AMC vs Reactive Maintenance: Which Costs Less in Mauritius?
Planned contract or call-when-it-breaks? A contractor's honest comparison of the two maintenance models — including the one situation where reactive-only genuinely makes sense.
An annual facilities maintenance contract (AMC) is planned, scheduled maintenance for a fixed fee; reactive maintenance is calling someone when something breaks. For any building with real plant — AC, pumps, distribution boards, water systems — an AMC is nearly always cheaper over a year once you count downtime, emergency call-out premiums and the collateral damage a failure causes before it is fixed.
The two models, defined
Reactive maintenance means nothing is inspected and nothing is scheduled. When a pump seizes or a board trips, you find a contractor, wait for attendance, and pay a call-out rate — typically Rs 1,500–3,500 for diagnosis alone in Mauritius, before any repair — often at short notice and sometimes at emergency rates.
An annual facilities maintenance contract means the assets are listed, each is serviced on a schedule, faults are caught while they are still small, and reactive cover is included with an agreed response time. You pay a fixed monthly or annual fee and hold one contact for the whole site.
Where reactive maintenance really costs you
- Emergency premiums. Out-of-hours and urgent attendance is priced above planned work, everywhere, always.
- Collateral damage. A failed pump seal is a seal. A failed pump seal discovered a week later is a flooded plant room. A hidden leak in a slab destroys finishes long before it announces itself — the pattern behind much of our leak-detection work.
- Downtime. A server room without cooling, a tenant floor without power, a restaurant without water — the business cost of the outage routinely exceeds the repair invoice.
- Shortened asset life. An unserviced AC unit runs hotter, draws more current and dies years early. Replacement capital is the largest maintenance cost most owners never attribute to skipped servicing.
- No records. With no service history, every new contractor starts from zero, and proving compliance after an incident is difficult.
A worked comparison
Take a small commercial building: eight AC split units, a booster pump set, a main distribution board, water tanks and general fabric. Indicative figures:
| Reactive only | Under an AMC | |
|---|---|---|
| Predictability | None — costs arrive as failures | Fixed monthly fee, budgeted in advance |
| Typical annual spend | Low in a lucky year; one compressor failure, one flood or one rewire erases years of "savings" | Known figure; parts above threshold quoted before fitting |
| Response | Whoever answers the phone, whenever | Agreed response times, one accountable contact |
| Asset life | Shortened — faults run until failure | Extended — wear caught at service visits |
| Records & compliance | None | Service history, reports, close-out documentation |
The reactive column is not cheaper. It is merely unbudgeted.
When reactive-only is actually fine
Honesty matters here: a site with almost no plant — a small shop with one AC unit and simple wiring — may not justify a contract. Service the AC seasonally, keep a reliable contractor's number, and accept the small risk. The case for an AMC strengthens with every pump, board, tank and tenant you add.
What a well-written AMC contains
- A complete asset register agreed at survey, not "the building generally"
- Named service frequencies per asset — monthly, quarterly, annual
- Included reactive call-out cover with stated response times
- A consumables threshold, and written pricing policy for parts above it
- Reporting: what you receive after each visit and each repair
- A start point mid-year if needed — contracts can begin any month, with the first visit doubling as a condition survey
Our own contract structure is described on the annual facilities maintenance contracts page; for full building operation including soft services, see facilities management.
Call-out and comparison figures are indicative for Mauritius as at . Every AMC is priced from a surveyed asset list.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between an AMC and reactive maintenance?
An annual facilities maintenance contract schedules planned servicing of a listed set of assets for a fixed fee, with reactive call-out cover and agreed response times included. Reactive maintenance means nothing is scheduled: you call a contractor after something fails and pay per intervention, often at emergency rates.
Is an annual facilities maintenance contract cheaper than paying per call-out?
Over a full year, usually yes for any building with real plant. Reactive-only looks cheaper until one failure arrives with its emergency premium, collateral damage and downtime. The AMC converts that volatility into a fixed, budgetable fee and extends asset life by catching wear early.
What does a reactive call-out cost in Mauritius?
Indicatively, Rs 1,500 to 3,500 for attendance and diagnosis, before any repair or parts, with out-of-hours and emergency attendance priced higher. Under an AMC, call-out attendance is included in the fee with an agreed response time.
Can an AMC start part-way through the year?
Yes. A contract can begin in any month. The first visit is typically run as a condition survey that establishes the asset register and baseline condition, and the schedule runs twelve months from the start date.
Want a figure for your own building? Send us the site location and scope and we will come back with a written quotation.
Or call and WhatsApp +230 5724 5224