Planned preventative maintenance
Published January 2022
Effective from 1 April 2022
Reissued October 2022
This professional standard has global application to commercial and residential property. It sets out the general principles that should be adopted when undertaking a planned preventative maintenance (PPM) survey and report for built assets, and provides RICS members, regulated firms and their clients with a source of best practice.
It focuses on PPM reports for built assets (the type a building surveyor would undertake), rather than the type of planned maintenance reports for MEPF asset/component replacement that might be carried out by an MEPF engineer or facilities manager.
PPM surveying has become a core service provided by chartered building surveyors. It is key to helping clients understand the current condition of their real estate assets, which enables them to plan the necessary investment to ensure each element of the building performs as intended. Although the term PPM refers to ‘preventative’ maintenance, it should be acknowledged that maintenance is not always preventative. This standard concerns all aspects of planned maintenance.
Key topics include:
- client instruction, expectations and requirements
- survey preparation, including competence, information gathering, equipment, health and safety and third-party consultants
- conducting the inspection, including recording data, access and building elements
- legal and technical, including health and safety, fire engineering and accessibility, and
- producing a report, including the PPM schedule, report contents and cost data.
The standard also includes a PPM services checklist which is provided as a separate download.
This document was reissued in October 2022 as a professional standard. It had previously been published in January 2022 as a guidance note. The regulatory requirements remain the same and no material changes have been made to the document.