What is Reactive Maintenance?

Reactive maintenance is “on the spot”. It covers urgent fixes that keep homes, offices and public spaces safe.

Unlike preventative or routine works, reactive maintenance happens in response to a failure, such as a burst pipe or faulty wiring. It requires quick thinking, skilled trades, and top-tier coordination.

In the property services sector, reactive maintenance is pretty much unavoidable. The question is less about whether it’s needed and more about how it’s managed across different housing and property types.

Reactive Maintenance in Social Housing

Housing providers are legally obliged to respond promptly to tenant issues, especially when health and safety are at risk, so social housing often engages reactive maintenance. Typical reactive maintenance jobs in the social housing sector include fixing leaks, restoring heating systems, repairing broken doors and addressing electrical hazards.

The challenge is not only the high volume of enquiries but also meeting strict targets around response times and ensuring all works are logged for compliance audits.

Property managers are hired to balance tenant satisfaction with budget constraints. Maintenance staff, multi-traders, plumbers, and electricians carry out the work. Then, behind the scenes, planners book in and document every repair made.

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Reactive Maintenance in the Private Rental Sector

In the private rental sector, the responsibility usually sits with letting agents, build-to-rent operators, or property management firms. While routine servicing (such as boiler checks or appliance inspections) helps to reduce risk, reactive issues are still inevitable.

Common examples include appliance breakdowns, lock and door problems, and emergency leaks.

For many operators, the challenge is scale. They may not have in-house teams or systems to handle reactive callouts. In these cases, partnering with trusted contractors who can provide skilled operatives and 24/7 coverage becomes critical.

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Reactive Maintenance in Commercial Property

When it comes to business, downtime from reactive issues can be costly.

A broken HVAC system, faulty lifts, power outages and other disruptions create business losses and ramp up emergency call-out costs.

To reduce risk, many facilities teams rely on quality service-level agreements (SLAs), in-house maintenance teams, and recruitment partners to supply temporary or permanent operatives.

Partnerships with 24/7 call-out contractors and the use of digital reporting systems, like CMMS systems, may also be used to strengthen compliance processes.

Daniel Owen supplies experienced temp and perm staff to assist with commercial property maintenance, as we understand how crucial seamless operation is.

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The Advantages and Disadvantages of Reactive Maintenance

Advantages:

• Ensures safety and compliance obligations are met.
• Maintains tenant and occupier satisfaction.
• Provides a safety net for unexpected failures.

Disadvantages:

• Higher cost compared to preventative strategies.
• Greater disruption.
• Can create pressure on budgets and resources.

The best maintenance strategies balance reactive work with preventative and planned maintenance, reducing both costs and risk over time.

Next Steps

Reactive maintenance is the “safety net” of property services. It will always be required, but organisations that rely on it too heavily risk high costs and operational inefficiency.

When combined with preventative and planned works, it becomes part of a balanced property maintenance strategy that covers you as a property/facilities manager.

Read our detailed breakdown on property maintenance >>

Looking to strengthen your team with experienced reactive maintenance operatives?

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