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Maintenance and Repair

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DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-08-047163-1.00523-3

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Straub A, Maintenance and Repair. In: Susan J. Smith, Marja Elsinga,

Lorna Fox O’Mahony, Ong Seow Eng, Susan Wachter, Heather Lovell,
editors. International Encyclopedia of Housing and Home, Vol 4.
Oxford: Elsevier; 2012. pp. 186–194.

ª 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

 Author's personal copy

Maintenance and Repair

A Straub, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
ª 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Glossary Planned maintenance Maintenance organised and

Corrective maintenance Any maintenance activity carried out with forethought, control, and the use of
which is required to correct a failure that has occurred or records to a predetermined plan.
is in the process of occurring. Preventive maintenance Maintenance carried out at
Degradation Changes over time in the composition, predetermined intervals or to other prescribed criteria
microstructure, and properties of a component of and intended to reduce the likelihood of an item not
material which reduces its performance. meeting an acceptable condition.
Life cycle costs The present value of the total costs of Reactive maintenance Maintenance organised and
a building over its operating life, including initial capital carried out following tenants’ complaints.
costs, occupation costs, operating costs, and the cost Refurbishment Modification and improvements to an
or benefit deriving from disposal of the building at the existing building or its parts to bring it up to an
end of its life. acceptable condition.
Maintenance Combination of all technical and Repair Return of a building or its parts to an acceptable
associated administrative actions during the service life condition by the renewal, replacement, or mending of
to retain a building or its parts in a state in which it can worn, damaged, or degraded parts.
perform its required functions. Service life Period of time after installation during
Performance Qualitative level of a critical property at which a building or its parts meets or exceeds the
any point of time. performance requirements.
Performance criterion Minimum acceptable level of a Void repairs (void work) Maintenance carried out
critical property. during tenancy turnover.

Introduction to retain a building or its parts in a state in which it can

perform its required functions. All building components
Houses are complex man-made artefacts and can only sur­ have during their service lives to contend with degrada­
vive by means of regular reinvestments in maintenance and tion and performance loss through ageing, use, and
adaptation. Maintenance is required to maintain a building’s external causes. The quality of housing is guaranteed by
initial performance capacity. Without maintenance, perfor­ executing the right maintenance activities at the right
mance will not meet the demand and eventually will drop time, preferably ‘just-in time’. This assumes professional
below the limit of acceptance of residents. In practice, both skill and a forward planning of maintenance and repair.
the demand and the limit of acceptance will gradually rise Tenure is decisive for maintenance management of
over time as a result of improved technology, rising stan­ dwellings. There are essential differences between rented
dards, and growing prosperity. Improvement and renewal and owned property, as well as between profit and non­
are required to answer the accordingly rising expectations. profit, and between single and common ownership. Social
As a result, the total life cycle costs will generally be a and institutional landlords are (as a rule) organisations with
multiple of the initial building costs. skilled professionals and a systematic approach to main­
Maintenance is a combination of all technical and tenance but have limited control on usage and care of the
associated administrative actions during the service life dwellings by the inhabitants. Single owner-occupiers

186 ENVIRONMENT
International Encyclopedia of Housing and Home, 2012, Vol. 4, 186-194. DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-08-047163-1.00523-3
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Maintenance and Repair 187

