Choosing an FM Partner
How to Choose a Facility Management Company for Your Society
Choosing a facility management company for your society comes down to five checks: does the operator self-deliver core trades or subcontract everything; is there a single accountable manager for your community; how transparent are billing and monthly reporting; what are the real SLAs and response times; and can they show measurable outcomes from comparable communities. Score every operator on the same five and the right partner becomes obvious.
For most apartment societies and gated communities, appointing a facility management company is one of the largest recurring decisions the committee makes — and one of the hardest to compare, because every operator’s proposal looks broadly similar on paper. This guide gives your association an objective way to cut through that: five things that actually matter, the questions that test each one, and a scorecard you can apply to any operator.
The five things that actually matter
Most pitches lead with the same promises — trained staff, quality service, transparent reporting. The differences that decide whether a community is well-run sit underneath those words:
- Self-delivery vs subcontracting. Does the operator directly employ the security guards, housekeeping team and MEP technicians on your site, or does it subcontract some trades to other agencies? Self-delivery keeps accountability and supervision in one place.
- A single accountable manager. Is there one named person responsible for your community day-to-day, or are issues spread across a call centre? Single-point accountability is what most committees are actually buying.
- Billing and reporting transparency. Will you receive an itemised cost breakdown and a monthly report you can put in front of residents, or a single lump-sum invoice with no detail?
- Real SLAs and response times. What are the committed response times for a complaint, a breakdown, or an absent staff member — and how are they measured and reviewed?
- Proof from comparable communities. Can the operator point to a community of similar size and type that it already runs, and describe the outcomes it delivered there?
The self-delivery test
The single most useful question you can ask is: “Which of these trades do your own employees deliver, and which are subcontracted?”
When core trades are subcontracted, each sub-vendor adds its own margin and supervision layer, and when something goes wrong the operators tend to point at each other. A self-delivered model puts the security, housekeeping and MEP teams on one payroll, under one supervisor, with one organisation carrying the statutory liability. It is usually the safer structure for a residential community, where the same team is on site every day and continuity matters.
Questions to ask in the pitch
Take this short list into every presentation and write down the answers:
- Who exactly will be our site manager, and how many communities do they handle?
- Which trades are self-delivered and which are subcontracted?
- How are EPF, ESI and minimum-wage compliance handled, and can we see the records?
- What is your committed response time for a complaint, and how is it tracked?
- What does the monthly report contain, and can we see a sample?
- Can we speak to a committee at a community you already run?
Red flags
A quote priced well below the market range almost always reappears later as understaffing, missing consumables, or compliance shortcuts. Other warning signs: no named site manager, vague SLAs, reluctance to share statutory-compliance documents, no standard reporting format, and an inability to name a comparable community. None of these are automatically disqualifying on their own — but two or three together usually mean the operating reality will not match the proposal.
A scorecard you can use
Score each operator from 1 to 5 on the five factors above, then add them up. It keeps the decision objective and gives the committee a defensible record for the AGM.
| Factor | What a 5 looks like | What a 1 looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Self-delivery | Core trades on own rolls, one supervisor | Most trades subcontracted, layered margins |
| Accountability | Named manager, clear escalation | Call centre only, no single owner |
| Transparency | Itemised quote + monthly MIS sample | Lump-sum invoice, no reporting |
| SLAs | Defined, measured, reviewed monthly | Vague or undocumented |
| Proof | Comparable community reference | No reference offered |
A genuinely strong operator scores well even when you are evaluating its competitors — which is exactly why an honest scorecard protects the society. If you would like an evaluation built around your community’s actual scope, PropSquare will carry out a site survey and give you a costed, like-for-like proposal you can drop straight into this scorecard.