Most blocks have some planned maintenance in place, but few have a schedule that would survive an audit line by line. The gaps are usually the unglamorous items: the AOV that has never been serviced, the dry riser nobody owns, the gutter that only gets attention when water comes through a ceiling. A proper PPM schedule starts from the assets, not from a template.
Start with the asset register
Every item of plant, every safety system and every element of the fabric gets logged: location, age, condition and the cycle it needs. If the register is incomplete, the schedule built on it will be too, and the missing items surface later as emergency spend.
The register also settles ownership. Items like smoke vents, communal pumps and riser cupboards often sit between contractors, and a PPM schedule is where that ambiguity gets closed.
The statutory and compliance cycles
- Fire alarm testing and servicing, with weekly call point tests and periodic engineer visits
- Emergency lighting monthly function tests and annual duration tests
- Fire door checks, quarterly for communal doors above 11 metres and annual best endeavours for flat entrances
- Water hygiene: temperature monitoring, TMV servicing and tank inspections to the risk assessment
- Lift, AOV, dry riser and lightning protection servicing where fitted
- Electrical periodic inspection for communal supplies, typically five yearly
Mechanical and fabric items that get forgotten
HIUs, MVHR units and communal plant all drift out of specification when they are only attended on breakdown. Annual servicing keeps them efficient and prevents the pattern of resident complaints that ends with a whole block of failed units.
On the fabric side, gutters, roofs and external decorations belong on the schedule with multi year cycles. These are the items that quietly become major works when they are left off the programme.
Records are half the programme
A schedule without records is a promise, not evidence. Every visit should close with a dated record against the asset reference, certificates where the work is statutory, and photographs where condition matters. When an insurer, auditor or tribunal asks, the answer should already be filed.