Choosing a Management and Maintenance Company for an Office Building: The Questions That Reveal the Real Difference Before You Sign

Choosing a management and maintenance company is one of the decisions that most affects the value of your building — and it is usually made on the basis of a first impression, a polished presentation, and someone's recommendation. The problem: all the companies sound the same in the sales meeting. They are all "professional," "available 24/7," and "transparent." The real difference emerges only half a year later — when a system breaks down, when an inspector from an authority arrives, or when you try to understand where the money went. This guide gives you the sharp questions that will reveal that difference before you sign, and the seven red flags that should stop you.

First of All: What Are You Actually Buying

A good management company is not "the one who sends a plumber when there's a leak." It is the entity that holds the full picture of the building: which systems it has, what condition they are in, when each statutory inspection expires, who the suppliers are, the history of every fault, and how much it really costs to maintain the asset. When you choose a provider, you are effectively choosing who will hold the operational memory of the building — and how accessible that memory will be to you.

From field experience: there are buildings where the owner does not know when the suppression system was last inspected, does not know the name of the elevator supplier, and does not have a copy of the electrical certificates. All of it is "with the management company." The day an inspector from the Fire and Rescue Authority arrives, or an insurer files a claim, the problem is exposed — and its cost is far higher than any two years of management fees.

That is why the right questions are not "how much does it cost" but how you work, how you report, and who owns the information. These three determine whether, in two years, you will be a building owner who understands their asset — or a captive client entirely dependent on a provider.

A building owner does not need to know how to repair a chiller. They do need to know when it was last inspected, who inspected it, and what the findings were — without having to call and ask.

The Regulatory Background Building Owners Must Know

An office building in Israel is subject to several legal frameworks that directly affect the management company's obligations:

• Business Licensing Law, 5728-1968 — a building in which certain business activity takes place (a restaurant, a clinic, a gym) may be subject to licensing, which includes fire safety and safety requirements the management company is expected to help fulfill.
• Safety at Work Regulations (Elevators) — an elevator in a building requires periodic inspection by an approved inspection body. The management company is responsible for scheduling and retaining the inspection certificates.
• Israeli Standard (SI) 1220 (fire suppression systems) and Standard 1410 (fire and smoke detection) — set inspection cycles and require documentation that must be provided to the Fire and Rescue Authority on request.
• Electricity Regulations — periodic electrical safety inspections by a licensed electrician; neglect can impair insurance coverage and expose you to criminal liability.

A serious management company knows all of these by heart and operates a control board that ensures no date falls through the cracks. A company that stares back blankly when you ask about an Israeli Standard — send it home.

The Seven Questions to Ask Before You Sign

1. What does the monthly report look like — and who writes it?

Ask to see a real monthly report from an existing building (redacted of identifying details). A serious company will pull one up within a minute. Note what it contains:

• Which maintenance actions were performed, with dates and the supplier's name
• Which faults were opened and closed, and how long each took from report to closure
• Which statutory inspections are approaching expiry in the next 60-90 days
• What requires your decision as the owner

A report made up of "all is well" and a few photos is not a report — it is cover. I have seen buildings where the monthly report was a short WhatsApp message. That is not management; it is the illusion of management.

2. What is the SLA in practice, and how is it measured?

"Available 24/7" is an empty promise without numbers. Demand defined response times by urgency — for example: a disabling fault (a stuck elevator, HVAC that fails in summer) versus a routine defect (a burned-out bulb, a squeaking door). The important question is not "what is the SLA" but "show me how you measure yourselves against it every month." Whoever does not measure does not commit. We expanded on this in the SLA checklist for a management company.

3. How do you select and manage subcontractors?

Most of the actual work is performed by subcontractors — elevators, HVAC, electrical, cleaning, landscaping. Ask:

• By what criteria do you select a supplier for exceptional work?
• Do you obtain two or three price quotes before approving work above a certain amount?
• Who approves a work order — the supplier alone, or does it require your approval?
• Does the company add a markup to supplier invoices — and at what rate?

A lack of transparency at this point is a major source of hidden cost. I have seen buildings where supplier expenses were 20-30% higher than they needed to be — simply because no one had an interest in performing a price comparison. Ask to see what an approval process for a work order looks like, including who signs and what is kept on file.

4. Which statutory inspections do you schedule — and how will I know none was forgotten?

Elevators, fire detection and suppression, electrical systems, water reservoirs, emergency lighting — each has its own timeline and its own supervising authority. Ask the management company how it ensures that no certificate expires without someone noticing. The right answer is a pre-managed timeline with automatic alerts 60-90 days before expiry, not "we remember." A building found out of compliance by an inspector endangers its fire approval, its insurance coverage, and your personal liability.

5. Who owns the facility records and the data?

This is perhaps the most important question, and the least asked. All of the operational history — the maintenance log, the certificates, the supplier details, the systems inventory, and the fault history — belongs to your building, not to the management company. Ask explicitly: "If we part ways tomorrow, what do I get, and in what format?"

If the answer is "a folder of out-of-context PDFs," or worse, "the information is in our system," you have flagged a red flag. The data is your asset, and you are entitled to 100% of it at any moment — not only at the end of the engagement.

6. Who is the person actually handling my building?

In the sales meeting sits an impressive senior manager. In the field, the building is sometimes managed by someone else, who is simultaneously juggling another twenty buildings. Ask to know: who is your account manager by name? How many properties do they manage at once? And what happens when they are on vacation or leave? Human continuity is part of the product, and dependence on knowledge that exists only in one person's head is a real operational risk.

