Long Term Maintenance Plans
Long Term Maintenance Plans (LTMPs) are an essential tool for any asset manager, property manager, facilities manager, building owner or building occupier. Whether your interest in a commercial property is as an investment or a fundamental part of your business operation, the best way of maximising the asset’s performance is through a long term maintenance plan.
What are the different approaches to maintenance?
Property maintenance tends to fall into one of two categories:
Reactive Maintenance
This is the default strategy, whereby maintenance work is only undertaken when it is patently necessary – i.e. repairing a roof leak. Reactive maintenance often appears to be cheaper, as repairs can be the minimum necessary to correct the defect, so don’t require larger annual budgets. Expenditure is also easier to justify, as there will always be a clear requirement for the works, and frequently the works will be urgent. Unfortunately this strategy also comes with a number of risks:
Expenditure is not foreseeable, so there is the potential for large and unplanned expenditure to be required.
The occurrence of defects, and therefore expenditure, cannot be predicted, so requires funding to be found from alternative sources, again often on an urgent basis.
The risk of business interruption is also high, with defects preventing the property from operating as required while repairs are actioned. This can be costly for businesses operating within the properties, or result in a reduction of rental income for landlords.
A lack of maintenance can lead to unseen defects – for example weathertightness issues – which damage the property but cannot immediately be seen. The repairs once the defects are discovered are then likely to be more expensive to rectify.
Procuring urgent remedial works is the least effective way of getting good value, as it limits the opportunity to test the market, or plan the works in advance.
Planned Maintenance
The alternative to this is a planned maintenance strategy, which allows the owner/occupier to forecast maintenance works, and undertake them within a set budget and at a time when any impact on the operation of the property can be managed and minimised. This has the following benefits:
Supports predictable financial planning, reducing the risk of unexpected expenditure.
Minimises the likelihood that defects will impact the performance of the property.
Allows works to be procured in a timely manner – allowing sufficient time to explore design and cost options to suit your exact requirements.
Prioritise maintenance works that complement your business strategies, e.g. through attracting tenants, environmental/ESG/sustainability improvements, and increased asset value.
What is a Long Term Maintenance Plan?
A Long Term Maintenance Plan is the backbone of a good planned maintenance strategy, scheduling out the repair and maintenance work required over a given period (typically 5-10 years) in order to allow for proper planning, budgeting and delivery, ensuring the condition and performance of the built asset.
How can Pinnacle help?
Pinnacle Building Consultancy has extensive experience delivering long term maintenance plans, and Ollie helped author the RICS Professional Statement for Planned Preventative Maintenance. Our approach has a particular focus on ensuring our reports achieve exactly what our clients need from them – too often we have seen LTMPs deliver so-called maintenance strategies which do not come near a realistic budget, nor do they give the end-user sufficient advice regarding how to prioritise or deliver the works.
We have bespoke formats that can be altered to suit your specific needs – either on an individual property basis or for a whole property portfolio. The latter allows you to get an overview of your entire portfolio, both from a condition and expenditure perspective, which in turn facilitates budget planning across the portfolio of assets. See our separate page for Body Corporate LTMPs.
LTMPs should not be considered a one-off service – they work best when frequently reviewed and adjusted. Depending on the asset, this can be quarterly, six monthly, or annually. The benefits in maintaining it as a live document are significant in ensuring the maximum benefit from your asset condition and expenditure.
At Pinnacle we are also experienced in designing, procuring and project managing your maintenance work, so can assist you with delivering the agreed programme of work.