How do you write a cleaning contract specification?

This is the first line of the document, and it sets the legal nature of everything that follows.

Wording to use: "The contractor undertakes to maintain the premises described in Annex 1 in the state of cleanliness defined in Annex 2, at the frequencies set out in Annex 3. It organises its own resources, staffing and methods freely to achieve this result."

Wording to avoid: "The contractor makes two agents available Monday to Friday from 6am to 9am."

The difference isn't stylistic. In the second case, you are no longer buying a service, you are supervising staff: you set the tasks, you control the time, you organise the work.

This exposes the client to reclassification and removes any recourse on quality — you cannot fault a result from someone whose means you dictated yourself. The subject is picked up from a decision angle in our comparison of insourcing and outsourcing cleaning.

Scope is the section that avoids three-quarters of disputes, and it's the one most briefs leave out.

What Annex 1 must contain, zone by zone:

• Designation — open space, partitioned offices, circulation areas, meeting rooms, toilets, kitchen or break area, archive room, plant room, entrance hall, stairs, exterior areas.
• Floor area in square metres, measured, not estimated.
• Floor covering, because it dictates the method: tile, marble, polished concrete, parquet, carpet, resilient flooring. Marble isn't washed like polished concrete, and an acid permanently stains the second.
• The number of sensitive points: sanitary blocks, WC pans, basins, water points, waste bins, glazed doors.

Count sanitary blocks separately. They represent a very small share of the floor area of a commercial building and absorb roughly a fifth of the intervention time. A brief that doesn't count them cannot be priced seriously, and the gaps between offers will come from there.

Add a staffing clause: "This contract is drawn up for a reference headcount of ___ people. Any lasting variation greater than 20% of this headcount, or any change of scope, gives rise to an amendment."

Saying "three passes a week" describes nothing. What needs writing is what is done at every pass, every week, every month and every quarter, post by post.

A usable table extract:

• At every pass — emptying and re-bagging bins, cleaning and disinfecting toilets, damp sweeping and washing of circulation floors, wiping worktops and the break area, wiping handles and switches.
• Weekly — dusting office furniture, washing partitioned office floors, cleaning interior glazed doors, descaling water points.
• Monthly — skirtings, tops of cupboards, ventilation grilles, full doors, interior of break-area equipment.
• Quarterly or half-yearly — accessible exterior glazing, underneath furniture, light fittings, floor restoration.

Two drafting rules avoid disputes. Explicitly name what is only partly done: "interior glazing of partitions is included, exterior glazing is not." And name what is excluded: archive room, plant room, exteriors, staff crockery, plants, post. The detailed reasoning by zone and headcount is developed in our article on the rhythm to set zone by zone.

This is the reversal that makes a specification useful. Dictating means produces a document that cannot be checked; describing states produces one that can.

Compare:

• ❌ "Vacuum the carpet." The task can be done without the result following.
• ✅ "The carpet is free of visible debris and footfall marks at the start of the working day."

Other examples to reuse as they stand:

• "WC pans, seats and lids are free of marks and limescale deposit; mirrors are streak-free."
• "Hard floors are free of footprints, halos and grease film; corners and skirtings show no build-up."
• "Bins are emptied and re-lined; no full bag is left on the premises."
• "Contact surfaces — handles, switches, lift buttons — are disinfected after cleaning, respecting the contact time of the product used."

Two practical benefits. Checking becomes binary: the point is met or it isn't. And the contractor keeps freedom over its own method, which is exactly the obligation of result set out in Article 1.

A specification without a means of verification is just an intention. Four tools are enough, and they are light.

1. The on-site log, dated and signed at every visit. This is the basic proof, and its absence makes any discussion impossible.
2. The service checklist, annexed to the contract and worked through point by point. It repeats the states described in Article 4, not the tasks.
3. The supervision visit, at least monthly, with a written report handed to the client. It detects drift as much as it adjusts the plan.
4. Joint inspection, at either party's initiative: the checklist is walked through together on site, gaps are noted, a correction deadline is set.

Three indicators are enough for monthly follow-up: the rate of passes completed, the number of gaps found at joint inspection, and the average correction time after a report. Beyond that, you produce reporting nobody reads.

On a one-off job, the same principle comes down to a single step: a check of the finishes before leaving the premises. What we guarantee after our own visits is published on our guarantees page.

This is the clause that inspires the most confidence and that almost no private contractor in Marrakech agrees to include. Moroccan public-sector special specification documents have always quantified it.

A balanced, enforceable wording:

"Any pass not carried out and not made up within 48 working hours gives rise to a deduction of 2% of the monthly fee. Any gap found at joint inspection and not corrected within the agreed deadline gives rise to the same deduction, per finding. The cumulative deduction over a month is capped at 10% of the monthly fee."

Three reasons to include it, even if you never apply it:

• It sorts candidates. A contractor who refuses any penalty is telling you it doesn't control its own production.
• It turns a complaint into a procedure. You no longer have to raise your voice: you apply a clause.
• Its real cost is low and its signal is strong. The cap protects the contractor and makes it acceptable.

A matching counterpart must exist: a written payment deadline, and the client's commitment to provide access, water, electricity and a lockable room for equipment. Without that room, the equipment leaves at every visit, which lengthens the intervention and feeds through to the price.

Three clauses, often rushed, that nonetheless decide what happens in eighteen months.

Price revision. A twenty-four-month contract crosses at least one rise in the legal minimum wage. Without a clause, the contractor absorbs the increase until it degrades the service. Wording:

"Prices are set on the basis of the legal minimum wage in force at the date of signature. In the event of a statutory revaluation, they are revised as of right on the same date, in proportion to the wage share of the contract, on written notice accompanied by the official text. No other revision applies during the term."

This clause protects the client as much as the contractor: it closes the door to any other request for an increase.

Term and notice. Always symmetrical. A sixty-day notice on one side must be sixty days on the other. And set a three-month-out alert from signature: a twelve-month contract is renegotiated in month ten, not month twelve.

Reversibility. This is the forgotten clause. It organises the end: return of keys and badges against a receipt, handover of the log and the inspection history, removal of equipment and products within eight days, and continuation of service for the full notice period, including in the event of a disputed termination. Without it, a contract ending leaves a building unmaintained for several weeks.

Choosing the contractor itself is covered in our article on choosing a cleaning contractor in Marrakech.

For your premises, EPUREVA works on a one-off basis, with prices shown including VAT: office glass on the inside face at 15 MAD/m² incl. VAT of glass faces, with a 500 MAD incl. VAT minimum, and post-construction cleaning of offices or a commercial unit at 20 MAD/m² incl. VAT on standard tiles or 30 MAD/m² incl. VAT on other floors, with a 3,000 MAD incl. VAT minimum.

These prices are indicative and confirmed after photos or a visit; details are on the offices and retail post-construction page, and requests are made here, with no commitment.