Choosing a garden maintenance company for your strata scheme is one of the more consequential decisions a committee makes — and one of the most frequently rushed. Someone moves, a new committee is elected, the current contractor has been unreliable, or the strata manager passes on a recommendation and suddenly there’s pressure to have someone booked by next week.

The problem with making this decision quickly is that it tends to optimise for the wrong things. The cheapest quote. The first person who calls back. The one a committee member’s neighbour uses. These aren’t inherently bad starting points — but they’re not a systematic evaluation either.

A strata garden maintenance contract in Sydney is typically worth $7,000–$60,000 per year depending on property size. It affects the daily experience of every resident. It has compliance implications under NSW strata law. It determines whether your committee has the documentation it needs when disputes arise. Getting it right is worth taking an extra two weeks to evaluate properly.

Here’s the complete checklist — every question to ask, every document to request, every red flag to watch for.

Before You Start — Your Legal Obligations as a Committee

For committees putting a garden maintenance contract to a vote, it’s worth noting this explicitly in your meeting minutes — that the selection process was conducted systematically and with compliance in mind. This provides committee member protection if the decision is later challenged.

The Complete Committee Checklist — 12 Questions to Ask Every Provider

Use this checklist when evaluating any strata garden maintenance company in Sydney. Ask every provider the same questions in the same order so you can compare responses fairly.

Red Flags — When to Walk Away

After evaluating dozens of providers, here are the warning signs that consistently predict problems down the track:

• They can’t produce an insurance certificate on the spot. Every legitimate business has this document immediately accessible. Delays or excuses suggest either no insurance or expired coverage.
• Their quote doesn’t specify what’s included in writing. A verbal scope agreement with a ballpark number is not a strata maintenance contract. It’s an invitation to invoice disputes.
• They’ve never worked with a strata committee before. Strata maintenance has specific requirements — committee reporting, compliance documentation, working in occupied buildings — that general garden maintenance experience doesn’t prepare you for.
• They work alone with no backup team. A sole trader who gets sick, has equipment failure or takes holidays creates a service gap. For a strata property with common property maintenance obligations, this is a real risk.
• They’re significantly cheaper than every other quote. The cheapest quote almost always means something is missing — insurance, proper equipment, green waste disposal, or the frequency of visits promised. When you’re responsible for common property maintenance, the cheapest option is rarely the best value.
• They can’t describe what they’d do differently in spring vs winter. Basic seasonal horticultural knowledge is essential. If they treat a garden the same in July as in November, your plants will show it.
• They propose a 12-month lock-in contract with penalty clauses. Confidence in their service doesn’t require contractual imprisonment. This structure protects the contractor, not the committee.
• They don’t ask to visit the property before quoting. A meaningful strata garden quote requires a site walkthrough. Quoting from photos or a description alone produces either an underestimate that generates invoice disputes or an overestimate that wastes levy funds.

What Strata Garden Maintenance Actually Costs in Sydney 2026

Price transparency is important — it lets you evaluate whether a quote is reasonable or suspicious. Here are realistic 2026 price ranges for strata garden maintenance across Greater Sydney:

Don’t Overlook the Irrigation — It Matters More Than Most Committees Realise

One of the most common gaps we find when taking over a strata property is the irrigation system. The previous contractor either wasn’t managing it at all, or was managing it informally — adjusting timers occasionally without any system or documentation.

For a strata complex, an unmanaged irrigation system creates three problems simultaneously: it wastes significant water (and the water bill is a common property expense), it either over or under-waters plantings leading to plant losses that are expensive to replace, and it creates compliance risk if the system runs outside Sydney Water restrictions.

When evaluating strata garden maintenance companies, ask specifically:

• Do you include irrigation system checks as part of your regular visits?
• Do you adjust controller programming seasonally?
• Can you service and repair our irrigation system or do you use a separate contractor?
• Are you familiar with Hunter Hydrawise and Rain Bird smart controllers?
• Do you document irrigation system condition in your visit reports?

A company that can handle your irrigation as part of an integrated maintenance program — rather than as a separate callout — provides significantly better value and fewer gaps in your property’s care. Our irrigation services are integrated into every strata maintenance program we manage.

What a Proper Strata Garden Maintenance Contract Should Include

Once you’ve selected a provider, make sure the agreement is in writing and covers these elements before work commences:

Essential Contract Elements

• Fixed monthly price — total cost clearly stated, not an estimate or hourly rate
• Visit frequency — how often visits occur and any seasonal variations (e.g. weekly in spring/summer, fortnightly in autumn/winter)
• Detailed scope of inclusions — every service included in the monthly price listed explicitly: lawn mowing, edging, weeding, hedge trimming frequency, green waste removal, irrigation checks, pathway clearing
• Explicit exclusions — what is not included and how additional work is quoted and approved
• Reporting requirements — photo reports, frequency of delivery, format and recipient
• Insurance certificates — copies of current public liability and workers compensation certificates attached or referenced
• Notice period for cancellation — ideally 30 days, maximum 90 days
• Price review terms — how and when pricing can be adjusted
• Dispute resolution process — what happens if standards aren’t met

Running a Proper Tender or Quote Process — How to Do It

For larger strata properties or properties above a certain expenditure threshold, a formal tender process may be required by your strata by-laws. Even where it’s not required, a structured evaluation process produces better outcomes than informal comparisons.

A Simple 4-Step Evaluation Process

Step 1 — Site inspection first. Invite shortlisted providers to inspect the property before submitting a quote. Any provider who quotes without visiting isn’t giving you a meaningful number.

Step 2 — Provide a written brief. Give each provider the same written brief covering: garden area and type, required visit frequency, specific inclusions you require, reporting expectations and your budget range if you’re willing to share it. This produces comparable quotes rather than apples-and-oranges responses.

Step 3 — Evaluate on a weighted scorecard. Consider weighting your evaluation criteria: insurance and compliance (20%), photo reporting and documentation (20%), strata-specific experience (20%), references (20%), price (20%). This prevents a cheap quote from winning purely on price when it fails on everything that matters.

Step 4 — Call at least two references. Not email — call. Ask specifically about communication, documentation quality and what happens when something goes wrong. The references a company provides should be their best relationships — if those references are lukewarm, take note.