How to reduce condominium maintenance costs

The most effective way to reduce condominium costs is to tackle the four items that weigh most on the budget: service contracts (lifts, cleaning, insurance), emergency repairs that preventive maintenance would have avoided, electricity and water use in the common areas, and works awarded without comparing quotes. Cutting back on cleaning or putting off repairs looks like a saving, but it usually costs more two or three years later.

1. Review the service contracts

Maintenance contracts often renew automatically for years, with price increases nobody questions. Reviewing them is almost always the first step.

Lifts

Decree-Law 320/2002 requires lifts to have a maintenance contract with a registered lift maintenance company (EMA). The same law distinguishes two types of contract:

• Simple maintenance contract: covers maintenance operations and the service of freeing people trapped in the lift, but parts and repairs are paid separately.
• Full maintenance contract: also includes the repair or replacement of components that wear out through normal use.

Neither is always cheaper. For a recent lift with little use, the simple contract may pay off. For older equipment with frequent breakdowns, the full contract tends to make the budget more predictable. What is worth doing:

• Check the end date of the current contract and the notice period for termination (many contracts require notice several months in advance).
• Ask for the history of call-outs and parts invoiced over the last few years.
• Ask other EMAs for quotes with the same scope, so you compare like with like.

Cleaning

With cleaning, the saving comes from matching the specification to the building, not from cutting hours blindly. Frequency per area (entrance, stairs, garage, windows), who supplies the products, what happens if the cleaner does not turn up: all of this should be in writing. A clear specification lets you ask several companies for prices on the same basis.

Insurance

Fire insurance is compulsory, both for the units and for the common parts (Article 1429 of the Civil Code). Many condominiums also have a multi-risk (buildings) insurance policy for the common parts. Points to review at renewal:

• Does the sum insured match the current rebuilding cost? A sum above what is needed means paying too much in premium; below it, you risk reduced payouts.
• Do the covers duplicate those of the individual unit policies?
• Do the excesses make sense given the building's claims history?

A well-documented claims history helps when negotiating with insurers.

2. Swap emergency repairs for preventive maintenance

Corrective maintenance (waiting for something to break and then repairing it) looks cheaper because it has no fixed cost. In practice it costs more for three reasons: urgent call-outs are billed at emergency rates, a small fault left untreated causes bigger damage (a blocked gutter ends in a leak, a leak ends in replastering and repainting), and major works appear by surprise, forcing extraordinary fees.

	Preventive maintenance	Corrective maintenance
When work is done	On a schedule, before the fault	After the breakdown
Cost predictability	High: it is in the annual budget	Low: extraordinary fees
Price per job	Planned, with time to compare	Urgent, no room to negotiate
Knock-on damage	Avoided or reduced	Frequent
Equipment lifespan	Extended	Shortened

An annual maintenance plan with a provisional budget, approved at the owners' meeting, is the central tool. We give a practical example in our annual building maintenance checklist.

Remember that the common reserve fund (fundo comum de reserva), compulsory under Article 4 of Decree-Law 268/94, exists precisely to pay for the upkeep of the building. A well-funded reserve means necessary works do not have to wait for an extraordinary fee, and that the wait does not make them more expensive.

3. Lower common-area consumption

Electricity for the common areas (stairs, garage, lift, pumps) and water used for cleaning and gardens are costs that come round every month. The measures with the best ratio of investment to saving are usually:

• LED lighting on the stairs, landings and garage, replacing fluorescent or incandescent bulbs.
• Motion sensors and properly set timers, so lights are not left on in empty spaces.
• Reviewing the contracted power and the electricity tariff for the common areas, which often has not been reviewed since the building was built.
• Detecting water leaks in the common network: a meter that keeps turning with everything shut off is a warning sign.
• Programming the irrigation, where there is any, for times of lower evaporation.

Before investing, ask for the proposal to state the estimated saving and the payback period, so the owners' meeting decides on figures rather than promises.

4. Compare quotes properly

For extraordinary maintenance works or improvements (inovações), the condominium administrator must present at least three quotes from different sources, unless the building's rules or the owners' meeting provide otherwise (Article 1436 of the Civil Code). But three quotes are only useful if they are comparable. To make them so:

1. Define the scope in writing before asking for prices: what is to be done, with which materials, in which areas.
2. Ask all suppliers for the same thing, with a bill of quantities where justified.
3. Compare timescales, guarantees and payment terms, not just the final figure.
4. Check suppliers' licences, liability insurance and references.
5. Supervise the works and only pay for work that has been checked against what was contracted.

The lowest quote is not always the cheapest: badly done work gets paid for twice.

5. Make the accounts visible

Much overspending goes unnoticed because nobody sees the itemised expenditure. Clear financial reports, showing budget performance line by line and comparing it with the previous year, make it possible to see where the overspend is. When every owner can check the accounts online, the right questions come up sooner. We cover this in the role of technology in condominium management.

How Condgest helps reduce costs

Condgest selects and supervises suppliers, negotiates contracts, plans preventive maintenance with an annual plan and provisional budget, and follows works through to the end. The accounts are available on the owners' portal, with clear financial reports. See all our condominium management services in Lisbon.

Want to know how much your building could save? Request a proposal or contact us on +351 215 934 450 or geral@condgest.com.