Planning property maintenance

Maintenance guide for schools | kura

The maintenance guide for schools | kura explains how to plan and carry out regular maintenance. The guide was developed by the building research association of New Zealand (BRANZ), in consultation with us.

The guide includes maintenance plan templates for both routine and preventative maintenance. Schools and kura can adapt the templates to create their own maintenance plans.

Types of maintenance

There are a few types of maintenance you will have to consider for your property.

Regular maintenance

This includes day-to-day tasks and more general work such as weather damage prevention. Some regular maintenance can be done by your caretaker. Other more specialist work may need to be done by a qualified tradesperson.

Cyclical maintenance

Cyclical maintenance is the 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 to 10 years).

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 update the 10 Year Property Plan (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.

5 Year Agreement (5YA) funding

Specialist or technical maintenance

Some maintenance needs to be done by a qualified tradesperson, such as:

• annual inspection of gas appliances
• annual service of the boiler
• servicing switchboards
• servicing air-conditioning split-system (not related to building warrant of fitness)
• servicing security panels and associated componentry
• projectors maintenance
• playgrounds maintenance.

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