How to avoid costly blunders with a property maintenance plan

Meet Bob. Bob manages a retirement village complex and sees to its daily operations and general maintenance.

Unfortunately, Bob is heading for a property maintenance bungle:

Bob's property maintenance mistakes: 

A property maintenance plan is crucial for the general upkeep of any property. This is no less true for a retirement village complex. Bob is making a number of key mistakes. If you want to be like him and neglect your complex until it is also in complete disrepair then be sure to:

• Live by the old adage, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. Until it leaks, falls over, peels, caves or sinks in, just completely ignore it.

• Don’t inspect your buildings and grounds regularly to find out what your maintenance requirements might be. Don’t develop a maintenance plan. Instead, leave all maintenance and repair work until it becomes an absolute emergency.

• Don’t keep maintenance records of work completed. Don’t document the dates of a maintenance job’s completion, or the time that it took to complete the job. Remain in the dark about appropriate resources and time that you will need to allocate to similar jobs.

• Don’t keep a maintenance log of those areas on your property that need to be watched for potential deterioration. Use the hard copy of your maintenance plan to make paper boats instead.

• Oversee your property maintenance from a comfortable desk; don’t ever tour the grounds or get stuck into the practical work yourself.

• Fail to provide your property maintenance supplier with all the necessary information to get the job done, says. Don’t bother to get the property ready for your contractor and don’t notify residents about the work to be done either.

• Don’t worry about your budget or whether you have enough money to pay a contractor to fix your property. Just hire someone and when the money runs out, just tell them to wrap up their maintenance work and then leave.

• Ignore Health and Safety regulations – they are boring anyway.

• If it’s hard to reach, turn a blind eye. Avoid even looking at those places that are hard to access. Awkward nooks and crannies, difficult to reach parts of a building, or spider or rodent-infested areas – best you ignore these completely.

• Don’t consult with the Trustees or the residents about anything that you plan to do on the property. Just do it (or don’t do it) and ask for forgiveness later.
  

Vinnie's winning property maintenance plan:

Vinnie on the other hand has a sterling maintenance plan, which he has discussed with his property maintenance supplier(s), so the buildings in his retirement village complex look great!

An effective maintenance plan should include a long view of the maintenance needs of your retirement village. Unlike Bob, Vinnie chooses to involve an external commercial property maintenance supplier to do the actual painting and maintenance work at his retirement village. He has carefully selected a contractor to execute his property maintenance plan who first does a comprehensive site audit (before sending through a budget proposal) and who has helped him with selecting the most appropriate maintenance solution for his property. Vinnie has set his maintenance budget for the year and is working with a tailored payment and property maintenance plan.

In short, when it comes to effective property maintenance planning, don’t be like Bob; be like Vinnie.

Managing a retirement village with multiple living units and facilities is a mammoth task and at times you're going to need outside help. When you do, it's important to choose wisely. Download our guide to choosing the best maintenance contractor for your retirement village today.

Higgins Coatings is Australia's premier commercial painting contractor with over 70 years of experience in providing a cost-effective painting service and tailored maintenance solution. We help strata managers plan their painting requirements and execute them with minimal disruption to residents. Contact us today for a quote.