How often to clean common areas in a building: daily, weekly and quarterly tasks for SVJ

The law does not set a fixed frequency for cleaning the entrance; the scope is decided by the homeowners' association. In practice, the entrance, stairwell and corridors of a typical apartment building are swept and mopped once a week, in larger buildings or with heavy traffic twice a week. Door handles, handrails and lift buttons are wiped at every cleaning visit, while corridor windows, cellars and the bin area are dealt with monthly to quarterly.

Who decides on the cleaning frequency

Under Act No. 67/2013 Coll., cleaning of common areas in a building is one of the services connected with the use of a flat. Section 3(2) of the Act says that the scope of services is agreed by the parties or decided by the cooperative or association. Act No. 67/2013 Coll. therefore does not prescribe any “once a week”.

Under Section 1190 of the Civil Code, the homeowners' association (SVJ) is responsible for managing the building; where none has been established, the manager is. Under Section 1208(d), the assembly approves the type of services and the method of allocating their costs to the units (Act No. 89/2012 Coll., the Civil Code). Unless the owners agree otherwise, the costs of cleaning common areas are allocated under Section 5 of Act No. 67/2013 Coll. according to the number of persons relevant for the allocation.

This is general information, not legal advice. How services are voted on in your building is governed by the bylaws, so check the specific procedure there or with the manager. Who pays and how to commission cleaning is described in the article cleaning of common areas in an SVJ.

What affects how often to clean

The same frequency does not suit every building. Before the committee proposes a schedule, it is worth walking through the building and noting where dirt really builds up.

• Number of flats and floors: the more people pass through one entrance, the faster the entrance hall and lower floors get dirty.
• Lift: the cabin floor and buttons are usually the busiest spot in the building.
• Activity in the building: an office, a doctor's surgery or short-term rental flats mean more visitors and more suitcases on the stairs.
• Season: in autumn and winter, leaves, mud and grit salt are brought into the building.
• Surroundings: an entrance directly from the street or from a gravel courtyard gets dirty faster than one from interlocking paving.
• Dogs, prams and bicycles: bicycles and prams bring dirt from the street into the corridors.
• Flooring: light tiles or terrazzo show marks sooner than dark linoleum.

Indicative schedule by building size

The table is a starting proposal for the brief, not a rule. Judge building size by the number of flats in one entrance. If the building is currently cleaned by the owners in turn, it can also serve as a duty rota.

Area and task	Small building (up to 10 flats)	Medium building (11–30 flats)	Large building (over 30 flats)
Entrance hall, shaking out or vacuuming the mat	once a week	twice a week	2–3 times a week, daily depending on traffic
Stairwell and corridors: sweeping and mopping	once a week	1–2 times a week	twice a week
Door handles, handrails, switches, doorbell panel	once a week	at every cleaning visit	at every cleaning visit
Lift: cabin floor, buttons, mirror	once a week	twice a week	2–3 times a week
Letterboxes, windowsills, banisters, radiators	once every 14 days	once a week	once a week
Glazed entrance doors	once every 14 days	once a week	1–2 times a week
Cellar corridors, pram room, drying room	once a month	once a month	once every 14 days
Bin area: sweeping and checking around the bins	once every 14 days	once a week	1–2 times a week
Windows in corridors and stairwell	twice a year	2–4 times a year	quarterly
Cobwebs, light fittings, upper edges, fire extinguishers (dusting)	quarterly	quarterly	once a month
Machine or deep cleaning of floors	once a year	1–2 times a year	twice a year

For medium and large buildings, it is reasonable to set two types of visit: a regular one (floors, handrails, lift) and, once a month, an extended one (letterboxes, cellars, radiators, flat doors from the outside). This makes the brief easy to check.

Tasks by frequency

Daily or at every visit

Daily cleaning is needed only in a large building with heavy traffic. Often it is enough for someone from the building or the manager to notice a problem and arrange a remedy.

• pick up flyers and litter in the entrance, empty the bin by the letterboxes, if there is one,
• wipe up spilled liquid or mud at the entrance, especially on rainy days,
• check that corridors and stairwells are not obstructed.

Weekly

• vacuum or sweep all floors and the stairwell, then mop,
• clean the mat and the floor of the entrance hall,
• wipe door handles, handrails, switches and doorbells,
• mop the lift cabin, wipe the buttons, mirror and inner walls,
• wash the glazing of the entrance doors on the side that hands reach,
• sweep the bin area and pick up waste lying outside the bins.

Do not forget handles and buttons. The US agency CDC recommends regularly cleaning frequently touched surfaces, which explicitly include door handles, stair handrails and lift buttons, and setting the frequency according to how often people touch them (CDC: When and How to Clean and Disinfect a Facility). A detailed procedure for the stairwell itself can be found in the article cleaning the entrance and stairwell in an apartment building.

Monthly

• wipe letterboxes, windowsills, radiators and flat entrance doors from the outside,
• sweep and mop cellar corridors, the pram room and the drying room,
• clean the lift shaft doors from the corridor and the door frames,
• wash the bins and the floor of the bin area, if agreed in the building.

Quarterly and seasonal

• wash windows in corridors and the stairwell, including frames and windowsills,
• remove cobwebs from ceilings and corners, wipe light fittings and upper edges,
• wash skirting boards and wall tiling, if the building has them,
• arrange deep cleaning of floors once or twice a year, typically in spring after the winter.

Lift, cellars and bin area: what to watch for

Lift. Only the cabin and the doors from the outside are cleaned. The shaft and machine room are the preserve of the service company alone. Clean stainless steel and lacquered panels according to the lift manufacturer's instructions, which the manager or service company has. Do not spray product directly onto the buttons; apply it to a cloth.

Cellars and pram rooms. These tend to be places where things are left “just for a moment”. Corridors and stairwells that serve as an escape route in particular should stay clear. Decree No. 246/2001 Coll. on fire prevention, Section 11(3)(b), requires legal entities to ensure that communication areas forming part of escape routes are permanently kept clear (Decree No. 246/2001 Coll.). Under Section 1194 of the Civil Code, a homeowners' association is a legal entity. You can therefore add to the brief that the cleaner will report to the committee any items blocking the way, but will not remove them personally.

Bin area. Regularity matters most. State in the brief whether cleaning covers only sweeping around the bins, or also washing the bins and the floor of the area, and who deals with bulky waste left next to the containers.

Chemicals. Children and animals move around common areas. Read the label, ventilate while working, wear gloves and test a new product in an inconspicuous place. Never mix products containing chlorine with acids or ammonia; details can be found in the article which cleaning products you should never mix.

How to turn the frequency into a cleaning brief

1. List the areas. The number of floors, entrances, lifts, cellar corridors and stairwell windows. The approximate floor area helps when comparing offers.
2. Assign a frequency to each area. Start from the table above and adjust it according to what you have seen in the building.
3. Set days and times. Cleaning on the same day of the week is easy to check. For window and seasonal work, it is enough to state the months.
4. Post a checklist. Put a sheet in the entrance hall where the cleaner records the date and the tasks carried out.
5. Agree the facilities. Where the slop sink and water are, where equipment may be stored and who supplies the products.
6. Review the schedule after two to three months. If the hall is dirty two days after cleaning, add a visit; if the cellar stays clean, you can clean it less often.

What the contract itself should contain is discussed in the article a contract for cleaning common areas for an SVJ. If you want to commission cleaning externally, the scope of the service is described on the page cleaning of common areas and indicative prices can be found in the price list.