Contract Maintenance
Maintenance Policy:
The policy adopted by the hotel management for maintenance purposes would depend on the following parameters:
- Type of organization structure
- Availability of trained staff
- Overall budget for maintenance staff, tools, spares etc.
- Contract vs. In-House maintenance
- Position of stand-by equipment
- Safety standards
Contract Maintenance vs. Departmental Maintenance (In- House)
Maintenance may be done by your own maintenance personnel, or else the job may be off-loaded to an outside agency on contract basis. This will depend largely on facilities available in-house, trained staff, overall cost, availability of spares etc.
| Contract Maintenance | Departmental Maintenance |
| No need to recruit trained personnel / staff Reduces labour cost Reduces cost of tools, spares, material. Uses latest techniques. Saves administrative time Flexibility of meeting emergencies. | Involvement and ownership of staff Multi- tasking, multi-skilled operation Can focus more on Predictive Maintenance Optimum utilization of man-power and machines |
Contract maintenance may be awarded for the following areas:
- Routine maintenance of an overall ground area
- Preventive maintenance of plant and equipment like water treatment plant, heating plant, AC plant, elevators etc.
- Civil maintenance of Building and other infrastructure
- Fire and safety equipments
- Kitchen appliances
- Overall cleaning, plumbing, and laundry.
All contracts must have: a) Insurance of maintenance employees, b) Inspection facility of work done, c) Safe practices should be followed, d) Local codes and statutory regulations must be followed.
What is a Valid Contract?
According to Section 10 of the Indian Contracts Act, 1872, “All agreements are contracts, if they are made by the free consent of the parties, competent to contract, for a lawful consideration with a lawful object, and not hereby expressly to be void.”
Essential Elements of a Valid Contract are:
- Proper offer and proper acceptance. There must be an agreement based on a lawful offer made by a person to another and lawful acceptance of that offer made by the latter. Section 3 to 9 of the contract act, 1872 lay down the rules for making valid acceptance.
- Lawful consideration: An agreement to form a valid contract should be supported by consideration. Consideration means “something in return” (quid pro quo). It can be cash, kind, an act or abstinence. It can be passed, present or future. However, consideration should be real and lawful.
- Competent to contract or capacity: In order to make a valid contract the parties to it must be competent to be contracted. According to section 11 of the Contract Act, a person is considered to be competent to contract if he satisfies the following criterion a.) The person has reached the age of maturity b.) The person is of sound mind.The person is not disqualified from contracting by any law.
- Free Consent: To constitute a valid contract there must be free and genuine consent of the parties to the contract. It should not be obtained by misrepresentation, fraud, coercion, undue influence or mistake.
- Lawful Object and Agreement: The object of the agreement must not be illegal or unlawful.
- Agreement not declared void or illegal: Agreements which have been expressly declared void or illegal by law are not enforceable at law; hence does not constitute a valid contract.
- Intention To Create Legal Relationships
- Certainty, Possibility Of Performance
- Legal Formalities
