In short and in plain language
This article is about the maintenance contracts your firm sells. That can be for heating, roofs or electrics.
Often the website says just one short line about it. A page of its own is better. It says what you do, how often and the price.
The law sets limits on how long a contract runs and on how to end it. If a customer signs up on the website itself, more duties apply.
Ask in the form about the equipment and the time the customer wants. Remind your customers of the next visit in good time.
We build websites for trade firms at a fixed price.
In October many heating firms take the first breakdown call of the season, while other weeks of the year leave the diary thin. A maintenance contract changes that arithmetic: the work is agreed in advance, it falls in weeks the business chooses itself, and at the next breakdown the customer calls the firm that already knows the equipment first. That applies not only to heating but just as much to electrical safety checks, the roof inspection after winter, or servicing doors, gates and ventilation units. Even so, many trade websites say no more than one line about it: “Maintenance on request.” What the scope is, how often someone comes, how long the contract runs and how to cancel it, the customer only learns in conversation, if they ask at all. This article shows how a dedicated service page for maintenance contracts is built: what belongs on it, what § 309 No. 9 BGB of the German Civil Code sets for term and cancellation, which duties a contract concluded directly on the website triggers, what an enquiry with equipment details looks like, and how the business reminds customers of the next visit in good time. The subject is the maintenance your business sells. How the website itself is looked after is covered under maintenance and support.
Key takeaways
- A maintenance contract needs its own service page with scope, exclusions, interval, price, term and cancellation. The line “maintenance on request” leaves customers to ask every important question themselves.
- Around 4 million heating systems in Germany are more than 30 years old, and over 40 percent of the 21.5 million heating systems do not meet the current state of the art (BDH). The figures cover heating only.
- In standard terms used with consumers the initial term may be no longer than two years; a tacit extension is only valid open-ended with a notice period of no more than one month (§ 309 No. 9 BGB).
- If consumers conclude the contract directly on the website, it needs a cancellation button labelled “Verträge hier kündigen” (cancel contracts here, § 312k BGB) and a withdrawal function (§ 356a BGB). The route via enquiry and quote keeps the site leaner.
- The enquiry asks for equipment, year of installation, postcode and preferred period. The reminder before the maintenance window is part of the contract; an emailed maintenance offer to non-customers is advertising under § 7 UWG.
Why a maintenance contract deserves a page of its own
For the business, a maintenance contract is above all predictable work. The appointments are fixed before the year begins, materials and journeys can be grouped, and part of the work falls in weeks that would otherwise leave gaps in the diary. That counts for more when the order situation weakens. In the second quarter of 2026 the order backlog indicator for the German skilled trades fell to minus 15 points, after minus 3 points in spring 2025 (ZDH). The average order reach stood at 8.7 weeks (ZDH). A stock of maintenance contracts does not replace new orders, but it means part of the coming year is already booked before the first enquiry arrives.
For customers the contract is a relief. They do not have to remember when the equipment is due again, they have a fixed contact, and the documents for the installation sit with a business that knows it. When something breaks, they call there rather than the first search result. That is the second value of the contract: it keeps customers without the business having to win them over again every year. How the website as a whole should work when fewer orders come in by themselves is described in the article on the website when order books shrink.
For this to work, the offer has to be visible. A sentence at the bottom of the heating page is not enough. Someone searching for “boiler service contract” plus their town wants to find a page that describes exactly that: what is done, how often, what it costs and how to get out again. A dedicated service page answers these questions before the customer picks up the phone, and it gives the search engine a clear subject. Why this holds for every service is explained in the article on service pages instead of one combined page.
The installed base: old boilers and new heat pumps
How large the field is for heating alone is shown by a figure from the Federation of the German Heating Industry: there are still around 4 million heating systems more than 30 years old, and over 40 percent of the 21.5 million heating systems in Germany do not meet the current state of the art (BDH). The figures concern heating only and say nothing about how many of these systems are already serviced regularly. They do show how many installations have reached an age at which an annual check, an honest note on their condition and, at some point, a quote for replacement make sense.
New installations come on top. From January to June 2026, 352,000 heat generators were sold, 19 percent more than in the same period a year earlier; of these, 194,500 were heating heat pumps, an increase of 40 percent (BDH). Every newly installed system is a candidate for a maintenance contract, and the handover is an obvious moment to offer one: the customer has just seen the business at work, the equipment data are complete, and the first service visit can go straight into next year's window.
