Best asks for the demarcation at quoting stage for exactly this reason. It also produces a much shorter list of genuine questions for the building.

Demarcation points for a Sydney tenancy

  • The lease schedule obtained before the scope is drafted
  • Categories in the schedule translated into named spaces
  • Items that do not map cleanly listed for confirmation
  • The building manager asked rather than a clause reinterpreted
  • Standard, frequency and timing recognised as separate questions
  • The resolved position attached to both the tenancy and base scopes
Clean Best supervisor reviewing office and strata cleaning quality in Parramatta NSW

Working in Sydney and the Sydney CBD

Sydney's CBD holds offices, retail, hospitality and high-rise commercial buildings, with multi-tenanted towers where responsibility between landlord and tenant is set out in schedules attached to each lease. Buildings of that kind are occupied by facilities teams who inherit those documents rather than negotiate them, and who have to translate legal categories into the actual spaces a contractor will attend. Most of it translates cleanly and a handful of items never do. Clean Best services Sydney from Seven Hills and asks for the demarcation before drafting any scope.

Questions about Sydney

Does the lease schedule tell us who cleans what?

It allocates responsibility for building elements, which resolves most questions. It speaks in categories such as structure, services and finishes rather than in the named spaces a cleaning scope describes, so some translation is required. Most of it translates cleanly and the handful of items that do not are worth identifying early. The exceptions are the reason to read it before drafting rather than after.

Does it set a cleaning standard?

No. A demarcation schedule allocates responsibility and says nothing about standard, frequency or timing. Those come from the base building specification and from the tenant's own arrangements inside the demise. Knowing that saves a great deal of re-reading a document that was never intended to answer the question being asked of it. Directing the question to the building manager saves considerable time.

What if an area does not fit any category?

Take it to the building manager or the landlord's agent rather than reinterpreting the clause. Shared amenities on part-let floors, lobbies finished by a tenant and store rooms serving two tenancies commonly fall outside the categories. The answer belongs with the parties to the lease and should be recorded once it is given. Recording the answer prevents the same question arising at the next renewal.

When should we read the schedule?

Before drafting a cleaning scope rather than after. Scopes written from a floor plan alone routinely cover areas the landlord is already servicing or omit areas the tenant is responsible for, and both errors cost money before anybody notices. Half an hour with the document at the start prevents it. Half an hour at the start is the cheapest part of the whole exercise.

Our lobby is poorly presented. Does the schedule help?

Only in establishing that it is the landlord's area rather than yours, which you probably already knew. Beyond that it offers nothing, because standard and frequency are set elsewhere. The productive route is a written request to the building manager describing what you are seeing, ideally with times attached. Specific observations are what a building manager can actually act on.

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