generally lack any proficiency, but have (in principal) full Maintenance and Improvement
control on usage and care. Small landlords in the private
rented sector and condominium owners take a middle Maintenance means the neutralisation of the loss of per­
position, with limited control on usage and care and often formance of a building, to the extent that this loss of
lacking professional maintenance support. performance is acceptable. Whether this loss of perfor­
Social and institutional landlords maintain and improve mance is ‘acceptable’ or not depends, in turn, on the
their stock in a regularly planned way. The outcome of demands set by the owner and/or the user. Over a period
maintaining the quality of dwellings might be a ‘combina­ of time, the gap between the standards demanded by the
tion’ of residential (customer) satisfaction, liveability of the owner and/or user and those provided by the building is
neighbourhood, ecological sustainability, and preservation likely to widen, as shown in Figure 1. However, the
of the value of the built assets. For homeowners, housing is representation is a very simplified one as, in reality, the
an investment and consumption good. From a maintenance relationship between the growth of residents’ requirements
and repair perspective, housing as a consumption good and the deterioration of the performances of a building
seems much more important than as an investment good. (dwelling) is usually nonlinear. Moreover, cleaning activ­
Owners are in general aware of the main disrepair pro­ ities may slow down the deterioration in performance.
blems; however, maintenance and repair is often neglected. Acceptable performance loss and the implementation
A forward planning of maintenance and repair is almost of appropriate maintenance activities depend on legal
nonexistent. There is lack of awareness about the impor­ requirements, technical and functional motives, environ­
tance of maintenance and repair and financial and mental motives, and financial means. Housing
organisational constraints to work away maintenance back­ management organisations may apply different perfor­
logs. Improving the functioning and comfort of a dwelling mance levels to different target groups (such as the
rather than needed technical maintenance to maintain the elderly or students) identified in the asset management,
initial performance capacity is a far greater motivation to assuming that the maintenance policy is related to their
carry out improvements. strategic asset management.

Maintenance Regulations and Legal

Construction Activities Standards

Construction activities for new buildings involve replace­ Technical construction legislation sets the lower limits
ment and additional building. On the contrary, technical for the housing quality level. In any case, dwellings have
(property) management relates to construction activities to satisfy the minimal requirement of national legal stan­
for the existing building stock, that is, the distinctive dards for the existing housing stock. Legal standards
activities of maintenance and improvement. comprise responsibilities for the owners to provide
New construction in most Western countries has faded healthy conditions, construction and fire safety, energy
down below an annual production of 1% of the existing performance, and proper working of installations for the
stock, and often well below. Parallel to this, the ageing supply of water, gas, and electricity, sanitation, space
existing stock draws growing attention. The construction heating, and heating water. Building regulations are
market is facing the shift from new built to improvement enforced by local authorities building control officers.
and the delivering of maintenance services during the Obviously, owner-occupiers are responsible for the
service lives of houses. quality of their home. In the case of housing providers

User requirements
Standard

Improvement
Original Standard

Maintenance

Deterioration

Time
Figure 1 The distinction between maintenance and improvement.
Adapted from Wordsworth P (2001) Lee’s Building Maintenance Management, 4th edn. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Science.

International Encyclopedia of Housing and Home, 2012, Vol. 4, 186-194. DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-08-047163-1.00523-3
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188 Maintenance and Repair

and tenants, the tenants often have some responsibilities, organisations that use public funds. Moreover, national
addressed in the national private law or the rent contract. public procurement rules apply under the European
threshold for public entities in, for example, Belgium
and France. The fundamental principle of public pro­
Decent Homes Standard
curement rules is that the contracts with a budget higher
Each of the devolved administrations in the United than a defined threshold must be opened to a nation-wide
Kingdom has a national housing quality standard: the or EU-wide tender. Key questions are then the extent to
Decent Homes Standard in England and Northern which maintenance jobs reach the thresholds and whether
Ireland, the Welsh Housing Quality Standard in Wales, the maintenance constitutes works or services. While the
and the Scottish Housing Quality Standard in Scotland. methods of tendering for these categories are largely the
The Decent Homes Standard is a technical standard same, different thresholds are involved, meaning that a
for public housing introduced by the UK government in shift in the application of procedures and regulations may
2000, which aimed to provide a minimum standard of occur. Regular planned maintenance, void repairs, and
housing conditions for all those who are housed in the response maintenance in the dwelling may all be consid­
public sector – that is, council housing and housing asso­ ered to be ‘services’, unlike major maintenance and
ciations. The criteria for the standard are as follows: refurbishment, which may be considered to be ‘works’.

