Most disputes between a building and its cleaning contractor are not about effort. They are about a task nobody wrote down. The contractor believes interior glass is quarterly, the property manager believes it is weekly, and both are certain they are right because the agreement never said. A commercial cleaning contract exists to remove that ambiguity before it costs anyone money.
This is what belongs in the document, in the order it should appear, based on the contracts we scope and sign across Toronto and the GTA.
1. A task list with a frequency against every line
This is the contract. Everything else is administration around it. Each task needs a stated frequency, and vague frequency words are where contracts fail. “Regularly” and “as needed” mean nothing enforceable. “Weekly” and “first Tuesday monthly” do.
A workable scope separates tasks into daily or per-visit, weekly, monthly, and periodic. Periodic is the category most often left out, and it is the expensive one.
| Frequency | Typical tasks |
| Per visit | Waste and recycling, washrooms, kitchen surfaces, vacuuming and dust mopping, shared touchpoints |
| Weekly | Detail dusting, baseboards and sills, interior glass, damp wiping chair bases and table legs |
| Monthly | High dusting, vents and diffuser grilles, wall spot-cleaning, floor buffing or burnishing |
| Periodic | Carpet extraction, strip and wax or scrub and recoat, upholstery cleaning, wall washing, window cleaning |
Put dates or intervals on the periodic line. “Carpet extraction twice yearly, March and September” is a commitment. “Carpet cleaning as required” is a future argument.
2. An explicit exclusion list
Stating what is not included prevents more disputes than any other clause, and a contractor who volunteers exclusions is usually the one telling you the truth about the rest.
Common exclusions worth naming directly:
- Personal desk items, paperwork, and anything on a cluttered surface
- Dishwasher loading or emptying, and staff dishes left in sinks
- Plant watering and exterior grounds
- Biohazard cleanup and needle handling
- Exterior window cleaning above ground level
- Kitchen exhaust hood and duct cleaning to fire code, which is a certified specialty
- Snow and ice management outside the entrance
If any of those matter to your site, negotiate them in rather than assuming. Some are genuinely separate trades. Kitchen exhaust cleaning to the NFPA 96 standard, for example, requires its own certification and documentation, which is why we handle it as a defined service on our restaurant cleaning page rather than folding it silently into a general scope.
3. Schedule, access, and security
Write down the days, the window, and how the crew gets in. This section prevents the most operationally disruptive failures, which are almost always access failures rather than cleaning failures.
- Service days and the time window for each
- Access method: keys, fob, code, or security desk sign-in
- Alarm arming and disarming responsibility, and who holds the code
- Named crew and the notice you get before a change
- Service elevator or loading dock booking, if the building requires it
- Statutory holiday handling and whether missed visits are made up or credited
The named-crew clause is worth insisting on. A crew that knows your alarm, your layout, and your waste route makes fewer mistakes than a rotating roster, and in buildings with security screening it avoids re-clearing new people every month.
4. Insurance, WSIB, and liability
Do not sign without these, and do not accept a promise to send them later.
- WSIB clearance certificate, current and in the contractor’s legal name
- Commercial general liability insurance, with the amount stated in the contract
- Certificate of insurance naming your building, where property management requires it
- Responsibility for damage caused during cleaning, and the process for reporting it
If a cleaner is injured at your property and the contractor lacks WSIB coverage, that exposure can reach you. This is the clause that turns a cheap quote into an expensive decision, and it is the one most often skipped when a building is in a hurry.
5. Supplies and consumables, named specifically
Two different things get called supplies, and conflating them causes monthly billing surprises.
Cleaning supplies are the contractor’s products, equipment, and microfibre. These are almost always included and should be stated as such.
Consumables are toilet paper, hand towel, hand soap, and bin liners. These may be included in the monthly fee, billed at cost, or supplied by you and simply restocked by the crew. All three are normal. Only one of them should be written in your contract.
6. Reporting and quality control
A scope you cannot verify is a scope you are trusting on faith. Build the evidence into the agreement.
- A completion log after every visit, recording the date, the crew, and the tasks done including any periodic work
- A named point of contact and a stated response time for issues
- A defined remedy: if a task is missed, it is completed within a set number of hours at no charge
- Periodic walkthroughs, quarterly is typical, to review the scope against how the building is actually being used
The remedy clause matters more than a penalty clause. What you want is the work done, not a small credit and a still-dirty washroom.
7. Price, term, and how changes happen
The commercial terms should be short and unambiguous:
- The monthly fee, and exactly what frequency it buys
- Rates for additional or ad-hoc work, agreed in advance
- Invoicing schedule and payment terms
- Notice period for either side, 30 days is standard and reasonable
- How price changes are proposed, with advance notice rather than an invoice surprise
- Whether the term auto-renews, and how to opt out
Be cautious with long lock-in terms. A multi-year commitment mainly protects the contractor. A clear scope, a fair notice period, and consistent performance are what actually keep a cleaning relationship stable. We work without lock-in contracts for exactly that reason.
The practical way to use this
Write your scope before you collect quotes, not after. Draft the task list and frequencies for your building, then give the identical document to every contractor and ask them to price that list.
Two things happen immediately. The spread between quotes narrows, because everyone is finally pricing the same work. And any contractor who cannot price your list without substituting their own is telling you something useful about how they intend to operate.
Our office cleaning checklist gives you a task list to start from, and the commercial cleaning cost guide covers what the resulting number should look like.
Frequently asked questions
What should be included in a commercial cleaning contract?
A task list with a frequency against every line, an explicit exclusion list, the service schedule and access method, WSIB and liability insurance details, who supplies consumables, a completion log requirement, the monthly price, and the notice period. If any of those are missing, they will be decided later by argument instead of agreement.
How long should a commercial cleaning contract be?
The term should be short or open-ended with a 30-day notice period on both sides. Long lock-in terms mainly benefit the contractor. A written scope and a fair notice period give you the same stability without trapping you if the standard drops.
Who is responsible if a cleaner damages something?
The contractor, through their commercial general liability insurance, which is why the contract must state the coverage amount and why you should hold a current certificate. The agreement should also set out how damage is reported and within what timeframe.
Can I change the scope after signing?
Yes, and you should expect to. Buildings change how they are used. A good contract includes a mechanism for adjusting scope with an agreed price change, plus a periodic review so the scope is revisited deliberately rather than drifting.
What is the difference between a cleaning contract and a scope of work?
The scope of work is the task and frequency list. The contract is the scope plus the commercial and legal terms: price, insurance, notice, reporting, and liability. The scope is what gets done, the contract is what happens if it does not.
Get a written scope before you get a price
Profound Cleaning runs 30+ commercial buildings monthly from our Concord office. We are WSIB certified and carry $5M liability insurance, we agree a written scope before the first clean, and we send a completion log after every visit. No lock-in contract.
If you want your building scoped properly, book a walkthrough. We put the task list, the frequencies, the exclusions, and the price in writing before anything starts.
Related: janitorial services, office cleaning Toronto, condo common areas, or request a free site assessment.
Profound Cleaning Inc., 3100 Steeles Ave W, Suite 206A, Concord, ON L4K 3R1. Call +1 (647) 567-9992. Serving Toronto and the GTA.
Need this handled at your building?
Written scope before work, completion log after every visit, same crew every time. WSIB certified and $5M insured across Toronto and the GTA.
