Commercial Refrigeration Maintenance Contracts: Structuring One That Holds

An agreement holds or fails on 6 clauses, and 4 of the 6 are about what is not included rather than what is. The clause that causes the most disputes is the 1 defining when a repair stops being maintenance.

The short version

Most refrigeration maintenance agreements in this trade are a page long and describe visits. Four times a year, clean and check, call us if anything goes wrong.

That works until something expensive happens, at which point neither party can point to a sentence that settles who pays. The argument is not about goodwill, it is about a document that never addressed the question.

Six clauses close that gap. None of them makes the agreement longer than three pages, and writing them costs an afternoon once rather than an argument per incident.

The 6 clauses, and what each has to state

Clause	What it must say
Covered equipment	A list by equipment, not "the refrigeration at site 12"
Scope of a visit	The task list, so both sides know what was bought
The maintenance and repair boundary	Where a finding becomes chargeable work
Response commitment	Hours, and from what moment they are counted
Exclusions	Refrigerant, parts, out-of-hours, damage, misuse
Price mechanism	What is fixed, what moves, and on what notice

Rows one and three are where nearly every dispute in this trade begins, and both are cheap to fix in advance.

The equipment schedule is the contract

Everything else is terms attached to it.

"All refrigeration at these four sites" sounds complete and is not. A unit added last year, a bar fridge nobody mentioned, an ice machine the landlord owns, a walk-in that was already failing when you signed.

A schedule by equipment, with manufacturer, model, serial and location, removes all four arguments. It also lets you price properly, because a nine-year-old unit and a two-year-old one are not the same commitment.

Roopairs holds equipment asset records with manufacturer, model and serial per site, which is what makes producing that schedule an export rather than an afternoon with a clipboard.

Add a line saying how equipment join and leave the schedule during the term. Equipment changes and an agreement with no mechanism for it drifts out of date within a year.

The boundary clause is where the money is

The single most valuable sentence in the document.

A technician on a maintenance visit finds a failing fan motor. Is replacing it maintenance or a repair, and who decides.

The version that works states a threshold and an authorization route. Consumables and adjustments are included, component replacement above an agreed value is quoted, and anything found is reported the same day whether or not it is chargeable.

Without it, one of two things happens. Technicians fix things quietly and the contract loses money, or they leave things and the customer discovers the fault later and blames the maintenance.

The reporting half matters as much as the money half. A documented finding that was declined protects you when that component fails in March.

4 exclusions, and 1 that is usually written wrongly

Refrigerant is the one that catches people.

An agreement including "refrigerant top-up" is an agreement to pay for somebody else's leak indefinitely, and it removes the incentive to find it. The correct structure covers leak detection and diagnosis, and prices the gas and the repair separately.

Parts, unless you are deliberately selling a fully inclusive product, in which case the price reflects the risk you have taken on.

Out-of-hours attendance, which is a separate commitment with its own cost to hold.

And damage, misuse and failures caused by the operator's own housekeeping. Condenser coils blocked by kitchen grease are a real and frequent cause, and the agreement should say who is responsible for what between visits.

Response commitments need a start time

Or they are unmeasurable, which suits nobody.

"Four hour response" is meaningless without saying four hours from what. From the call, from acceptance, during business hours only, or around the clock.

Define the clock, define the coverage window, and define what response means: attendance on site, or contact and a plan. Both are legitimate products and they are not the same promise.

Then hold the data to prove it. A customer who believes you are slow and a service company who believes it is fast are usually both arguing from memory.

The price mechanism should assume a 3-year relationship

Because a fixed annual price with no mechanism ages badly.

Labor and parts costs move. An agreement priced two years ago at costs that no longer exist is either quietly unprofitable or renegotiated in an awkward conversation.

What works is a stated review point, an index or a notice period, and separate treatment of the elements most likely to move. Customers accept this readily when it is in the document from the start and resent it when it arrives as a surprise.

Also state what happens on renewal, on early termination, and if sites are added or closed. Restaurant groups change shape constantly, and an agreement with no mechanism for it gets ignored rather than amended.

What to do before writing the next one

Two things, both from your own records.

Look at the last three agreements that lost money and find which clause was missing. It is usually the boundary or the equipment schedule, and it will be the same one twice.

Then price from your own history on that equipment type: how many visits, how long they took, and what was found. An agreement priced from a per-site figure somebody used last year is a guess wearing a number.

The pain starts around your third or fourth technician, which is where contract work stops being supervised by the person who sold it and starts depending on what the document actually says.

Roopairs runs a product tour where you can see equipment records per site and the service history behind each piece of equipment.

What service companies in the trade say

“Before choosing Roopairs considered many different software profits but Roopairs was the only one built exclusively for commercial kitchen service companies. Most of the others were targeting home service industries and didn't have the features we needed.” — Craig Palmer

Also worth reading

• Multi-Year Agreements: When to Offer One
• What Goes in a Kitchen Service Agreement
• How can my technicians sell more PM contracts

Frequently asked questions

What does a refrigeration maintenance contract need to contain?

Six clauses: covered equipment by equipment, the scope of a visit, the maintenance and repair boundary, a response commitment with a defined start time, exclusions, and a price mechanism.

Why list equipment piece by piece?

Because "all refrigeration at these sites" cannot resolve a unit added later, a fridge nobody mentioned, or a walk-in that was already failing. It also lets you price by age and condition rather than by site.

What is the boundary clause?

The sentence that says where a finding stops being maintenance and becomes chargeable work. State a threshold and an authorization route, and require every finding to be reported the same day whether or not it is chargeable.

Should refrigerant be included?

No. Covering top-ups is an agreement to pay for somebody else's leak indefinitely and removes the incentive to find it. Cover leak detection and diagnosis, and price the gas and the repair separately.

What makes a response commitment enforceable?

A defined start time and a definition of response. Four hours from the call is different from four hours from acceptance, and attendance on site is different from contact with a plan.

How should the price be structured?

With a stated review point, an index or notice period, and separate treatment of the elements most likely to move. Customers accept this when it is in the document from the start.