• Itformust meet the current statutory minimum standard

housing
Maintenance Processes
• ItIt must
must be in a reasonable state of repair
• It must provide
have reasonably modern facilities and services
Generally maintenance can be divided into preventive
• a reasonable degree of thermal comfort.
and corrective maintenance. Preventive maintenance is
The standard was updated in 2006 to take account of the carried out at predetermined intervals (e.g., time-based or
Housing Act, 2004, including the implementation of the use-based) or to other prescribed criteria (e.g., defects and
Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS). condition) and intended to reduce the likelihood of an
item not meeting an acceptable condition. Corrective
maintenance is any maintenance activity which is
Maintenance in the Dutch Civil Code
required to correct a failure that has occurred or is in
The responsibilities of landlords and tenants in the the process of occurring (see Figure 2).
Netherlands set out in the ‘Besluit kleine herstellingen’ Homeowners and housing providers are free in choos­
[Small repairs decree, 2003], derived from the Dutch Civil ing the appropriate instruments for the asset management
Code (7: 240). In general, tenants are responsible for small and maintenance management being used in maintaining
repairs. Tenants’ obligations regarding maintenance are con­ their house(s). Owner-occupiers reinvest less regularly in
ditional on the accessibility of the building component to be their homes than large property owners. Maintenance is
repaired, and restricted costs relating to the repair. All other mainly reactive and corrective. In several countries con­
repairs fall under the responsibility of the landlord, with the dominium owners are forced to make a preventive
exception of adaptations and additions made by tenants and maintenance planning.
defects that are resolved by tenants. The tenant may ask the Housing management organisations have to decide to
landlord to perform small repairs that fall under the tenant’s. emphasise preventive or corrective maintenance in its
In that case, the landlord is allowed to charge the tenant for maintenance policy and maintenance services.
the costs of making these repairs. In order to stimulate Dutch Normally, the maintenance services are divided into
landlords to perform maintenance, the ‘gebrekenregeling’ three managerial processes as follows:
[arrangements relating to defects] was set up in 1999. This
1. Planned (preventive) maintenance: activities sched­
arrangement enables a rent committee – that is, an indepen­
uled at regular intervals;
dent arbitration board that is in charge of settling disputes
2. Reactive maintenance: realised on residents’ initiatives
between tenants and landlords – to decide on rent decreases
(complaints), often after breakdowns (also called
in the case of a certain defect. These decreases may amount
responsive maintenance or daily maintenance); and
to 20% of the statutory maximum rent. The actual size of the
3. Void repairs: maintenance realised in between tenancy
rent decrease is dependent on the severity of the defects.
periods.
By far, the majority of planned maintenance work is con­
Market Regulations ducted to the exterior of houses. Concurrently, by far the
majority of reactive maintenance is conducted by housing
European public tendering rules for (maintenance) ser­ management organisations inside dwellings. Residents are
vices and works apply to public and private social housing being confronted by the execution of planned (preventive)

International Encyclopedia of Housing and Home, 2012, Vol. 4, 186-194. DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-08-047163-1.00523-3
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Maintenance and Repair 189

Maintenance

Preventive maintenance Corrective maintenance

Predetermined Condition-based
maintenance maintenance

Scheduled or continous Scheduled Deferred Immediate

Figure 2 Maintenance overview.

Adapted from CEN (2001) EN 13306 Maintenance Terminology. Brussels: CEN.

maintenance at their own dwelling, and in case of multi­ maintenance planning, and procurement of the maintenance
family dwellings, the common parts of the building. work are key processes in condition-based maintenance.
Moreover residents are directly involved in reactive main­ Not all (sub)processes are shown in Figure 3. For instance,
tenance (emergency and reactive day-to-day repairs) in the budgeting and budget control are left out.
request of repairs and the set of appointments. Data collected during a condition survey on-site are
Often separate departments of housing management needed for strategic policy-making to underpin the long-
organisations are responsible for construction and main­ term maintenance cost expectations and for maintenance
tenance. In addition, most organisations have separate planning by the maintenance staff.
departments for planned maintenance and for response The short-term maintenance planning leads to main­
maintenance and void work. tenance projects that have to be executed in the following
The strategic asset management and maintenance pol­ year(s). The goals of the housing management organisa­
icy of a housing management organisation should be tion and the characteristics of maintenance services
based on objective, reliable information about the perfor­
mance of housing estates, dwellings, and building
components. Data are required on the technical state of
Inventory
building components, the housing quality (e.g., services,
kitchen), the environmental quality (e.g., use of materials,
energy use, water use, kind of heating system), adaptabil­
ity for changes in housing and environmental quality, and Condition
assessment Inspection report
the realised costs for maintenance and improvements.
Property managers may use a selection of relevant main­
tenance data for policy-making. Long-term
Planning and
calculation maintenance
planning

