Drawing up a maintenance contract: the clauses and an example for boilers, heat pumps and air conditioning

What goes in a maintenance contract?

Drawing up a maintenance contract means agreeing in advance which installations you maintain, what one visit involves and how often you come, what is not included and how you charge for repairs. It also covers the price and invoicing, the term with renewal and termination, and what the customer has to do. That way, after every visit, you and the customer both know what will be on the invoice.

This article is about the text of the contract. Tracking contracts is covered in tracking maintenance contracts, and the plan per type of installation in preventive maintenance.

Where it goes wrong with a three-sentence contract

• “Annual maintenance, all inclusive.” The customer reads repairs and parts into it.
• No list of installations. The customer has an air-conditioning unit added and assumes it will be maintained as well.
• Nothing about breakdowns between two visits. Do you come the same day, and at what rate?
• A price with no agreement on adjustments. After a few years, the amount no longer matches your costs.
• No end date and no termination. Nobody knows any more whether the contract is still running.

The clauses of a maintenance contract

1. Parties. Your company with its company number and VAT number, the customer with billing address and contact person, and whether they are the owner, the tenant or the property manager (syndic).
2. The installations. A list in an annex, per unit: type, brand, model, serial number, location and installation date. Anything not on the list falls outside the contract.
3. What one visit involves. A fixed list per type: what the technician cleans, checks, measures and adjusts, and which report the customer receives. Refer to that list, not to “good workmanship”.
4. The frequency. The number of visits per year and the period: a boiler before the heating season, an air-conditioning unit before the summer. Never go below what the manufacturer or the region requires.
5. What is not included. For example repairs, parts other than the wear parts you name, interventions for a breakdown, and work on pipes or electrics.
6. Repairs. At what hourly rate, with or without travel, and at what price for parts. You carry out repairs once the customer has agreed.
7. Response time, if you promise one. Within what time and during which hours you respond or come on site. See SLA and response time.
8. The price and any indexation. An amount per year or per visit, with VAT. If you adjust the price, write down how and from when.
9. Invoicing. Annually in advance, per visit or per quarter, and the payment term.
10. Term, renewal and termination. The start date, the duration, what happens on the end date, and how and within what notice period a party terminates.
11. Access and the customer’s obligations. The installation is accessible, the customer reschedules an appointment in good time, reports a breakdown straight away and lets you know if someone else works on the installation.
12. Liability and insurance. Have this clause, as well as the price adjustment, the renewal and the termination, checked by your legal adviser. Ask your insurer what your policy covers.

Included or not: examples per installation

An example to adapt: what you include is a commercial choice.

Maintenance contract example to copy

A structure to copy. You fill in what is between brackets yourself.

1. Parties: [your company, address, company number, VAT number] and [customer, billing address, contact person].
2. Subject: the preventive maintenance of the installations in annex 1, at [address].
3. Visits: [number] per year, in the period [months], with the tasks in annex 2 and a report.
4. Not included: repairs, parts other than [wear parts], interventions for a breakdown, [other].
5. Repairs and breakdowns: once agreed, at [hourly rate] and [travel], parts according to [price list]; response [time and hours] or no guaranteed response time.
6. Price: [amount] excl. VAT per [year or visit]; [adjustment: how and from when].
7. Invoicing: [annually in advance in month X, or after each visit], payable within [term].
8. Term: from [date] to [date]; [renewal and termination].
9. Customer’s obligations: access, rescheduling in good time, reporting breakdowns, reporting work by others.
10. Liability and insurance: [text from your legal adviser].
11. Annexes: 1. list of the installations; 2. content of a visit per type; 3. general terms and conditions.

At the bottom: place, date and the signatures of both parties.

Consumer or business: what is different?

If you conclude the contract with a consumer away from your business premises, for example at their home, you have to provide additional information, such as any right of withdrawal, according to the FPS Economy (FOD Economie / SPF Economie) (in Dutch). According to ConsumerConnect (in Dutch), an initiative of the FPS Economy, the consumer can, as a rule, end such an agreement within 14 calendar days without giving a reason and at no cost. For a service, those days run from the conclusion of the agreement, and there are exceptions (consulted on 31 October 2026).

Which other rules apply to the term, renewal and termination of a contract with a consumer, and what you agree with a business or an association of co-owners, are questions for your legal adviser.

