Facilities management agreements that match the services on the ground

Facilities work often involves overlapping services, multiple sites, third-party contractors and practical questions about who is responsible for what. A well-drafted agreement can set out the service scope, response expectations, reporting, access rules, payment structure and liability position in one place. That matters when issues arise around missed service levels, property damage, contractor coordination or handling site information. The practical working model can be just as important as the contract wording, so the document needs to reflect how the services are actually delivered in practice.

The key clauses usually include a clear description of the services, any exclusions, service levels or KPIs, site access arrangements, contractor or subcontractor use, fees and invoicing, incident reporting, confidentiality, privacy, liability limits and termination rights. For some businesses, the agreement also needs to deal with transition on exit, such as handover of records, keys, passwords or maintenance schedules. The right drafting depends on the working arrangement, documents and factual context, rather than relying on a broad form contract.

That depends on the mix of services you provide and how the relationship is run. A business handling cleaning, maintenance and security across several sites will usually need different wording from a provider delivering a narrower service at one location. We look at practical points such as who attends site, who approves extra works, whether subcontractors are used, how incidents are escalated and what information is recorded or shared. The legal position also depends on the way the business handles information in practice, especially where site data or occupant details are involved.

Generic templates can leave gaps where the commercial model, customer journey or risk profile is more specific than the precedent assumes. However, it often stays too general for live facilities arrangements. It may not deal properly with service-level measures, site-specific responsibilities, approval pathways for extra works, subcontractor controls or the way your team collects, uses and shares information. Those gaps can become expensive when there is a disagreement about performance, damage, delays or data handling. The work is designed to identify practical risk areas and recommend next steps, while the final legal position depends on your facts and implementation, because the real-world arrangement still matters.

Timing depends on how detailed the service model is and whether there are multiple sites, layered reporting requirements or unusual risk allocations to cover. After we receive your instructions, we prepare the first draft and then work through any minor amendments included in the fixed-fee. If the arrangement is more complex, or if the commercial position is still being negotiated, the timeline can extend. If you need additional work beyond the included drafting and minor changes, we can outline next steps and any separate fees before proceeding.

Just submit an enquiry via this page or click the 'get started' button on our website to submit an enquiry. After you've submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you're happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online - easy!

Once you've formally accepted, we'll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the Facilities Management Agreement service, pricing starts from $900.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We operate completely online, which means we can help you wherever you are in New Zealand. We have office spaces in Sydney, and in Melbourne, but our use of technology allows our team members to work remotely from around the world. Our legal team are mostly based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We also have a London office for Sprintlaw UK.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

They provide legal services working remotely from Australia via our 'legal consultancy' model, through which (under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) our Australian legal team are permitted to provide legal services to New Zealand businesses provided they do not provide services in certain 'reserved' areas of law. You can read our FAQ page to learn a bit more about our 'legal consultancy' model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team have all trained at leading firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.