Businesses that look after buildings with at least six flats or other separate units have additional legal occasions. Water-based heating systems that are not heat pumps and were installed after 30 September 2009 must undergo a heating check and optimisation there within one year after 15 years have passed since installation, older systems by 30 September 2027 (§ 60b(1) GModG). Heat pumps installed there after 31 December 2023 need an operating check no later than two years after commissioning (§ 60a(1) GModG). For the maintenance page, one sentence of the law matters most: the heating check is to be offered and carried out, among other occasions, during heating maintenance work (§ 60b(4) GModG). A short section saying which buildings the check applies to and that it can be done at the service visit is enough. Exemptions, what the check covers and what else has changed in heating law since the summer are set out in the article on the new heating law on plumbing and heating websites.
Which trades can sell maintenance
Maintenance contracts are not a matter for heating engineers alone. Wherever an installation or component deteriorates over time and a failure costs more than the check, a recurring service can be described. What matters is that the scope is fixed in advance. A service whose content only emerges on site is a repair with an appointment, not a contract that can be explained on a page.
Heating and heat pumps
Annual service before the heating season: cleaning, settings, visual inspection and report. In buildings with six or more flats, the checks under §§ 60a and 60b GModG as well.
Electrical
Inspection of the household installation as an electrical safety check; for commercial customers, the recurring testing of installations and equipment with a test report for their records.
Roofing
Inspection after winter: covering, flashings, gutters, downpipes and penetrations. Photos of the findings make the report easy for the customer to follow.
Ventilation and air conditioning
Filter changes, cleaning and function tests to the manufacturer's specifications, with a fixed interval per unit and a note on when the next change is due.
Gates, doors, windows
Adjusting and lubricating fittings, checking seals and security hardware. For metalworkers and joiners, a way to keep customers after installation.
Plumbing
Backflow stops, lifting stations, filters and water softeners: components that few people look at until they fail, and that lend themselves to a fixed interval.
For the website this means: every trade that offers maintenance gets its own page, or at least its own section with its own enquiry. A heating business links to it from the heating page, an electrical contractor from its testing service, a roofer from the repair page. How we build such pages for individual trades is shown on the pages about websites for plumbing and heating, for electrical contractors and for roofers.
What belongs on the page: scope, interval, price, term
Most of the questions a customer has about a maintenance contract can be answered in advance. The more completely the page answers them, the less often an enquiry ends in a phone call that only covers the basics. Eight items carry the page; the right column shows how they might be worded for a boiler service.
| Item | What the customer wants to know | How it can read on the page |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | What is done at each visit? | visual inspection, cleaning of burner and heat exchanger, settings, report |
| Exclusions | What is not included? | spare parts and repairs charged by time and material, with a quote first |
| Interval | How often does someone come? | once a year, in the September to October window |
| Price | What does it cost per year? | flat rate per system including call-out, as a total price including VAT |
| Term | How long am I committed? | first year fixed, open-ended thereafter |
| Cancellation | How do I get out again? | at the end of the first year and at any time thereafter with one month's notice |
| Report | What do I get in hand? | inspection report with findings and photos by email after each visit |
| Breakdown | What applies if something fails in between? | contract customers are given priority when scheduling |
Clarity on price pays off. Maintenance is one of the services in the trades whose scope is fixed before the visit, and so one where a price on the page pre-sorts enquiries. When addressing consumers, the page then shows the total price including VAT, not the net amount. Why this suits maintenance in particular and how to word a price statement that holds is described in the article on showing prices on a trade website.
Just as important is what the contract does not cover. A customer who pays a maintenance flat rate and then receives a second invoice for a seal feels short-changed, even if the contract said so. If the sentence “We charge spare parts and repairs by time and material, and you receive a quote first” is visible on the page, the question is settled before it becomes a dispute. The same goes for equipment the business does not service, for example makes for which it does not source parts: one sentence on this spares both sides an enquiry that will not lead to an order.
Term and cancellation: the limits of § 309 No. 9 BGB
Maintenance contracts with private customers are usually concluded on pre-formulated terms, that is, standard business terms. For contracts whose subject is the regular provision of services or work, the German Civil Code sets three limits on such terms (§ 309 No. 9 BGB):
- The initial term may not bind the customer for longer than two years (§ 309 No. 9(a) BGB).
- A tacit extension is only valid if the contract then continues for an indefinite period and the customer can cancel it at any time with a notice period of no more than one month (§ 309 No. 9(b) BGB).
- The notice period for the end of the initial term may be no longer than one month (§ 309 No. 9(c) BGB).
For the service page this yields a simple rule: term and cancellation appear there in one sentence that anyone understands, and that sentence matches the contract. A model that stays within these limits reads, for example: the contract runs for one year at first and then continues indefinitely; you can cancel it at the end of the first year and at any time thereafter with one month's notice. Anyone who wants to bind the customer for more than two years, or provides for an automatic extension by a further full year, risks the clause being invalid.