7. What does the transition look like — if I choose you, and if I leave?

A confident company will describe an orderly onboarding process: mapping the systems, gathering existing certificates, building an annual maintenance plan, and handing over access to the management tools. And the same company will also explain, without hesitation, what the separation process looks like — which files you receive, within what timeframe, and in what format. A willingness to talk about leaving already at the sales stage is one of the best signs of genuine transparency.

The Seven Red Flags

• The monthly report is generic and non-numerical. "All is well" repeats itself, with no list of actions, handling times, or findings. You don't know what happened — only that someone says it's fine.
• There is no measured SLA. They promise availability but do not measure themselves against it in practice, and there is no way to know whether a fault was handled within a reasonable time or forgotten for three days.
• Vague supplier commission. They dodge the question of how much they take on subcontractor invoices, or refuse to show two price quotes for exceptional work.
• The data is "with them." When you ask what you will receive if you leave, the answer is vague. Your building's operational memory is held hostage — which makes every future transition more expensive.
• Dependence on one person. All the knowledge about the building is in one field worker's head, with no documentation. If they leave, the building starts from scratch — and you don't know about it until something breaks.
• Statutory inspections "from memory." There is no managed timeline for expiring certificates. The reliance is on someone remembering in time — which sometimes ends in fines or a cancellation of insurance coverage.
• A contract with no clear exit mechanism. A long commitment period with no defined terms for termination, a heavy exit penalty, or an unwillingness to detail what happens at the end of the engagement.

A single red flag does not necessarily disqualify a provider — sometimes there is a reasonable explanation. Three flags or more, especially around transparency and data ownership — mean you are about to become a captive client.

Comparison Table: "Reactive" Management vs. "Transparent and Controlled" Management

Two companies can look similar in contract and pricing. The difference is in the working method:

What Actually Happens: Scenarios From the Field

To illustrate the difference between the two types of management, here are a few situations building managers deal with:

Scenario A: A fire inspector arrives unannounced

A building with reactive management: the field worker searches WhatsApp for documents, calls the HVAC supplier to check whether they have a copy of the last inspection, and finally finds a certificate that expired three months ago. The building receives a correction demand with a deadline, and possibly a fine. A building with transparent and controlled management: the account manager opens the control board and produces all the certificates within minutes. The inspector leaves satisfied.

Scenario B: You want to replace a supplier

A building with reactive management: the management company "holds" the elevator supplier's details, the passwords to the control system, and the maintenance log. Switching to an alternative supplier becomes expensive and cumbersome, because there is no documentation. A building with transparent management: all the data belongs to the owners and is accessible — switching to a new supplier is a matter of days, not months.

Scenario C: An insurance claim after water damage

A building with reactive management: the insurer asks to see the roof and plumbing maintenance history. There is no orderly documentation — the insurer claims neglect and reduces the payout. A building with transparent management: a full maintenance log with dates, supplier names, and findings — handling the claim becomes far more straightforward.

Decision Checklist — What to Collect From Each Candidate

• A sample real monthly report (redacted) from a building similar in size and complexity to yours.
• A written SLA definition with response times by urgency level — and how it is measured in practice.
• A description of the work-order approval process and the subcontractor selection criteria.
• A clear explanation of the commission mechanism — how much, on what, and when.
• A description of how the statutory inspection schedule and expiry alerts are managed.
• The name of the actual account manager, the number of properties they manage, and a backup mechanism for vacation or departure.
• A written answer to the question "what will I receive if I leave, in what format, and within what timeframe."
• Two references from clients with a similar property — and a direct phone call with them (not email).

If one candidate fills out this checklist without breaking a sweat and another squirms on half the items — you have your answer, even if the second one's presentation was prettier.

Considering Replacing an Existing Provider? Here's How to Do It Right

Replacing a management company frightens building owners mainly because of the fear of a "gap" in information and continuity. This is precisely where data ownership becomes critical: if the current provider holds all the operational memory and refuses to hand it over in an orderly manner, the transition really does hurt — and that is exactly the reason not to reach that situation in the first place.

Before announcing the termination, do three things:

• Actively collect documents — every certificate, warranty, supplier contract, and annual report you are entitled to. Don't wait for the moment of termination.
• Demand an onboarding plan from the new candidate that begins with a physical mapping of all the building's systems, even if it takes two weeks.
• Coordinate an overlap period if possible — even two or three weeks in which both sides talk can save months of chasing lost information.

A well-managed transition usually ends with you understanding your building better than ever — because for the first time someone is gathering everything into one place.

The Standard to Compare Against

The guiding line in all seven questions is the same: transparency and performance control. A building owner should be able to see the state of their asset at any moment — which faults are open, which inspections are approaching, what the suppliers did — without asking and without waiting for a report. And when the engagement ends, all of this history moves with them.

This is precisely the concept on which we built Domera: an operations system that manages the building so that every action, fault, statutory inspection, and certificate is documented in one place and accessible to the owners — not "in our system" but as an asset of the building. When the reporting is transparent, the SLA is measured, and the facility records belong to you, you stop being a captive client and start being a building owner who understands their asset.

Want to see what transparent and controlled management looks like in a real building? Get a quote and an initial review of your property.