Deferred maintenance

Deferred maintenance, often referred to as Deferred Maintenance and Repair (DM), is most common in the US and Australia but may also be used in the UK. The US Department of Energy refers to it simply as "Maintenance and repairs that were not performed when they should have been or were scheduled to be and which are put off or delayed for a future period."

When budgets are under pressure, it can be tempting to put off planned and preventative maintenance programmes as a way of saving money. However, not only will it be necessary to face those costs at some point, they may in fact be higher than if they had been dealt with sooner, as straight-forward repairs become major replacements.

Job order contracting (JOC) is a procurement method (primarily used in the United States) for contracting construction services. JOC is often applied to deferred maintenance work that has accumulated over time.

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings

• Building services maintenance contractors’ role in reducing carbon emissions.
• Facilities management.
• In-house or outsource maintenance.
• Job order contracting.
• Maintenance.
• Operation and maintenance manual.
• Operation, maintenance and training (OMT).

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