Who Is Responsible for Window Cleaning in a Block of Flats?

It’s one of the questions managing agents get asked most: residents can see the windows are dirty, but who’s meant to sort it? The answer is almost always in the lease. This guide explains how block of flats window cleaning usually works, which windows are covered, what residents can do, and what to look for when you arrange it.

Who is responsible? Start with the lease

Every lease sets out who looks after which parts of the building, and window cleaning is usually covered alongside the other common services. In most blocks, it works like this:

• The freeholder or management company agrees in the lease to clean the outside of the windows and the communal areas.
• The managing agent arranges the work on their behalf, appoints the contractor and checks it’s done.
• The leaseholders pay their share of the cost through the service charge.

Where the residents have taken over management through a right to manage company, or own the freehold through a residents’ management company, the same duty sits with that company. Leases do differ, though. Some put the windows of each flat inside the leaseholder’s own property, and a few leave window cleaning out altogether. If you’re unsure, check the lease, or ask the managing agent which clause covers it.

Which windows are covered?

It helps to split the glazing in a block into three parts:

Windows	Who usually arranges cleaning	Paid through
Outside of the flats’ windows	Managing agent, for the freeholder or management company	Service charge
Communal glazing (entrance doors, stairwells, landings)	Managing agent, often as part of communal cleaning	Service charge
Inside of each flat’s windows	The resident	The resident

The outside of the windows above the ground floor is the part residents can’t safely reach, which is why it’s normally a building-wide job. The inside of the communal windows is usually included in a communal clean. What communal area cleaning should include.

What can leaseholders and residents do?

If the outside of your windows hasn’t been cleaned, or isn’t being cleaned often enough, raise it with the managing agent. They can tell you what the lease says, how often the windows are meant to be cleaned and when the next visit is due. If enough residents want more frequent cleans, the managing agent can look at it, bearing in mind that the cost comes back through the service charge.

Please don’t lean out to clean upper-floor windows yourself. It isn’t worth the risk. We can’t take a booking for a single flat either: we don’t clean individual flats or private houses, only whole blocks on behalf of their management company. So the managing agent is the right person to ask.

How managing agents set up block of flats window cleaning

For a managing agent, the aim is a contractor who turns up when expected, cleans every window safely and gives you something to show residents. When you’re asking for quotes, check:

1. How the windows will be reached. Most blocks can be cleaned from the ground with water-fed poles. Ours reach 70ft. Taller blocks need cherry pickers or rope access. How high-rise windows are cleaned.
2. How often each block will be cleaned. There’s no fixed rule. It depends on the building, its surroundings and the budget, so agree a schedule for each block.
3. How visits are arranged. Residents like to know when the cleaners are coming. We schedule visits in advance and confirm the date with you.
4. Insurance and safety paperwork. Ask for insurance certificates with the quote, and a risk assessment and method statement before work starts. What safety paperwork to ask for.
5. Who the cleaners are. DBS-checked, uniformed teams are easy for residents to recognise.
6. The contract terms. Watch the length of any agreement paid from the service charge. Window cleaning contracts explained.

Windows and communal cleaning together

Many agents find it simpler to give the outside windows and the communal areas to one contractor. There’s one schedule, one point of contact and one invoice per month, and the inside of the communal windows is cleaned as part of the communal visits. Our communal cleaning service.

Block of flats window cleaning in South Yorkshire

We currently cover dozens of block management sites for various clients across South Yorkshire, cleaning the windows and, where they want it, the communal areas. We’ve been cleaning commercial buildings since 1995, and our teams are DBS-checked, uniformed and fully insured. Apartment block window cleaning, or retirement living.

Your quote comes with our insurance documents, and once you’ve accepted it we prepare a free risk assessment and method statement for each building. Contracts are optional, with no minimum term, and we invoice at the end of each calendar month, with 30 days to pay. Tell us about your blocks on the quote form. We reply within 2 hours during office hours.

Questions