Compliance · Published 14 July 2026 · 6 min read
Most PPM schedules we inherit are a list of visits with no asset register behind them. Here is what a real one contains.
Planned preventative maintenance is work done to a schedule to stop equipment failing, rather than work done after it has. The idea is uncontroversial. The execution is where contracts go wrong, because a PPM schedule is only as good as the asset register underneath it — and most of the registers we inherit stopped being true several years before we arrived.
It starts with an asset register, not a calendar
A schedule that says "quarterly HVAC service" is not a schedule. It is an intention. A usable register records what is actually on site: plant, make, model, serial, location, age and condition. Until that exists, nobody can say whether a visit covered everything or half of it.
This is the single most common gap we find at survey. The building has had maintenance visits for years, and nobody can produce a list of what was maintained.
Where frequencies come from
Three sources, in this order of authority:
- Statutory requirement — where the law or an approved code of practice sets the interval. Water hygiene monitoring under ACOP L8, LOLER thorough examination on lifting equipment, fixed wire testing, fire alarm and emergency lighting testing.
- Manufacturer's schedule — usually the basis for warranty, and the fallback where no statutory interval applies.
- Condition — an asset near end of life may justify more frequent attention than either of the above suggests.
What a schedule should let you see
- Every asset, with its own history rather than a history filed by invoice
- What is due in each of the next twelve months, so you can see the workload before it arrives
- What was actually done on each visit, with the engineer, the time on site and the readings taken
- The certificate for any statutory task, attached to the asset it relates to
- What is overdue, visible without having to ask
Questions worth asking before you sign
- Will you verify the asset register before quoting, or price from the list we already have?
- What happens in month one if the survey finds compliance gaps — is remedial work inside the contract or extra?
- Who holds the statutory duty, and what exactly are you evidencing on our behalf?
- Can I see the schedule twelve months ahead without requesting a report?
- How is an asset reaching end of life flagged, and how far in advance?
The last one matters more than it looks. Capital surprises are almost always a planning failure rather than bad luck, and a contractor who cannot tell you what is about to fail is not managing your estate — they are attending it.