/resources/planned-vs-reactive-maintenance-strata
Planned maintenance vs reactive maintenance, and why the balance drives strata budgets.
Every strata building runs on a mix of planned and reactive work. The ratio between them is the strongest signal of how well the building is being stewarded, and the variable most directly tied to special-levy risk.
Resources/Maintenance
What is planned maintenance, and what is reactive maintenance
Planned maintenance, defined
Planned maintenance is work scheduled before failure. It includes the annual fire safety certification, the membrane re-coat at year ten, the seasonal gutter clean, the elevator service contract, and the trades visit that closes a deficiency surfaced in the last inspection. The scope is known, the cost is budgeted, and the timing is the building's choice.
Reactive maintenance, defined
Reactive maintenance is work the building did not choose. The leak that appears overnight, the parkade slab that fails an annual inspection, the boiler that quits in February, the order to comply that lands after a fire inspector visit. The repair is necessary, but cost, timing, and scope are all dictated by the failure.
Why the planned-to-earth ratio matters more than the totals
Same spend, very different outcomes
Two buildings can spend the same dollar amount on maintenance in a year and end up in very different positions. The one weighted toward planned work has predictable budgets, a flat year-over-year cost curve, and a depreciation report that still matches reality. The one weighted toward reactive work absorbs emergency mobilization fees, collateral damage to finishes, and the contingency draw-downs that make a special levy more likely at the next AGM.
The shift happens through a building record, not better intentions
The shift from reactive to planned does not happen through better intentions. It happens through a current condition record of the building that makes the next twelve months of likely work visible before it is urgent.
Building a planned maintenance schedule from inspection data
Photo-ranked findings become a sequenced list
A SENTiNEL inspection produces that record. Each finding is photographed, located, and ranked by severity. The council sees what to act on now, what to schedule, and what to monitor. The property manager has a sequenced list to bring trades against. The depreciation report consultant has condition data that grounds the next five-year update.
Reactive shrinks as the planned column gets honest
Over a few cycles, the reactive column shrinks. The work that used to arrive as a surprise is already on the planned list, in the budget, and quoted by trades the building has worked with before. Pair this with exterior building maintenance for the items most often missed between reports, or browse the full set of BC strata maintenance resources.
Common questions about this topic.
- What is planned maintenance?
- Planned maintenance is work scheduled in advance based on a building's known condition and the service life of its components. It includes routine servicing, seasonal tasks, and condition-based replacements that are sequenced before failure.
- What is reactive maintenance?
- Reactive maintenance is work triggered by a failure, a leak, a complaint, or an order to comply. The repair is necessary but the timing, scope, and cost are no longer in the building's control.
- How do strata buildings shift the balance toward planned work?
- By keeping a current condition record of the building, tying it to the depreciation report, and reviewing it at council and AGM cadence. The record makes planned work easier to approve because the alternative is visible on the same page.
- Is planned maintenance always cheaper than reactive?
- Per-item, yes. The bigger savings come from avoided collateral damage, avoided emergency mobilization, and avoided special levies on work that could have been budgeted across the operating fund.
Bring a construction-led record to your building.