What a 10-Year Maintenance Plan Actually Is

(and why your body corporate needs one).

Most body corporates don’t have a proper 10-year maintenance plan. And the ones that do? It’s usually a spreadsheet so dense that only the managing agent’s accountant can make sense of it.

It doesn’t need to be that complicated.

At its core, a maintenance plan answers three questions:
What does the building have? What condition is it in? When will it need attention — and roughly what will it cost?

That’s it.

When that information is clear, everything changes. Trustees make better decisions at AGMs. Managing agents plan instead of firefighting. Reserve funds actually match reality. And you avoid that lovely moment when the roof fails, and the bank account says, “Good luck.”

The law already requires this. Under the Sectional Titles Schemes Management Act, every body corporate must have a 10-year maintenance, repair and replacement plan. No exceptions.

The formal financial version of this plan — known as a PMR22 schedule — is a statutory requirement under the Sectional Titles Schemes Management Act (STSMA). It's prepared by the managing agent or a quantity surveyor and sets out the reserve fund contributions needed to fund future maintenance. But the PMR22 is only as good as the practical maintenance information behind it. That's where a proper building-level plan comes in — giving the Managing Agent the real-world data they need to make the numbers meaningful.

But the quality varies wildly — from genuinely useful documents to tick-box reports that gather dust.

A proper plan covers all major elements: roofing, waterproofing, external walls, steelwork, gutters, fire systems, access control, and common areas. It assesses condition, flags timing, estimates costs, and maps out what’s coming.

That plan becomes your control panel — for levies, reserve funding, contractor planning, and trustee decisions.

Without it, you’re guessing. Things break, you rush, you overpay, and levy increases become a fight instead of a strategy.

At ALGN, we build 10-year maintenance plans that are actually usable — clear, practical, and structured for real-world decision-making.

If your scheme doesn’t have one — or it’s outdated and sitting in a drawer — it’s worth fixing. What Most Plans Get Wrong

The biggest issue isn’t that plans don’t exist — it’s that they’re not usable.

They’re either:

• Overly technical and impossible for trustees to interpret

• Too generic to reflect the actual building

• Outdated the moment they’re handed over

• Missing real-world cost accuracy

A maintenance plan shouldn’t feel like a compliance document. It should feel like a working tool.

If trustees can’t look at it and immediately understand what’s coming over the next 1, 3, and 5 years, it’s not doing its job.

The Real Cost of “We’ll Deal With It Later”

Deferring maintenance always looks cheaper… until it isn’t.

• Minor waterproofing becomes structural damage

• Rusted steel turns into a full replacement instead of treatment

• Small leaks become interior refurbishment costs across multiple units

• Emergency call-outs cost significantly more than planned works

Reactive maintenance doesn’t just cost more — it destroys predictability. And once predictability is gone, budgeting becomes guesswork.

What a Good Plan Actually Gives You

A properly structured 10-year plan does three important things:

1. Clarity
You know exactly what needs attention and when.

2. Control
You can phase work instead of being forced into large, unexpected spending.

3. Confidence
Trustees can make decisions backed by data, not opinions.

It also makes conversations with owners far easier — because you’re not asking for increased levies “just in case.” You’re showing exactly why.

How Often Should It Be Updated?

A 10-year plan isn’t something you do once and forget.

It should be reviewed annually and properly updated every 3–5 years, or after any major works.

Buildings change. Costs change. Materials fail earlier (or later) than expected.

If your plan isn’t evolving, it’s slowly becoming irrelevant.

Where ALGN Fits In

This is where we come in.

We don’t produce theoretical reports — we build practical, site-driven maintenance plans based on how buildings actually behave in the Cape Town environment.

Salt air, wind exposure, water ingress, poor historic workmanship — these aren’t “possibilities” here, they’re realities.

Our plans are:

• Clear enough for trustees to use

• Detailed enough for contractors to quote from

• Structured for reserve fund planning

• Grounded in real-world costing

No fluff. No filler. Just a working document that helps you stay ahead of problems instead of chasing them.

Final Thought

“A building will always cost money to maintain. That part isn’t optional.

What is optional is whether you control that spend — or let it control you.”