Planned Condition-Based Maintenance Short-term

Prioritising maintenance
planning
A condition-dependent approach to maintenance leads to
a decoupling of condition assessment from the determi­
nation of maintenance activities and maintenance Maintenance
Procurement
planning. It also provides possibilities for differing perfor­ projects
mances of building components and formulating
performance levels, to control performance and to work
with maintenance contractors in a new manner. Execution of work
The design of the maintenance planning and execution
process is of crucial importance to secure the performance
of the building components. Generally, the process of main­ Final acceptance
tenance planning and execution takes place as shown in inspection
Figure 3. Condition assessment, planning and calculation
of maintenance activities leading to the long-term Figure 3 Maintenance planning and execution process.

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190 Maintenance and Repair

determine the used procurement methods. Generally, a performance of building components is measured indir­
distinction can be made between a prescriptive and a ectly by assessing visual defects. This is done by
nonprescriptive method. Traditionally, housing providers performing a defect assessment. The defect assessment is
tendering maintenance services use a prescriptive, called condition assessment if a rating scale is being used.
detailed specification of the work to be performed. The use of condition marks of building components
Performance-based specification is an alternative to tra­ makes the technical status transferable between building
ditional prescriptive specifications for maintenance. inspectors and property managers. Property managers can
After the procurement process, the work is carried out exercise control over maintenance performance levels
by an external maintenance contractor or by direct and maintenance costs. It also makes the technical status
labour, followed by a final acceptation inspection. The transferable between the maintenance department and
process will start all over again with an inventory of the the department and employees involved in setting up
building components or with a condition assessment. the asset management.

Performance and Defects Dutch Standard for Condition Assessment

As a result of several research projects and the use of the
All building components have to contend with perfor­ method by the Dutch Government Buildings Agency and
mance loss through ageing, use, and external causes. in the Dutch Housing Quality Survey, the process of con­
Performance and performance loss can be seen as the dition assessment using a six-point condition scale has
opposite of degradation and defects. However, this obser­ become popular with property managers, consultants, and
vation is too simple, because the initial performance contractors in the Netherlands. The six-point scale is the
requirements of building components are so many and basis of the standardised method. The condition categories
because the knowledge about performance loss and ser­ are of a chronological order that describes possibly occur­
vice life, and performance loss, degradation, and visual ring defects without references to remedial work. Table 1
defects is limited or unknown for many building compo­ gives the general descriptions of the condition marks.
nents. The relationship between degradation and The condition assessment process follows the pattern in
performance loss could take place according to three Figure 4. The assessing of defects occurs first. Without this
patterns as follows:
1. Performance loss manifests itself as continuously Table 1 Six-point scale (Dutch Standard for
decreasing while degradation continuously increases Condition Assessment)
2. The performance remains constant while degradation
Condition mark General condition description
declines continuously; performance loss is manifest
abruptly 1 Excellent
3. Performance loss and degradation act independently. 2 Good
3 Fair
This distinction is essential to know the turning points in 4 Poor
performance loss and degradation and to determine opti­ 5 Bad
mal points of time for maintenance actions. Under ideal 6 Very bad
circumstances, it would be possible to have the mainte­
nance of a building completely planned into a series of
cleaning and replacement cycles (preventive and ‘just-in­
Building component
time’). If failures have occurred, one has to carry out
repairs (corrective maintenance).

Defect Extent/intensity
Condition Assessment (classification of
importance)

Data collected during a condition survey on-site can be

used for the maintenance planning of each building. Defect score
Supplementary technical information, like the size and
location of defects, is needed for the detailed planning and
executing of maintenance work. Condition mark
Although the actual performance of most building
components can be measured directly, using destructive Figure 4 Condition assessment process: Dutch Standard for
and nondestructive instruments, in practice the Condition Assessment.

