Building maintenance, often referred to as property maintenance is the upkeep of a building and its surrounds. Building maintenance in Maryland includes the upkeep of buildings that rent out or lease space, places such as apartment buildings, commercial complexes or office buildings. In many cases the building owner will either manage the building or will hire a property manager who will assume the overall responsibility for the property, this individual may or may not live on site depending on the type of building and its purpose. In many cases the building manager for an apartment will live on site as issues can arise any time of the day or night, this is rarely the case with commercial buildings.
Apartment building maintenance in Maryland includes keeping all the common area clean and well maintained. The common areas such as the elevators, foyer and laundry rooms receive a lot of foot traffic must be kept clean and in good condition on a daily basis. As the tenants of the apartments are responsible for keeping their own unit clean, the only time the maintenance personnel will enter the apartment is on an as-needed basis. Property maintenance for an apartment complex does not stop indoors, the surrounding areas must also be kept free for trash, obstructions; the grass must be kept mown, in the winter walks and drives must be kept free of snow and painting must be done when required. Property managers are responsible for hiring the various personnel and companies that provide the building maintenance that is needed.
Maintaining an office building or a commercial complex such as a shopping mall includes cleaning and maintaining all the shared spaces such as the main walkways, the elevators and escalators as well as the male and female rest rooms. Whereas the individual tenants in an apartment building are responsible for maintain their own unit, this is often not the case with an office building; in an office building cleaning and maintenance of individual suites are also part of the arrangements made between the lessee and the building management. As is true with an apartment complex, the outside must also be kept clean and well maintained. The owners of commercial properties are subject to considerable liability in the event of an accident so keeping sidewalks and drives free from ice and snow is extremely important as is maintaining parking lots and steps.
