The maintenance contract - what it contains and what to check
A serious maintenance contract runs to under two pages and answers five questions: which units, how many times a year, what is done at each visit, how fast someone comes out in an emergency and what is billed separately. Everything beyond that is usually filler.
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About this document
Below is the structure we use, with an explanation of each section. It is not a universal legal template: it is the list of things without which a maintenance contract is useful neither to you nor to us. Check it with your own lawyer before signing.
What the document contains
| Scope of the contract | The exact list of units, with location, type, capacity and serial. Not "the units at the premises": a list, with asset numbers if they exist. |
| Frequency and timing | How many interventions a year and in which months. Wording such as "periodically" means nothing and cannot be enforced. |
| Operations at each visit | A concrete list: removal, collection hood, evaporator wash, fan wash, tray, drain, filters, measurements, test run. This is the section that separates two contracts with the same price. |
| Emergency response time | How many hours from the report until someone is on site, in season and out of season. And what happens if it is not met. |
| What is billed separately | Parts, refrigerant, unclogging that requires dismantling the run, work at height. With prices or with the calculation method. |
| Change in the number of units | What happens if units are added or removed during the year. Best solution: a price per unit, reconciled quarterly. |
| Reporting | Which document you receive after each visit, how quickly, and in what form. A contract with no reporting clause leaves you no evidence. |
| Term and termination | For what period, with what notice it can be ended, and what happens to visits paid for but not carried out. |
Worth remembering
What is most often missing from the contracts we see: a defined emergency response time, a concrete list of operations at each visit, and what happens to the price if the number of units changes during the year.
All documents
- The intervention report - what it must contain
The intervention report is the only proof the work was done and the only basis for comparison year on year. If it only says...
- The annual maintenance schedule
The month the work is done matters. A sanitizing done in March lasts the whole season; one done in August catches the unit...
- The equipment record and the unit inventory
The first visit is not a job, it is an inventory: every unit gets a record with location, brand, model, serial, year of...
- The work acceptance note
At the end of every campaign an acceptance note is signed, with the list of units worked on, what was done and what is still...
Updated: 8 septembrie 2026 · How we work