Being in charge of facilities maintenance is no joke. Strata residences and commercial properties can keep you busy all year round, unless you plan smartly. Thankfully, with some forethought and an industry hack or two, it’s fairly easy to get your commercial building maintenance portfolio running like clockwork.
In this blog post you’ll find industry-insider tips that will help you plan your next commercial building maintenance project efficiently, on time and within budget.
Know how to manage expectations
Tenants often consider maintenance a hassle. And some may even fail to see the value of proactive maintenance at all — which from their perspective, may look like you’re fixing something that isn’t broken.
Managing their expectations about the work that needs to be done let’s them know what to expect and why. This helps maintain a positive atmosphere and if something goes wrong or someone is inconvenienced, you’ll be less likely to deal with complaints. It can be as simple as letting them know what’s planned (including start and end dates), why it’s important and what the impact on their schedules will be.
For more on commercial building maintenance services offered by licensed contractors and how it may impact your schedule, check out our building maintenance services.
Invest in commercial property management software
Managing multiple properties, each with multiple office and/or retail spaces involves keeping track of a huge amount of information. From transactional deals, to laws and regulations to maintenance schedules — each building or space may be on its own timeline.
Investing in commercial property management software will help you keep details in order and make informed decisions about the property/space and its maintenance needs. Your program will help you track everything from rental income rates to work orders for maintenance and scheduled clean ups, appointments or inspections.
Know when to prioritise long-term partnerships over once-off projects
You wouldn’t marry someone you’ve just met, and similarly, it’s unwise to sign a long-term retainer with a building maintenance company without having researched them properly. This could even mean getting them in for a once-off project first, before bringing them on board more regularly.
While once-offs are useful for emergencies, or to trial a partnership, long-term retainers have significant benefits when it comes to strata and commercial building maintenance. Outsourcing to an all-in-one company that offers a full-suite of building maintenance solutions can be the most efficient. They’ll be able to solve almost any maintenance-related problem on site, and get to know the particular demands of the property and its inhabitants to ensure they cause minimal disturbance.
Related: Get the details and weigh up the pros and cons of long-term building maintenance contracts versus once-off projects, in this blog post.
Why you need to draw up a maintenance schedule
Preventative maintenance schedules with a long-term contractor can be your building maintenance dream come true. Drawing up an annual maintenance plan will help you budget more accurately, and minimise the need for emergency repairs. And remember to include everything you may need to do over the year, from balcony repairs to electrical work, refurbishments, landscaping, flooring and painting — review every aspect of building maintenance applicable to your property over the 12-month period.
Getting contractors in to take care of it all for you makes keeping up to date on property maintenance something you’ll only have to think about when they need sign-off to repair an unexpected problem, as the bulk of decision-making and budgeting would have been handled when signing off the plan.
Tackle your building maintenance portfolio with a long-term service retainer run by a trusted company and keep your properties in top shape. To see how cost-effective it can be, contact us for a free, no-obligation quote.
