How to Read a Maintenance Contract Before You Sign It

An annual maintenance contract is a year-long commitment, and most people read the price and the visit count and sign. The clauses that decide whether it was worth it are further down.

This applies to our contracts as much as anyone's. If a contractor is uncomfortable answering these, that is information.

1. What exactly is covered — by asset, not by category

"AC maintenance" is not a scope. How many units? Indoor only, or outdoor as well? Does it include the ductwork? What about the FCU in the corridor nobody thinks about?

Ask for an asset list attached to the contract. If the contractor cannot produce one, they have not surveyed the property properly, and the first dispute will be about whether something was ever in scope.

2. Labour only, or parts as well?

This is the single biggest variable in AMC pricing and the one customers are most often surprised by.

Most contracts cover labour. Parts are usually extra. Some tiers include consumables — filters, belts — but exclude components. Very few include major components such as compressors and pumps, and the ones that do are priced accordingly.

Ask: are filters included? Are capacitors and contactors included? At what point does a part become "major"?

3. The exclusions list

Every contract has one. Read it before the inclusions, because it is more informative.

Standard exclusions: pre-existing faults at the start date, damage from misuse or third-party work, equipment already at end of life, improvement and renovation work, and anything caused by failure to follow the contractor's recommendations.

That last one matters. If a report recommends a repair and you defer it, the consequences of that deferral usually fall outside cover.

4. What happens at the survey

A contractor who quotes a contract without seeing the property is guessing, and the guess gets corrected later — either through excluded items you did not expect, or through a renewal price that jumps.

The survey should tell you upfront which assets are excluded because of their condition. Finding that out during a breakdown is the worst possible time.

5. Response times, and how they are defined

"Priority response" means nothing on its own. Ask:

• What response time, for what priority of fault?
• How is priority defined, and who decides?
• Does response mean attendance, or a phone call?
• Does it change in summer — and if not, how is that guaranteed when every customer fails in the same three months?

An honest answer to the last question is worth more than an unrealistic number.

6. Visit scheduling

Four visits spread evenly is worse than four visits weighted correctly. In Al Ain, the important work lands February to April, before inland temperatures climb into the forties. A schedule that services the AC in September has done the right work at the wrong time.

Ask when the visits fall, not just how many there are.

7. Reporting

You should receive, after every visit: what was done, readings taken, anything found, and a prioritised list of recommended work with indicative costs.

Without that, you cannot tell whether the contract is doing anything, and you have no basis for next year's budget.

8. Term, notice and renewal

• What is the term, and what notice ends it?
• Does it auto-renew?
• Is the renewal price fixed, capped, or open?
• What happens if you sell the property?

Auto-renewal at an uncapped price is the clause most likely to annoy you in eighteen months.

9. Who actually attends

In-house staff or subcontracted? Neither is wrong. A vague answer is. You are buying a relationship with people who learn your building, and that only works if the same firm keeps turning up.

10. Licence and insurance

Trade licence, and public liability cover with a stated level. Ask to see both. Any legitimate contractor produces them without hesitation.

The short version

Ask for: the asset list, the exclusions list, the parts position, the visit schedule with dates, the response definition, and the renewal terms. Six documents-worth of clarity, and they take one conversation.

Our approach is set out on annual maintenance contracts.

Related: does a contract actually save you money? · how to choose a maintenance company