Statutory maintenance: refer to the region

For heating boilers, the three regions impose periodic maintenance or a periodic inspection. The frequency, the appliances and the person responsible differ by region and by fuel. In the contract, refer to the rules of the region where the installation is located, and state which statutory maintenance the visit covers (pages consulted on 31 October 2026):

• Flanders: compulsory maintenance of your central heating installation on vlaanderen.be (in Dutch);
• Brussels: boiler and hot water heater on leefmilieu.brussels (in Dutch);
• Wallonia: periodic inspection of boilers on energie.wallonie.be (in French).

For air conditioning, heat pumps and other installations, check for yourself which rules apply. What goes on the certificate after a boiler service is explained in the boiler maintenance certificate.

An example: air conditioning and a heat pump in an office

A fictitious installation company maintains three air-conditioning units and a heat pump at an accountancy firm. The contract lists the four units in an annex, with serial number and room. The heat pump gets a visit in the spring, the air-conditioning units together in May.

Cleaning the filters and the condensate drain is part of the visit; repairs to the refrigerant circuit and parts are charged separately, once agreed. In the event of a breakdown, the company promises a first response on the same working day, with no time limit for the repair itself. The contract is invoiced annually in advance and runs for one year, with a renewal and a notice period that both parties know.

How it works in Digitalnatie Service Suite

You write the text the customer signs yourself: the guide does not describe a contract document in the application. The maintenance contracts screen records the agreements that drive the visits and the invoicing. See also the maintenance contracts module.

• Creating: from the maintenance contracts screen, or from the contracts tab in the customer file. From a confirmed sales order, you create a contract in draft.
• The details: the name and the customer (required), a reference, the site and, if the contract covers a single unit, the installation; without an installation, the contract covers the whole site. Then an optional technician, the start and end dates (no end date means an indefinite term) and the next visit.
• Frequency: monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, annual or a custom number of days. The form shows the next six dates.
• Instructions: the visit template sets the instructions, the duration, the type and the categories of each visit. The contract’s conditions and instructions become a task on every visit.
• The visits: once a day, for each active contract whose next visit date has been reached, Service Suite creates a preventive maintenance intervention on the date of the visit, with the contract’s technician if there is one. The next visit then moves forward by one period.
• Invoicing the visits: the visit up to the minimum, the working hours above the minimum and the parts used are each billable or included in the contract, or follow your company’s default setting. If nothing is left to invoice, the visit is marked as covered by the contract.
• The annual invoice: on the page of an active contract, Service Suite creates the draft invoice for the calendar year at the annual price that has been set. Nothing is posted or sent.
• Renewing and stopping: the contract’s actions include pausing, stopping with a last day, and renewing. A tab shows the contracts that expire within 60 days.

Good to know:

• A contract has no price of its own. The annual maintenance price is set in the organisation settings, in the invoicing section, and applies to all active contracts. The guide does not describe indexation.
• Without a site, Service Suite creates no visits, and missed visits are not created afterwards. For a visit that has to happen straight away, you schedule a visit from the contract.
• By default, the administrator and the manager create and edit contracts. Of the role templates, only the administrator can create the annual invoice.

Frequently asked questions

What should a maintenance contract contain?

The parties, the installations with their serial numbers, what one visit involves, how often you come and what is not included. Also the repairs, a response time if any, the price and invoicing, the term with renewal and termination, and the customer’s obligations. Have the template checked by your legal adviser.

What maintenance obligation applies to a central heating boiler?

For heating boilers, the three regions impose periodic maintenance or a periodic inspection, with rules that differ by region and by fuel. Check vlaanderen.be, leefmilieu.brussels or energie.wallonie.be for what applies to your customer’s installation, and write in the contract which statutory maintenance the visit covers.

Can a consumer withdraw from a maintenance contract?

If the contract was concluded away from your business premises, for example at the customer’s home, a consumer can, as a rule, end it within 14 calendar days without giving a reason and at no cost, according to ConsumerConnect of the FPS Economy. For a service, those days run from the conclusion of the agreement, and there are exceptions. Ask your legal adviser how to inform the customer about this.

How long does a maintenance contract run?

As long as you agree: write the start date, the duration, the renewal and the notice period in the contract, and have those clauses checked by your legal adviser. In Service Suite, an empty end date means an indefinite term.

Can I set a price per maintenance contract in Service Suite?

No. There is one annual price for all active contracts, set in the organisation settings, and the annual invoice uses that price. Per contract, however, you choose whether the visit, the extra working hours and the parts are billable or included in the contract.