Property maintenance

This guidance provides tips for property maintenance, working with a caretaker, and hiring contractors for technical maintenance.

The Property Occupancy Document requires you to keep your school well maintained. Caretakers can do some of the maintenance and some should be done by qualified tradespeople. Both caretakers and contractors performance need to be regularly assessed. Maintenance work can be paid for from the Property Maintenance Grant. 

• Overview
• Types of maintenance
• Reopening schools after COVID-19 Alert Level 4
• Maintenance by your caretaker
• When to use qualified tradespeople (contractors)
• Further information

Overview 

School boards and proprietors are responsible for overseeing their school property maintenance. Regular maintenance keeps schools safe and free from hazards, such as obstructions or falling objects, or potential health risks to students and staff.

Regular maintenance prevents small problems from escalating into big ones needing costly repair. It strengthens the longevity of your school buildings and prevents unnecessary rundown. Maintenance also keeps warranted products up to shape and in manufacturer standards.

Types of maintenance

There are a few types of maintenance you will have to consider for your property: regular, cyclical and specialist/technical. 

Regular maintenance

This includes day-to-day tasks and more general work such as weather damage prevention.

Cyclical maintenance

This is significant maintenance work that schools do on a cycle. The most common examples are long-term projects such as painting the outside of school buildings (usually done every 7–10 years). 

Budgeting for cyclical work 

The cyclical maintenance calculation template and worked examples help calculate how much funding to set aside each year. This must be updated annually to provide to your auditor.

Tools to support calculation of cyclical maintenance provision

Set aside a portion of your Property Maintenance Grant funding every year to build up a fund for repainting the school. Otherwise, you may struggle to cover the substantial cost of painting a school later.

Property Maintenance Grant funding

Long-term maintenance contract

Some boards enter into a long-term maintenance contract for the school’s cyclical maintenance work every year or according to a longer-term plan.

• You need to complete the 10YPP summary maintenance schedule to show when your cyclical maintenance is scheduled. Some long-term maintenance contracts include a financing arrangement. This must be within your school’s borrowing limits and disclosed appropriately in financial statements.

Cyclical capital work

Some major capital items at schools are regularly replaced, such as heating systems, roofing and fit out. You must plan for this from your 5 Year Agreement (5YA) funding.

Specialist or technical maintenance

Some maintenance needs to be done by a qualified tradesperson. The below section details when to use contractors, including what types of work may need to be escalated to a specialist.

Reopening schools after COVID-19 Alert Level 4

Covid-19 reopening property checklist

Use the Property checklist [DOCX, 65 KB] as a starting point for reopening your school after Covid-19 Alert Level 4 to ensure the safety of students and staff.

Maintenance by your caretaker

Your caretaker should be able to do most of your routine maintenance tasks, including cyclical maintenance. But you will need to call in specialists for some more technical maintenance (e.g. boiler systems). If you don't employ a caretaker you may need to employ a person to perform these tasks as needed or allocate duties, such as checking taps, to staff members.

Caretaker checklist

Use the Caretaker checklist [PDF, 699 KB] as a starting point and, with your caretaker, review the listed activities and add tasks that are particular to your school.

Paying caretakers

Caretaker salaries are paid from operational funding.

Equipment and consumables used by the caretaker can be paid for from the Property Maintenance Grant (PMG).

Assessing performance

Regular performance assessments are necessary to ensure:

• the relationship is still working for both the school and caretaker
• issues are being resolved on a timely basis
• any problems with the standard of work are being communicated
• you are getting value for money.

Use the Maintenance Assessment Form (in consultation with your caretaker, contractors and any other relevant staff/people) to assess the performance. Any poor performance or concerns should be escalated to the school leadership team.

Maintenance Assessment Form [PDF, 570 KB]

When to use qualified tradespeople (contractors)

Some maintenance needs to be done by a qualified tradesperson.

  Please note

The PDF forms above and in the table below must be downloaded and saved to your computer before editing.

If you have any questions email: TPHM.WebServices@education.govt.nz

Most maintainable items will come with a manual or set of instructions with maintenance requirements. Other maintenance standards will come under AS/NZ Standards and legislation.(external link)

Your contractors should outline the tasks required for the maintenance work and provide assurances this work is appropriate.

Hiring and paying contractors

It is general best practise to:

• ask for and compare multiple quotes
• compare prices against other recent similar work
• compare prices against your understanding of current market rates (see: Direct Source/Closed Tender Guide [PDF, 139 KB]).

The Ministry’s procurement requirements do not need to be followed for work costing less than $10,000.

Contractors are paid from your Property Maintenance Grant.

Standard maintenance contracts

Download contract templates for ongoing or one-off maintenance work from:

Contracts for maintenance work

Sign-in and out

Keep a Sign-in register [PDF, 57 KB] at reception or the main school entrance. Ensure contractors sign in and out to track who is onsite at any given time.

The detailed register will let you know about the contractors’ safety documentation, whether they have been police vetted, and their training and contact details (see: Police vetting for school property projects).

Assessing contractor performance

Regular performance assessments are necessary to ensure:

• the relationship is still working for both the school and contractors
• issues are being resolved on a timely basis
• any problems with the standard of work are being communicated
• you are getting value for money.

Use the Maintenance Assessment Form [PDF, 570 KB] (in consultation with your contractors and any other relevant staff/people) to assess their performance. Poor performance or concerns should be escalated to the school leadership team.

Last reviewed: 13 July 2023 Has this been useful? Give us your feedback