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Maintenance and Repair 191

information one could not formulate maintenance activ­ performance loss, the appropriating maintenance activ­
ities and estimate costs. Subsequently, the inspector passes ities, and the needed financial means. Input for the
through the following condition parameters: importance of planning and calculation phase and also the prioritising
defects, intensity of defects, and extent of defects. The phase of condition-based maintenance are the available
extent and the intensity of a defect combined with the budget for maintenance (per building estate) and the
importance of the defect lead to a condition mark, probably desirable quality. In general terms, housing management
with a defect score as an intermediary product. organisations use three quality levels: a basic level, a
The importance of the defect indicates to what extent lower level if a technical intervention of the housing
it influences the functioning of building components. The estate (e.g., refurbishment) in the near future is foreseen,
Dutch Standard for Condition Assessment classifies the and a higher level that is based on the position of the
importance of defects of distinct building components housing estate on the housing market.
into minor, serious, and critical. Critical defects signifi­ The maintenance planning can be adjusted to one of
cantly threaten the function of the building component. these levels through setting requirements for the type of
Serious defects are gradually damaging the performance maintenance activities, the use of materials and the main­
of building components, for example, defects in the mate­ tenance activity cycles, and by setting priorities.
rial surface. Defects to the finishing, for example, coatings, Insufficient budget means priority setting of maintenance
are classified as minor defects. We give an example of the activities. Maintenance activities can be distinguished
defect list for window frames, door frames, windows, and according to the type (cleaning, repair, and replacement),
doors (see Table 2). Important to notice is the fact that for the part of the building component to which an activity
finishing coats a separate defect list exists. applies, the specification of materials, the quantity of the
work, the frequency of short cyclical preventive mainte­
nance actions, and the character of an activity (preventive
Planning and Calculation of Maintenance or corrective).
The planning and calculation of maintenance activities
Formulating maintenance performance levels in planned can occur on the basis of standardised performance levels:
maintenance means deliberating about the maximum the (minimum) condition of building components after
Table 2 Defect list: window frames, door frames, windows, and doors (Dutch Standard for Condition Assessment)

Importance Type Defects

Critical Basic functioning Sealants defect

Be ajar
Leakages
Basic constructional Cramps defect
Material intrinsic Wood rot
Moisture retention
Capillary moisture absorption
Cracks
Cold bridges
Condensation
Basic quality Wrong use of materials
Failing drainage constructive parts
Sharp edges jambs and sills
Serious Minor constructional Distortion
Missing parts
Connections undone
Failing stiffness and stability
Material surface Mechanical damages
Basic quality and ageing of secondary components Ironmongery defects
Failing width windows
Failing outline
Failing putty and sealants glazing and panels
Nonprofessional repairs
Minor Finishing Algal growth, moss
Pollution, surface deposit
Discolouration
Basic quality and ageing of tertiary components Failures secondary fastening
Failures element parts
Defects connections frames and wall

International Encyclopedia of Housing and Home, 2012, Vol. 4, 186-194. DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-08-047163-1.00523-3
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192 Maintenance and Repair

