Five Contract Terms to Check Before You Sign
A commercial cleaning contract is a recurring obligation. The terms you agree to at signing govern the relationship for months or years. These five clauses appear in most cleaning contracts and are the ones most commonly misunderstood or overlooked by facilities managers in the Sun City and West Valley market.
1. The Scope of Work Document
The scope of work should be a separate document attached to the contract, not a verbal agreement or a brief paragraph in the contract body. The scope specifies every area cleaned, every task performed in each area, and the frequency of each task. If something is not in the scope document, it is not in the price and not guaranteed to be performed.
Before signing, confirm that the scope document matches what you discussed during the site walkthrough. Discrepancies between what was discussed and what is written are common and should be resolved before you sign, not after the first invoice.
2. The Termination Clause
Most commercial cleaning contracts have an initial term (commonly 12 months) and a termination clause that specifies how much notice is required to end the contract and whether there is a penalty for early termination. Thirty days' written notice is standard after the initial term. Penalties for terminating during the initial term vary — some contracts charge the full remaining monthly fees, others charge a flat fee.
Understand the termination cost before you sign. A 12-month contract with a full-remaining-term penalty is a 12-month financial commitment regardless of service quality.
3. Price Escalation Clauses
Some contracts include an annual price escalation clause tied to CPI or a fixed percentage increase. This is not inherently unreasonable — labour costs do increase over time — but the clause should be explicit, capped and tied to a defined index. A clause that allows the contractor to increase price at their discretion is a clause you should negotiate out before signing.
In Arizona, where summer temperatures affect labour availability and scheduling, some contractors also include seasonal surcharges. These should be specified in the contract, not introduced mid-term.
4. Insurance and Bonding Verification
The contract should require the contractor to maintain general liability insurance, janitorial bonding and workers' compensation coverage for the duration of the contract. A certificate of insurance at signing is not sufficient — the requirement should be ongoing, with a clause requiring the contractor to notify you of any lapse in coverage.
If your property manager or lease requires you to carry a COI from your cleaning contractor, confirm this is a contractual obligation on the contractor's side, not just something you requested at signing that they can allow to lapse.
5. Dispute and Remedy Provisions
What happens when a cleaning visit is missed or a scope item is not completed? The contract should specify the remedy: a return visit within a defined time period, a credit against the next invoice, or both. A contract that has no remedy provision leaves you without recourse except termination.
The remedy for a missed visit should be a return visit at no charge within 24–48 hours, not a credit for the visit on the next invoice. A credit compensates you financially but does not clean your facility.