The contract you forgot you had
It is February. A property manager emails to say their grounds contract renewed automatically last April and they are happy to carry on. You check. The rate is the one you agreed three years ago, before fuel went up, before you took on another crew member, before the site grew a new car park with planted islands that take an extra half hour every visit.
Another contract, a care home you liked working for, ended in the autumn. Nobody sent renewal terms, the manager assumed you were not interested, and they signed with someone else.
Why renewals slip through
The renewal date is written in the contract, but contracts are signed once and filed. The price was set when the site was measured, and the site has changed since. And the information you need to set a fair new price, how long the crew actually spends there, is scattered across timesheets and memory.
- End dates and notice periods are only in the signed documents.
- Many domestic and small commercial agreements roll on with no end date at all, and no review.
- Changes to the site, like new beds or extra hedging, are absorbed by the crew without being priced.
- Time spent per site is not recorded in a form that can be compared with the contract value.
- Renewal proposals are written from scratch when someone finally remembers.
What drift costs over a few seasons
Each contract left on an old rate earns a little less each year while the work quietly grows. Across a book of maintenance clients, that is the difference between a maintenance side that pays for the winter and one that does not. Lapsed contracts cost more directly: a regular client lost because nobody asked them to renew, and a gap in the round that has to be filled with new sales.
The renewals tracker we build
- We record every maintenance agreement with its start date, end date or review date, notice terms you specify, and the agreed specification of visits and tasks.
- Crew time and materials logged at each visit are gathered per site, so you can see the real cost of servicing it over the contract year.
- A set period before each renewal or review date, the owner gets a renewal pack: the current rate, the cost to service, any site changes recorded by crews, and a suggested new rate using the margin rules you set.
- The owner edits and approves the proposal, and it goes to the client as a letter or email with the revised schedule attached.
- The tracker follows up if there is no reply, and records the outcome: renewed, renewed with changes, or ended.
- Renewed terms update the schedule and invoicing, so the new rate is billed from the right date.
| Question at renewal | Where the answer comes from |
|---|---|
| When does it end? | Contract record with notice terms |
| What does it cost us to service? | Crew time and materials logged per visit |
| Has the site changed? | Change notes recorded by crews during the year |
| What should the new rate be? | Your margin rules, then the owner's judgement |
| Did they accept? | Outcome recorded, schedule and invoicing updated |
The difference at the next renewal round
Renewals stop being a surprise. The owner sees what is coming up across the next few months and has the evidence for each conversation: this site took this much crew time last year, and here is why. Clients get a clear renewal letter in good time rather than a price rise out of nowhere. And contracts that no longer pay can be repriced or let go on purpose, rather than by accident.
Signs your contract book is drifting
- Some maintenance clients have not had a price review for years.
- You have lost a regular contract because renewal terms were never sent.
- Sites have grown without the contract changing.
- You cannot say which contracts make money and which do not.
- Renewal dates live in a filing cabinet or a shared drive folder.