executing maintenance work, for example, by setting a management organisation has to specify performance
lower limit in a condition rating scale and thereby setting requirements for its housing estates. Then the require­
norms for the maximum performance loss. Maintenance ments are specified at the operational level based on
managers are able to do so by forecasting the condition functional statements of the building components, for
status of building components after executing mainte­ example, construction safety, aesthetic performance, and
nance activities, dealing with more and less acceptable energy saving. The performance requirements and the
remaining defects. maintenance budget and exploitation period that apply
To perform efficiently and effectively, the perfor­ to each housing estate are input for the maintenance
mance of a building component after executing contractor. The contractor develops maintenance strate­
maintenance work should be clear. However, general gies within the constraints of performance criteria,
knowledge about maintenance activities and performance maintenance budget, and exploitation period. Initially,
recovery is scarce. After an integral replacement of the contractors need to assess the condition status of the
component, the condition status will be as new. In case of building components to diagnose the causes of deteriora­
partial replacements and repairs, the condition gap and tion and the climate conditions to make recommendations
the performance recovery before and after execution of on the likely success and performance of remedial mea­
the maintenance activity are indistinct. The new condi­ sures. The remedial measures are set down in
tion depends on the solved defects at that particular maintenance scenarios and activity plans, presenting net
moment of time. Cleaning and repainting of surfaces present values of life cycle costs and performance criteria.
does not influence the technical performance of sub­ The result of maintenance is indicated as the perfor­
strates. The degradation will just process more mance of building components. A performance-based
gradually. Nevertheless, the aesthetic performance of a maintenance partnership can be based on the minimum
surface improves. Through a functional material modifi­ performance of building components. To verify the
cation of the building component performance alterations results, a minimum percentage of measurements, taken
take place: the characteristics of the building component at random, should meet the performance criteria. Criteria
change and the original performance capacity increases. are expressed in the properties of defects, such as size,
The short-term maintenance planning leads to main­ percentage, and intensity. Long-term agreements should
tenance projects that have to be executed in the include performance criteria at the start (completion of
following year(s). Condition assessments are not meant work) and at the end of the contract period. In a perfor­
for short-term maintenance planning and drawing up mance-based partnership, the contractors themselves
technical specifications. Supplementary information, measure the achieved performance after completion of
for example, the precise location of the defects and the work and report to the housing management organi­
causes of defects to take adequate maintenance actions, sation. The housing management organisation assesses
is needed in the phase of preparing procurement and the completion of the work and the performance mea­
execution of remedial work. surements undertaken by the contractors. The contractor
is made responsible for the performance of the building
components during a certain period. This implies that the
Maintenance Procurement contractor periodically monitors the degradation pro­
cesses of building components using performance
Maintenance work is being executed based upon a pre­ measurements and reports on the agreed performance
scriptive technical specification or a performance-based criteria to the housing management organisation.
specification. A technical prescriptive specification means
that the throughput of the maintenance contractor is
being described, not the result of the maintenance work. Maintenance Supply
Housing management organisations procure the majority
of planned maintenance projects traditionally through a The supply market for homeowners’ maintenance differs
process of soliciting three to five competitive bids and a lot from the supply marker for professional housing
choosing the lowest one. providers. In the first place a lot of maintenance work is
Performance-based specification is an alternative to done by the homeowners themselves, served by the do-it­
traditional prescriptive specifications for maintenance. yourself market. The illegal ‘black’ market is also quite
The performance-based approach means that mainte­ important. Next, homeowners face problems in selecting
nance contractors no longer act as suppliers of reputable builders. Often, the professional market work­
maintenance work capacity but as active participants in ing for homeowners is far from professional, lacking the
the overall maintenance process. They give advice on needed skills and competences.
maintenance strategies, maintenance scenarios, perfor­ Housing management organisations will carry out the
mance specifications, and activities. First the housing maintenance work by direct labour organisations

International Encyclopedia of Housing and Home, 2012, Vol. 4, 186-194. DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-08-047163-1.00523-3
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Maintenance and Repair 193

(in-house) or contract it out to maintenance suppliers. Residential Satisfaction with

Debates about the benefits of employing tradesmen Maintenance
directly concern financial, managerial, and technical per­
formance as well as ideological arguments. In the An important measurable outcome of maintaining the
Netherlands, housing associations’ own maintenance quality of dwellings for social and institutional landlords
departments are responsible for a small portion of total is residential satisfaction. A way of examining residential
maintenance expenses, being less than 10%. However in satisfaction with maintenance is by measuring the number
the United Kingdom, for example, the market share of and severity of complaints and to examine the scores
direct labour organisations is much greater. given by individual residents on attributes of the quality
The maintenance market is traditionally divided into of service supply. Another way of securing high-quality
multiple sectors like (small) construction work, roofing, service supply is to measure occurrences. For the result of
painting and decorating (including plastering, tiling and maintenance, this is usually done by supervising activities
glazing), heating and ventilation, plumbing and drainage, carried out, particularly in the case of planned mainte­
and electrical. Many small and medium-sized suppliers nance and void repairs. For reactive maintenance it is
operate in the maintenance market. Some are specialised, possible to track crucial moments in the handling of
whereas others combine multiple disciplines. The high complaints, such as the information supply to the resident
degree of fragmentation and lack of transparency in the about the maintenance process.
market hinder the creation of long-term competitive The determinants of service quality by maintenance
advantage. Competition is mainly on costs and on perso­ contractors are directly related to the general determi­
nal contacts with clients, the latter being a condition for nants of service quality, being reliability, responsiveness,
involvement in tenders or being awarded private assurance, empathy, and tangibles (appearance of physical
contracts. facilities, equipment, personnel, and written materials).
The considerable fragmentation is connected with the The determinants of service quality by maintenance con­
low entry barriers to the sectors, which, in turn, are linked tractors are as follows:
to low levels of investment needed for a business start-up.
• Sticking to execution planning agreements
The fact that labour takes a high proportion of the costs
• Provision ofin information
Flexibility making appointments
makes it difficult to achieve economies of scale. The
substantial amount of labour in the process and the rela­
• nance activities before the start of mainte­

