When a boiler fails in January, a lift breaks down during the morning rush, or a chiller gives up on the first warm day of May, it is never just the cost of the repair that hurts. It is the unplanned disruption, the emergency call-out premiums, the displaced tenants, and the questions from insurers or auditors about what maintenance was actually being done. Planned preventative maintenance, known in the industry as PPM, is the discipline that keeps commercial buildings running quietly in the background, and it is one of the single most effective investments a facilities manager can make.
This guide is written for facility managers, property owners, office managers and commercial landlords across London and the South East who want a practical, clear introduction to setting up and running an effective PPM programme for a UK commercial building in 2026.
What is planned preventative maintenance?
Planned preventative maintenance is a proactive, scheduled approach to looking after a building's assets before they fail. Rather than waiting for a fault to occur and then responding (the reactive model), a PPM programme involves regular inspections, servicing, testing and minor repairs carried out at defined intervals throughout the year.
In a typical commercial property, PPM covers three broad categories. Hard services include mechanical, electrical and building fabric assets such as boilers, air conditioning, lifts, fire alarms, emergency lighting, water systems and roofing. Soft services include items like scheduled deep cleaning, gutter clearance, window cleaning and pest monitoring. Statutory and compliance items sit across both and include legally required checks such as gas safety, electrical fixed wire testing, legionella monitoring and fire safety inspections.
A good PPM plan does not just list tasks. It defines frequency, responsibility, the standard to be met, and how completion is recorded so the whole programme is auditable.
Why PPM matters for UK commercial properties
It saves money
Industry research has consistently shown that preventative maintenance can reduce overall maintenance costs by roughly 12 to 18 per cent compared with a reactive approach. That figure rises further when you include the knock-on costs of downtime, insurance excesses and lost productivity from tenants or staff who cannot use the space. Replacing a failed HVAC unit in an emergency can cost two to three times the price of the same planned replacement scheduled out of hours.
It keeps buildings compliant
UK commercial property is governed by an ever-expanding body of legislation. The Building Safety Act 2022 introduced the concept of the "golden thread" of digital safety information for higher-risk buildings, requiring auditable records of maintenance across the full lifecycle of the asset. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, updated by the Fire Safety Act 2021 and the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, places clear duties on the responsible person to keep fire safety systems in proper working order. The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and its supporting regulations expect employers and duty-holders to maintain equipment in safe condition. A documented PPM programme is usually the most straightforward way to demonstrate all of this to an inspector, insurer or tribunal.
It protects asset value
A well-maintained building retains its value, achieves better rent, and presents far better at lease renewal or sale. Surveyors, valuers and acquiring parties routinely ask to see maintenance records, and a gap in the log frequently translates into a price chip.
It reduces disruption
Scheduled works can be planned around occupancy: a chiller service booked for a Sunday morning in March is a non-event. The same service triggered by a failure at 11am on the hottest Tuesday in July is a crisis.
The SFG20 standard: the backbone of UK PPM
Most credible PPM programmes in the UK are built against SFG20, the industry standard maintenance specification produced by the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA). SFG20 was first published in 1990 and is now a live digital library of more than 2,000 maintenance schedules covering some 70 equipment and system types, from boilers, air handling units and chillers to lifts, fire doors, catering equipment and building fabric.
Its real value lies in two features. Firstly, each task is classified so that facility managers can see immediately which items are statutory (legally required), which are mandatory under industry codes or insurance, and which are optimal or discretionary good practice. Secondly, the standard is continuously updated as UK legislation changes, so a programme built against current SFG20 schedules stays aligned with the latest regulatory position without the facility manager having to track every amendment.
For most UK commercial buildings, "maintained in accordance with SFG20" is now the baseline expectation from insurers, funders and tenants. Anything less tends to invite questions.
Typical PPM frequencies for a UK commercial building
Exact frequencies depend on usage, manufacturer guidance, occupancy and the SFG20 classification, but the table below gives a realistic picture of what a typical London office or mixed-use commercial building should expect over a year.
