Switching cleaning providers in Drummoyne without a gap in service

The most common failure is giving notice first and then discovering the new provider needs three weeks for building approvals, inductions or a police check on a new starter. Establish the incoming provider's realistic start date, add a few days of margin, then count back through your notice period. Only then send the notice. The order costs nothing and removes almost all of the risk from the change.

Give the notice in writing with the end date stated plainly, even where the relationship has been informal. A verbal ending is easily misremembered and occasionally produces invoices after the service has stopped. Keep the message short and neutral. There is no advantage in explaining the decision in detail at this point, and a professional ending makes the practical handover considerably easier to arrange and less likely to produce an unhelpful response about the final invoice.

Keys, access cards, fobs and alarm codes need a return date and a count. Consumables stored on site may belong to the outgoing provider and should be reconciled rather than assumed. Any equipment they left, such as a vacuum, a machine or a caddy, needs to be collected. Each item is small and each becomes an irritating exchange of messages if nobody listed them before the last day arrived.

Periodic work is the other common gap. If a quarterly task was due in the outgoing provider's final month and was not performed, decide whether it is completed, credited or handed to the new provider. Raise it before the final invoice rather than afterwards, when the leverage has gone and the conversation is with somebody who no longer has a commercial interest in resolving it.

Give the incoming provider everything the outgoing one learned. Where the spare keys live, which alarm zone is temperamental, which tenant works late, which floor needs a particular product. Much of this exists only in the outgoing cleaner's head, so ask for it before they leave. A short handover note prevents the new provider from spending their first month rediscovering things somebody already knew while somebody who already knew the answers is still contactable.

Then plan closer contact for the first six weeks. Agree a check-in after the first week and again after a month, and expect some minor adjustments. New arrangements almost always need small corrections to timing, sequence or emphasis, and raising them early is normal rather than a sign the decision was wrong. A provider who welcomes that contact is easier to work with over the following year.