Building maintenance log: what it must contain and how to keep it

The maintenance log is required, rarely up to date, and yet it is the only document telling the technical story of the building. Here is how to keep it without losing a Sunday.

Ask to see your building's maintenance log. In most condo associations it comes out of a binder, stops three years back, and mentions neither last year's facade work nor the boiler replacement.

That is a shame, because it is the only document that gives a buyer, a new board or a contractor the real state of the building. An empty log is paid for twice: in surveys needlessly redone, and in works decided without knowing what has already been tried.

What the log must contain

The log is kept by the property manager and open to owners. Its contents cover the identity of the association and its technical history.

1. Identification of the association: address, current property manager, association references.
2. References of the building insurance policies and their renewal dates.
3. The year major works were carried out — facade, roof, heating, lift — with the contractors involved.
4. References of maintenance contracts in force, and their expiry.
5. Where they exist: the multi-year works schedule and the technical surveys carried out.

The board's four checks

The board does not keep the log, but it is best placed to notice that nobody else is. Four checks, once a year, are enough.

• Do this year's works appear, with the contractor and the year?
• Have expired contracts been updated or removed?
• Are recent surveys attached?
• Is the log genuinely available for consultation, and in what form?

Gaps are raised in writing, with a date — the same method as for reviewing the accounts — and the answers feed the condo board annual report.

An up-to-date maintenance log means works decided on evidence rather than on guesswork.

Why it is never up to date

The cause is always the same: the log is filled in after the fact, once a year, from recollections and invoices dug out. Nobody records a pump replacement on the day it happens, and the information is lost twelve months later.

The remedy is a single habit: record the call-out as it happens, with its date, its contractor and a photo. That is exactly what an issue log kept as you go achieves, and what the works tracking table adds for projects.

The log as the board's memory

When the board changes, the log should be the first document handed over. It rarely is, because it does not exist in a shareable form — see how to run a successful handover.

With CoproHarmony, call-outs, contracts, quotes and documents are recorded with their date as they arrive. Feeding the maintenance log becomes an extraction rather than a reconstruction. Create your space for free.

One document belongs with it and is very often missing: the asbestos technical file.

Two records belong with it and are often missing: the collective energy assessment and the global survey described in survey or works plan.