Every spring we get the same phone call from North Sydney, St Leonards and Bondi Junction. Someone's final inspection is in four days, the agent's email says "windows to be cleaned inside and out", and the building manager has already told them nobody is allowed to lean over the balcony with a squeegee. Window cleaning at the end of lease in a strata apartment in Sydney sits in an awkward gap between three parties who all think it's someone else's job: you, the owners corporation, and whoever your agent imagines does this sort of thing. Our crews work that gap most weeks, so here's how it actually resolves — and what our end of lease cleaning across Sydney does and doesn't include on the glass.
Short version: we clean everything we can reach safely and legally. Above about level two, exterior glass is a building-wide job on a strata schedule, and no reasonable agent can hold your bond over it. The trick is proving that in writing before the inspection, not arguing about it afterwards.
What does "windows inside and out" actually mean in a high-rise lease?
The standard NSW residential tenancy agreement doesn't say "clean the exterior of your 14th-floor glass". What it says, in effect, is leave the premises reasonably clean given fair wear and tear. Agents then paste a generic cleaning schedule into the vacate email — usually one written for houses — and "windows inside and out, tracks and sills" comes along for the ride.
In a tower, "out" has three different meanings depending on where the pane sits:
- Balcony-facing glass: sliding doors and windows you can stand in front of on your own balcony. This is yours. We clean it, every time, and agents absolutely do check it.
- Street or harbour-facing glass with no balcony: fixed panes, highlight windows, anything you'd have to hang out of to reach. Not yours, not ours, not safely cleanable from inside.
- Common property glass: lobby doors, stair landings, the glazing on your corridor side. Strata's, always.
Under NSW strata law, the external face of a window is generally common property, and the owners corporation carries the duty to maintain and keep it clean. Most buildings in Crows Nest, Milsons Point and the Bondi Junction towers run a full external glass clean once or twice a year through an abseil contractor. Your job is to find out when the last one was.
Where does a bond cleaner stop on the glass?
Our rule is simple and it's a Safe Work NSW rule, not a preference. No cleaner stands on a balcony rail. No cleaner leans their torso over a balustrade with a bottle of glass cleaner. No ladder gets set up on a balcony slab above ground level. We've turned down jobs where the tenant genuinely expected someone to sit on the outside of a 9th-floor rail in St Leonards because "the last guy did it". The last guy was gambling with his life and the building's insurance.
What we do cover on a strata exit clean:
- All internal glass, including mirrors and splashbacks
- Exterior face of any window or slider reachable with both feet flat on a balcony or courtyard
- Window tracks vacuumed then wet-wiped — the single most flagged glass item on exit reports
- Sills, reveals, frames and the rubber seals where mould collects
- Flyscreens brushed down and reseated, or noted as damaged if they already were
- Balcony balustrade glass, both faces where safely reachable from inside the balcony
- Water-fed pole work on ground and first-floor exteriors where access allows
Tracks matter more than people expect. In Bondi Junction, salt-laden air turns window track grit into a grey paste that smears the moment you wipe it dry — the same film we deal with on shopfront glass in Bondi Junction and Double Bay. Vacuum first, always, or you'll just spread it along the sill.
Pro tip: photograph your exterior glass the week you give notice, with the date visible. If strata's last abseil clean was eight months ago and the panes are already hazed with salt or construction dust, that photo is your proof the haze isn't yours. We've seen it settle a deposit argument in one email.
What do North Sydney and St Leonards strata by-laws say about window access?
Most newer buildings along the Pacific Highway corridor — the post-2015 St Leonards towers especially — have a by-law that bans any work at height on a lot's balcony without a signed contractor induction and a current SWMS. Some also ban rope access from private balconies entirely, meaning even a licensed abseiler can't drop past your lot without building manager sign-off and anchor point certification.
Practically, that means:
- Email your building manager when you give notice. Ask two things: when was the last external window clean, and when is the next one scheduled.
- Forward that reply to your property manager before the inspection, not after.
- If the next clean is months away and the glass looks bad, ask strata whether a lot owner can arrange a one-off at their own cost. Some buildings allow it through their approved contractor. Many won't.
Older walk-ups change the maths completely. A 1960s red-brick three-storey in North Sydney with awning windows is often fully cleanable from inside, because the sashes swing in far enough to reach the outer face. We treat those much like the sash and casement windows in Potts Point and Elizabeth Bay art deco walk-ups — slower, fiddlier, but no height exemption applies and the agent will expect the lot of it done.