tive simplicity of the implementation processes almost

• Evaluation
Resident participation in maintenance through options
preclude improvements in productivity. Furthermore,
• The qualityand service recovery
each customer has different maintenance requirements,
• The competence ofresult
of the of maintenance
which means that adjustments have to be made with every
• Limiting the time taken for the work
maintenance workers
new contract. Certainly in the case of planned mainte­
• Completing maintenance activities in a single visit
nance, almost every contract is unique, which hampers
• Having maintenance workers wear smart uniform
development and the repetition of methods and techni­
ques. Neither may improvements in productivity be
• overalls
allowed to detract from service quality, which cannot be
• Being
The politeness of maintenance workers
taken for granted in view of the front office’s major role in
• Being addressed in the language of the resident
service provision (many workers are in contact with the
residents). Transport costs are another relatively impor­
• complaints to answer questions and receive
available

tant factor in the maintenance process, binding services to

• Limiting
Avoiding damage to personal property
a particular area, and further hampering economies of
• Limiting nuisance caused by noise and vibration
scale. Some sectors are also affected by cyclical and sea­
sonal fluctuations, which is another obstacle to long-term
• work site. and tidying up litter and dust around the

investment. This means that there is no guarantee of

continuity, forcing companies to keep fixed costs low. The most important aspect from the perception of resi­
Finally, many maintenance companies are one-person or dents is ‘the quality of the result of maintenance’,
family businesses, meaning that there are emotional exit followed by ‘the competence of maintenance workers’
barriers in addition to purely commercial ones. Many and ‘completing maintenance activities in a single visit’.
factors thus explain the fragmentation of the sector. The latter implicates that maintenance workers perform
Attempts are sometimes made to erect barriers to entry, their maintenance job without unnecessary rework or
particularly in specialised market sectors. This takes the extra site visits.
form of process certification. Certification acts both as a
barrier to new entrants and a quality guarantee for hous­ See also: Housing Pathology; Private Sector Housing
ing management organisations and homeowners. Management: Europe.

International Encyclopedia of Housing and Home, 2012, Vol. 4, 186-194. DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-08-047163-1.00523-3
 Author's personal copy
194 Maintenance and Repair

Further Reading Straub A (2009) Dutch Standard for Condition Assessment of Buildings.
Structural Survey 27(1): 23–35.
CEN (2001) EN 13306 Maintenance Terminology. Brussels: CEN. Van Mossel JH (2008) The Purchasing of Maintenance Service Delivery
Chanter B and Swallow P (2007) Building Maintenance Management, in the Dutch Social Housing Sector. Delft, the Netherlands: IOS
2nd edn. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing. Press.
ISO 15686 (2000) Buildings and Constructed Assets – Service Life Van Mossel JH and Straub A (2007) Procurement of Dutch housing
Planning. Geneva: ISO. associations’ technical management services: A decision
Straub A (2002) Strategic technical management of housing stock: framework. Property Management 25(5): 487–501.
Lessons from Dutch housing associations. Building Research and Wordsworth P (2001) Lee’s Building Maintenance Management, 4th
Information 30(5): 372–381. edn. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Science.
Straub A (2007) Performance-based maintenance partnering: A
promising concept. Journal of Facilities Management 5(2): 129–142.

International Encyclopedia of Housing and Home, 2012, Vol. 4, 186-194. DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-08-047163-1.00523-3
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