Contracts · Published 26 March 2026 · 7 min read
Most FM contracts that fail were already failing by day ninety. The signals are visible much earlier than people think.
Contracts rarely collapse in year three. They start badly, everyone is too busy to say so, and eighteen months later the relationship is beyond repair over something that could have been fixed in week two.
What should happen before you sign
A survey of every building, not a sample, and a written condition report you keep regardless of whether you appoint the supplier. A survey you have to pay for is a survey designed to end in a sale — it makes walking away expensive, which is the point of charging for it.
The first ninety days
- Days 1–14: a mobilisation plan with dates and owners, and named contacts with direct numbers. TUPE consultation started where staff transfer.
- Days 1–30: the asset register verified on site, and cleaning and maintenance specifications written down.
- Days 15–45: systems live, helpdesk number published, keys and access transferred under an audited handover.
- Days 30–90: compliance gaps found at survey worked through, first audits run, first monthly report issued.
Warning signs, in the order they appear
- No named individuals — you have a company and an inbox rather than a contracts manager with a direct line.
- The asset register is the one you supplied, unverified. Nobody has walked the plant rooms.
- The specification is still "being finalised" a month in.
- The first monthly report is late, or arrives with no numbers in it.
- Reactive jobs are closed without evidence — no photographs, no times, no engineer named.
- Bad news only ever reaches you from a tenant.
Any one of these is recoverable if raised early. The reason they usually are not is that the client has just been through a procurement exercise and does not want to conclude, six weeks later, that it went wrong. That instinct is understandable and it is expensive.
What to do about it
Put the ninety-day plan in the contract with the outputs named, and hold a review at day thirty rather than day ninety. Thirty days is early enough to fix a mobilisation. Ninety is early enough to know it failed.