How much does exterior window cleaning cost in 2026?
Interior glass and reachable exteriors are baked into our exit clean price. Dedicated external work is a separate trade with separate insurance, so here's the honest range across the Lower North Shore and Eastern Suburbs as at November 2026:
| Job | Who does it | Typical 2026 cost |
|---|---|---|
| Internal glass, tracks, sills, balcony-reachable exteriors | Your bond cleaner | Included in the exit clean |
| Ground or 1st-floor exterior, water-fed pole | Bond cleaner or window specialist | $90–$180 per apartment |
| Townhouse / 2-storey exterior, ladder access | Window specialist | $180–$350 |
| High-rise exterior, rope access (per lot share) | Strata's abseil contractor | $40–$120 per lot, billed to the levy |
| One-off EWP (cherry picker) for a single lot | Specialist, strata approval needed | $900–$2,200 — rarely worth it |
That last row is why we talk people out of it. Nobody should spend $1,400 on a boom lift to protect a $2,800 bond when a two-line email from the building manager does the same job. If you want the full picture on what the clean itself runs, our end of lease pricing and instant estimate breaks it down by bedrooms rather than by guesswork, and there's a reason the same 2-bedder costs more in Bondi Junction than Chatswood.
Why is harbour-view glass the hardest to get right?
Salt spray plus western afternoon sun is a nasty combination. On the Milsons Point and Kirribilli side, and anywhere in the Bondi Junction ridge with an ocean aspect, airborne salt bonds to glass and then bakes on. Ordinary glass cleaner lifts the top layer and leaves a milky ghost that only shows up at 4pm, which is conveniently about when agents schedule inspections.
What works: a dilute vinegar or citric solution first to break the mineral bond, then a proper squeegee pass with a soapy mop, then a dry buff with a waffle-weave microfibre. Honestly, skip the supermarket spray-and-wipe for salt film — it's mostly surfactant and it'll streak. Our crews carry deionised water for the final pass on view-facing glass in coastal postcodes, which is why those panes dry clear instead of spotted.
Two more harbour-specific traps. Aluminium frames on older units pit and chalk — that white powdery residue isn't dirt and it won't come off, so don't let it get written up as uncleaned. And balcony balustrade glass picks up a grey tide line at the base from runoff; it needs the same mineral treatment as the windows, not a quick wipe.
What happens if the agent flags the windows anyway?
It happens. An inspector ticks "windows not cleaned externally" from a template, and suddenly you're staring at a $250 deduction for something you were never permitted to touch. Three moves, in order:
First, send the building manager's email confirming external glass is common property and on the strata schedule. Second, send your dated photos. Third, if the agent holds firm, note that under the Residential Tenancies Act you're liable for cleanliness of the premises, and the outer face of a common property window isn't part of your lot. Most agents fold at step one. If yours doesn't, the process for disputing a bond deduction for cleaning in NSW through NCAT is more straightforward than people assume, and these claims rarely survive scrutiny.
Where the flag is genuinely ours — a missed track, a smeared slider, a sill we rushed — that's a different conversation. We come back within 72 hours and re-clean it free, no argument and no invoice. That's the whole point of the guarantee, and glass is one of the more common callbacks because it shows every mistake in raking light.
How should you plan the glass around your inspection date?
Sequence matters. Clean the windows too early and a single Sydney southerly will throw salt and leaf litter back onto them. Too late and you've got no buffer if something's wrong.
- Week before notice ends: email the building manager about the external clean schedule. Takes two minutes.
- Two days before handover: the full exit clean, glass included, after furniture is out and carpets are done. Wet carpets plus window work means footprints.
- Morning of inspection: walk the apartment at the time of day the inspection is booked, with the light coming in. Streaks are invisible at 9am and obvious at 4pm.
If your building also needs the carpets receipted, book both on the same day so the drying window and the glass work don't collide. Our full room-by-room free bond clean checklist sets out the order we work in, and it's the same order we'd suggest if you were doing it yourself.
One last thing worth saying for anyone in a tower: the glass is rarely what loses a bond. Oven racks, shower screens, tracks and skirtings do far more damage to exit reports than a hazy pane twelve floors up. Get those right and the window conversation usually never starts.
Moving out of North Sydney, St Leonards, Crows Nest or Bondi Junction this season? Send us your building name and floor and we'll tell you exactly which panes we'll be cleaning before you book — get a fixed-price quote from our team and we'll sort the strata question with you.
More on this: End of Lease Cleaning in Sydney.
