Most communal areas in blocks of flats and shared houses need cleaning weekly, with busy or larger buildings cleaned two or three times a week and small, quiet blocks fortnightly. A standard communal area clean covers entrance halls, stairs, landings and lifts: hoovering and mopping floors, wiping handrails, doors and touchpoints, cleaning entrance glass, dusting, and checking the bin store.
The right schedule depends on footfall, flooring, the weather and who lives in the building. A converted terrace on the Avenues with four flats has very different needs from a large block at Victoria Dock or in the city centre.
This guide sets out what is normally included, a sample schedule you can adapt and how to keep a cleaning contract working for buildings across Hull and East Yorkshire.
Key takeaways
- Weekly cleaning suits most residential blocks; increase it for heavy footfall, lifts or wet-weather mud.
- Touchpoints such as door handles, entry panels and handrails should be cleaned on every visit.
- Plan periodic jobs, such as carpet deep cleans and high-level dusting, into the schedule rather than waiting for complaints.
- A visit log and a clear way to report problems show residents and freeholders the work is being done.
How often should communal areas be cleaned?
There is no single legal frequency for communal cleaning in a block of flats; it is set by the lease, the management agreement or, in an HMO, by what is needed to keep the common parts clean. A sensible frequency depends on:
- Number of residents. More flats means more footfall, more post and more rubbish.
- Who lives there. Student blocks, family buildings and buildings with dogs all wear differently.
- Flooring. Light carpets show dirt quickly; vinyl and tiles are easier to keep clean but show wet footprints.
- Lifts and bin stores. Both need frequent attention and are where complaints usually start.
- Weather and location. Wet winters bring mud and grit inside, and coastal buildings get sand blown into entrances.
Our communal area cleaning visits are usually weekly, with extra visits added for busy buildings or through the winter. For shared houses, the legal side is covered in our guide to HMO cleaning responsibilities.
What’s included in communal area cleaning?
A typical communal clean covers every shared internal space residents walk through:
- Floors: hoovering carpets and mopping hard floors in entrances, corridors, stairs and landings, including stair edges and corners.
- Handrails and banisters: wiped down on every visit.
- Doors and glass: entrance doors, internal fire doors and vision panels, with fingerprints removed from glass.
- Touchpoints: door handles, push plates, entry panels, light switches and lift buttons.
- Lifts: floor, walls, mirrors, doors and door tracks.
- Dusting: skirting boards, window sills, radiators, ledges and noticeboards.
- Post areas: tidying junk mail and wiping post boxes.
- Bin store: checking for spills and overflowing bins and reporting problems.
- Reporting: noting blown bulbs, damage, graffiti or dumped items for the managing agent.
A sample communal area cleaning schedule
Use this as a starting point for a typical residential block cleaned weekly, and adjust frequencies to suit your building.
| Task | Frequency |
|---|---|
| Hoover or mop entrance, corridors, stairs and landings | Every visit |
| Wipe handrails, door handles, entry panels and light switches | Every visit |
| Clean entrance door glass and internal glazed doors | Every visit |
| Clean lift floor, walls, mirrors and control panels | Every visit |
| Check bin store and report overflowing or damaged bins | Every visit |
| Spot-clean marks on walls and doors | Every visit |
| Dust skirting boards, sills, radiators and ledges | Fortnightly |
| Dust light fittings and high ledges, remove cobwebs | Monthly |
| Clean internal windows and sills | Monthly |
| Wash down bin store floor | Quarterly or as needed |
| Deep clean carpets or machine-scrub hard floors | Once or twice a year, or as needed |
Buildings with offices or shops on the ground floor often need a slightly different routine for those areas. Our office cleaning checklist covers daily, weekly and monthly tasks for workspaces.
Seasonal and periodic communal cleaning
Some jobs don’t need doing every week but make a big difference when they are done on schedule.
Autumn and winter
Wet leaves, mud and grit get tracked through entrances. Good entrance matting, cleaned or swapped regularly, keeps most of it at the door. Many buildings add an extra visit during the wettest months.
Coastal buildings
In seafront blocks in Bridlington and along the coast, salt and sand settle on glass, handrails and entrance floors. Glass and metal touchpoints need wiping more often to stay clear and stop salt residue building up.
Carpets and hard floors
Communal carpets take far more traffic than any carpet at home. A periodic deep clean using hot water extraction lifts ground-in dirt that hoovering can’t reach; our guide to carpet cleaning methods explains the options, and our carpet cleaning service can be booked alongside regular visits.
Who is responsible for cleaning communal areas?
- Blocks of flats: usually the freeholder or residents’ management company, often through a managing agent, with the cost recovered through the service charge as set out in the leases.
- HMOs: the landlord or manager, who has a legal duty to keep the common parts clean and in good repair.
- Converted houses with a few flats: the leases may share the responsibility between owners. Informal rotas are common and often fall apart, so many owners agree to appoint a cleaner instead.
- Mixed-use buildings: shared entrances between shops, offices and flats may be covered by a commercial cleaning contract arranged by the building owner.
Making a communal cleaning contract work
The difference between a contract that works and one that generates complaints is usually the detail agreed at the start.
- A written specification listing every area and task, with frequencies.
- A visit log in the cleaner’s cupboard or a digital record, so residents and agents can see when the last clean happened.
- Access arrangements for keys and fobs; our article on giving your cleaner a key explains how secure key holding works.
- A reporting route so cleaners can flag damage, blown bulbs or dumped rubbish straight to the managing agent.
- Consistent cleaners who get to know the building.
- Insurance and vetting, since cleaners work in shared spaces where residents live and often hold keys.
If you are comparing providers, our guide to choosing a commercial cleaning contractor lists the questions worth asking.
Tip: Put a short notice in the entrance with the cleaning day and a contact for issues. Residents complain less when they can see a regular schedule, and they are more likely to report problems early.
Arranging communal area cleaning for your building
Our communal area cleaning service covers blocks of flats, HMOs and mixed-use buildings in Hull, Hessle and across East Yorkshire. Our cleaners are DBS-checked and insured, bring their own equipment, and we offer key holding and invoice landlords and managing agents directly.
Landlords can read more on our landlord services page. To arrange a visit and a fixed quote based on your building, get in touch through our contact page.
