How do we plan preventative maintenance instead of just reacting to problems?
Quick answer
Use the compliance register and maintenance history together to anticipate recurring items — services, inspections and ageing assets — rather than waiting for something to fail before it becomes a job.
Key takeaways
- Reactive maintenance tends to cost more than planned maintenance over time
- Compliance due dates and job history together highlight recurring items worth planning for
- Funding a capital works plan is a budgeting exercise handled in full Strata Pages, not Flex Strata
Reactive maintenance is more expensive over time than planned maintenance, mostly because problems caught early are cheaper to fix than problems caught after they've caused secondary damage.
Why committees end up reactive
Without a shared view of what's coming up, maintenance naturally becomes a response to complaints rather than a plan. Nobody notices a lift service is overdue until it breaks down, or that the roof hasn't been inspected in years until a leak appears.
Building a lighter-weight plan
- Use compliance register due dates (essential services checks, and similar recurring obligations) as anchor points for a maintenance calendar
- Track recurring items — gutters, common area painting, lift servicing — even if there's no formal legal requirement attached
- Review the maintenance board's closed job history periodically to spot repeat issues that might indicate an underlying problem worth addressing properly rather than patching repeatedly
A sensible starting point
Most committees don't need a formal, funded long-term maintenance plan to get real value from planning ahead — even an informal list of "things we know are coming" reviewed once or twice a year meaningfully reduces surprises. Larger or older schemes may separately commission a formal capital works or maintenance plan through their manager or a specialist, which is a bigger exercise than day-to-day maintenance tracking.
What this doesn't cover
Funding preventative maintenance — setting aside a capital works fund, budgeting for large future items — is a budgeting exercise that sits with the full Strata Pages product, not Flex Strata. Flex Strata's role is tracking the jobs and compliance dates that inform that planning, not managing the fund itself.
Where recurring items live
Compliance items with a due date sit in the compliance register; one-off and recurring maintenance jobs sit on the maintenance board. Reviewing both together, rather than in isolation, gives the fullest picture of what's coming.
Related questions
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