Monthly
- Fire alarm weekly call-point test log review and monthly system check
- Emergency lighting visual inspection
- Plant room visual inspection and gauge readings
- Water temperature monitoring (as part of legionella control)
Quarterly
- Air conditioning filter checks and minor servicing
- Automatic door and access control inspection
- Pumps, booster sets and pressurisation units
- External and internal planned inspections (roofs, gutters, drainage)
Every six months
- Full emergency lighting three-hour discharge test (annually in some regimes, six-monthly functional)
- Air handling unit servicing
- Lift LOLER thorough examination (every six months for passenger lifts)
- Legionella risk assessment review
Annually
- Gas safety inspection (commercial gas safety record)
- Full fire risk assessment review
- Fire extinguisher service
- Air conditioning TM44 inspection (for systems over 12kW, every five years)
- Portable appliance testing (risk-based)
- Chiller and boiler major service
Every 1 to 5 years
- Electrical installation condition report (EICR) — typically every 5 years for commercial premises
- F-Gas logbook audit
- Roof, fabric and drainage condition surveys
This is indicative only. The correct schedule for your specific building should always be built from an asset register, tuned to the manufacturer's recommendations, and cross-checked against current SFG20 classifications.
How to build a PPM schedule from scratch
If you have inherited a building with no meaningful maintenance regime in place, or you are taking on a new commercial property, the following five-step approach is the one most experienced UK facilities managers follow.
- Carry out an asset survey. Walk the building with a competent surveyor and log every maintainable asset: make, model, serial number, location, age, condition and criticality. This becomes your asset register and is the foundation for everything else.
- Map each asset to a maintenance standard. For most items this will be an SFG20 schedule. For specialist kit, use the manufacturer's written service regime. Record which tasks are statutory versus good practice.
- Build the annual calendar. Plot each task against the months, balancing engineer time, budget phasing and occupant disruption. Aim for a smooth workload rather than concentrated spikes.
- Assign responsibility and cost. Decide which tasks will be carried out in-house, which will sit with a total facilities management partner, and which need specialist subcontractors (for example lifts, fire suppression, F-Gas).
- Record, review, refine. Use a CAFM (Computer-Aided Facilities Management) system or, for smaller sites, a structured spreadsheet and digital filing system. Review completion rates and asset failure data quarterly and tune the schedule as you learn the building.
In-house, outsourced, or total FM?
Most London and South East commercial buildings end up with a hybrid model. A small handyperson or mobile engineer deals with low-level day-to-day tasks, while a facilities management partner owns the PPM programme, the statutory compliance paperwork, and the specialist subcontractor network.
The key advantages of consolidating PPM with a single FM provider are a single point of accountability, a unified compliance dashboard, and scale pricing on subcontractors. The risks are vendor lock-in and loss of competitive pressure, both of which are usually addressed by sensible contract terms, KPIs and annual benchmarking.
Common PPM pitfalls to avoid
- Paper-only records. If your PPM evidence lives in a filing cabinet, you will struggle to demonstrate it quickly to an insurer or inspector. Move to digital record-keeping.
- Drift between asset register and reality. Buildings change. New tenants install kit, old assets are replaced, refurbishments alter layouts. Schedule an asset register review at least annually.
- Treating PPM as "the cheapest option wins". A PPM contract priced significantly below the market is almost always cutting something out — usually statutory depth or engineer competence. Always interrogate scope, not just price.
- No link between PPM and reactive works. Patterns in reactive call-outs are the single best indicator that a PPM schedule needs tuning. If the same asset fails twice in a year, the schedule is wrong.
- Forgetting the fabric. Roofs, gutters, drainage and external walls rarely fail dramatically, but when they do the damage is expensive. Plan fabric inspections as rigorously as mechanical and electrical ones.
How Mithraic supports PPM programmes across London and the South East
At Mithraic we work with commercial landlords, managing agents and occupier-side facility managers across London and the South East to design and deliver PPM programmes that genuinely hold up under audit. Depending on the site, that can mean a complete facilities management contract with full statutory compliance, a targeted services management wrap around existing in-house teams, or bundled soft services such as planned cleaning, window cleaning, pressure washing and grounds maintenance scheduled alongside the hard-services plan.
In summary
Planned preventative maintenance is not glamorous, but it is one of the most measurable wins available to a UK facilities manager. Built properly, on an accurate asset register, against the SFG20 standard, with clear records and a sensible delivery partner, PPM quietly lowers cost, protects compliance, extends asset life, and keeps the building the kind of place tenants and staff actually want to be in. In a London commercial market where every decision is scrutinised on operating cost and sustainability credentials, that is a meaningful edge.
If you are reviewing your maintenance regime this year, or inheriting a building where the documentation is thinner than you would like, start with the asset register. Everything else flows from there.