What Goes in a Commercial Kitchen Service Agreement

9 clauses cover a service agreement properly and 3 of them cause almost every dispute: what equipment is covered, what counts as included, and what happens when the portfolio changes. A contract without a named list of equipment has an undefined scope.

The short version

Most service agreements in this trade are short, and the brevity is the problem. Quarterly maintenance of kitchen equipment at the listed sites, at a stated price, signed by both parties.

That sentence is where every later disagreement starts. Two years in, the customer expects the ice machine covered and you never serviced it. A site replaced three units and nobody knows whether the new ones are in scope. A repair invoice is queried because maintenance was assumed to include it.

None of those are pricing disputes. They are scope disputes, and scope in this trade is a list of equipment.

The 9 clauses

Clause	What it settles
1. Schedule of covered equipment	What the contract is actually about
2. What each visit includes	Gives "maintained" a definition rather than a feeling
3. What is excluded	Major components, damage, misuse, consumables
4. Response times for reactive work	Whether breakdowns are in scope and at what speed
5. Rates for work outside the agreement	Labor, parts markup, out of hours, travel
6. Access and site conditions	When you can attend, and what happens if you cannot
7. Change of equipment or sites	The clause almost nobody includes
8. Term, notice and price review	How it ends and how the price moves
9. Payment terms	When, and what happens when it does not arrive

Clauses one, three and seven are the three that produce disputes. The rest are administrative and rarely argued about once written.

Clause 1: the equipment schedule is the contract's real body

One appendix, one row per piece of equipment, referenced by the agreement.

Each row needs the site, the equipment type and model, the serial number, the interval, and a reference to the task list for that equipment type.

The serial number is the column customers push back on and the one that settles the most. A kitchen with three identical undercounter units where two are covered needs the units distinguishable, and that question always arrives on the day one of them has failed.

Roopairs holds planned maintenance against the equipment record with manufacturer, model, serial and service history, which is where the schedule comes from rather than being typed separately and then drifting.

Clause 3: exclusions protect the price

Coverage that does not say what it excludes will be read generously in hindsight.

What belongs there, and each one exists because it has been argued somewhere:

• Major component replacement, or a value above which parts are quoted separately
• Damage and misuse, which is a real cause of failure in a commercial kitchen and not a maintenance one
• Consumables, meaning filters, seals and anything with a scheduled replacement life, stated either way
• Equipment beyond a stated age, where you are unwilling to carry the risk
• Work required by a third party, such as a landlord or a manufacturer's recall

The third is the most common ambiguity. A customer reasonably assumes a maintenance contract includes the filters it fits, and a service company reasonably assumed it did not. One line settles it permanently.

Clause 7: the portfolio changes and the contract usually does not

The clause almost nobody writes, and the one that quietly erodes the price.

Equipment gets added, replaced and removed constantly. A recurring invoice set up eighteen months ago is billing for an portfolio that no longer exists, sometimes in your favor and often not.

What the clause has to say: whether new equipment joins coverage automatically and at what price, what happens when a unit is replaced, and what happens when a site opens or closes.

The replacement case is worth thinking about commercially. A new unit under manufacturer warranty does not need the same coverage it will need in three years, so a clause that starts coverage when the warranty ends is both honest and easier to sell.

Then review the schedule annually against what is being billed. Fifteen minutes per contract, and service companies that do it find changes in both directions.

Clauses 4 and 5: separate the maintenance from the breakdowns

The second most common ambiguity after exclusions.

A maintenance agreement and a breakdown response arrangement are different products and customers frequently assume they bought both.

State whether reactive work is included, at what response time, and whether that response applies out of hours. Then state the rates for anything outside the agreement: labor, out of hours uplift, parts markup and travel.

Where reactive work is included at a discounted rate rather than free, say so as a rate rather than as a discount. A number in the contract is easier to invoice against than a percentage somebody has to calculate.

What makes the agreement worth having on your side

Two things beyond the revenue, and both come from the schedule.

Plannable work in quiet periods, which is what makes maintenance contracts commercially attractive in the first place. A named list of equipment with intervals is what lets you cluster visits into efficient trips rather than reacting.

And evidence. A maintenance contract is the one thing you sell where the customer cannot see what they bought, so per piece of equipment, per visit, the date and the task list completed is the deliverable. That is also what defends the contract at renewal against a cheaper bid.

Retrofitting a schedule onto an existing agreement

You do not need to reopen the contract to fix the scope problem.

Build the schedule from your own equipment records, send it to the customer as a confirmation of what you understand to be covered, and ask them to correct it. Most will, and what comes back is written agreement without a renegotiation.

Then add the change clause at the next renewal, when the schedule already exists and the conversation is about maintaining it rather than creating it.

Start with the contracts that are already producing questions. Perfect coverage across every agreement can wait. The one where somebody argued about an ice machine last month cannot.

Roopairs runs a product tour where you can see maintenance contracts held against equipment records with the completed visits behind them.

What service companies in the trade say

“When our initial data export wasn't as clean as it should have been, they paused the onboarding process to meticulously clean and perfect it before we went live.” — Korey Austin

Also worth reading

• Quote Terms Worth Having in Writing
• Equipment Records and PM Contracts
• The future of IoT for commercial kitchen repair companies

Frequently asked questions

What should a commercial kitchen service agreement contain?

A schedule of covered equipment, what each visit includes, what is excluded, response times for reactive work, rates for work outside the agreement, access conditions, a change clause for equipment and sites, term and price review, and payment terms.

Which clauses cause the most disputes?

The equipment schedule, the exclusions and the change clause. All three are scope rather than price, and scope in this trade is a list of equipment.

Why do serial numbers belong in the contract?

Because a kitchen can hold three identical units where two are covered. Without serials the coverage question is unanswerable, and it always arrives on the day one of them has failed.

What should be excluded?

Major component replacement or a parts value threshold, damage and misuse, consumables stated either way, equipment beyond a stated age, and work required by a third party. Consumables are the most common ambiguity.

Does the agreement cover breakdowns?

Only if it says so. Maintenance and breakdown response are different products and customers frequently assume they bought both. State whether reactive work is included, at what response time, and at what rate.

Can you add a schedule to a contract already running?

Yes, without reopening it. Build the schedule from your own equipment records, send it as a confirmation of what you understand to be covered, and ask for corrections. The change clause can be added at renewal.