This does not apply in the same way to business customers. Towards businesses, such as a commercial operation or a housing company, § 309 BGB does not apply (§ 310(1) BGB). The general review of terms under § 307 BGB remains, however, and can render a clause invalid there too. With a property manager, it depends on whose name they sign in: if they conclude the contract for a homeowners' association or a private landlord, that party becomes the contracting party (§ 164(1) BGB, § 9b(1) of the German Condominium Act, WEG), and whether it counts as a business depends on the individual case. Longer terms are easier to agree in business dealings, often in the interest of a customer who wants to plan for several buildings. The page should then say clearly which model applies to whom, rather than serving both customer groups with one text.
Not legal advice, but a working aid
Concluded on the website or by quote
The second decision concerns the route to the contract. A business can let customers conclude the maintenance contract directly on the website, with a form, an order button and a confirmation email. Or the page takes an enquiry, the business sends a quote, and the customer accepts by email or signature. Both routes are possible, but they trigger different duties on the website.
If a consumer can conclude the contract on the website, a maintenance contract is usually a continuing obligation within the meaning of § 312k BGB. The website must then provide a cancellation button labelled “Verträge hier kündigen” (cancel contracts here) or an equally clear wording, leading directly to a confirmation page with a “jetzt kündigen” (cancel now) button (§ 312k(2) BGB). If it is missing, the customer can cancel at any time without observing a notice period (§ 312k(6) BGB). For a distance contract concluded via an online interface, a withdrawal function labelled “Vertrag widerrufen” (withdraw from contract) is added (§ 356a BGB), and the customer usually has a withdrawal period of 14 days (§ 355(2) BGB).
The cancellation button must be clearly legible and labelled with nothing other than the words “Verträge hier kündigen” (cancel contracts here) or an equivalent unambiguous wording.
If the contract is concluded via enquiry and quote, the cancellation button and withdrawal function usually fall away, because the contract is not concluded through the website. The withdrawal notice remains: if the contract comes about by email or phone alone, a consumer customer usually has a right of withdrawal, and the notice belongs in the quote. What to watch for is set out in the article on cancellation rights for jobs booked by email and online.
| Route to the contract | What the website needs | Effort on the website |
|---|---|---|
| Enquiry on the page, quote and acceptance by email | enquiry form; withdrawal notice and model withdrawal form in the quote | low |
| Quote at the visit, signature at the customer's home | enquiry form; notice on paper before signing | low |
| Concluded directly on the website | order path, cancellation button with confirmation page, withdrawal function, confirmation emails | high |
For most businesses the route via enquiry and quote fits better. It keeps the website lean, the business sees the equipment before the customer commits, at least in a photo, and a price that depends on the system and its condition can be stated precisely in the quote. Concluding directly on the page makes more sense where the service is entirely uniform, for example a fixed flat rate per unit without a prior visit.
The enquiry with equipment details
An enquiry for a maintenance contract differs from an ordinary contact request. The business needs details of the equipment to determine scope and price, and the customer often does not know them by heart. The form therefore asks for what is on the rating plate or easy to look up, and leaves the rest open.
- Type of system as a choice: gas, oil, heat pump, pellets, other
- Manufacturer and approximate year of installation, each with “don't know” as a valid answer
- Photo of the rating plate as an optional upload
- Postcode of the location, so the service area can be checked
- Date of the last service, if known
- Preferred period for the first visit
- Contact channel and preferred call-back time
Of these, only the details without which the business cannot write a quote are mandatory. Every further required field costs enquiries, and whatever is missing can be filled in at the first visit. How many fields a form in the trades can carry is shown in the article on the fields of an enquiry form.
Data protection is usually straightforward here: the details serve the quote and the contract, and that is exactly what they are used for. A note below the form says what the data are needed for and how long they are kept. Anyone who also wants to use the enquiry for reminders about future visits asks for this with a separate, unticked box, so that consent is given separately from the enquiry.
The reminder path: from contract to appointment
A maintenance contract depends on the visit actually taking place. For that, the business needs a list of contracts with due dates and a fixed routine that starts in good time before each maintenance window. The website is not the diary, but it is the place where the customer confirms or moves a visit or adds details. Many businesses already work digitally here: 48 percent of trade businesses offer online appointment booking, and 29 percent offer digital documentation of work steps (Bitkom, 2025 survey of 504 businesses).
Record the due window
Each contract gets a window rather than a fixed day in the maintenance list: heating in September and October, roofs in March. The list lives in the software the business already uses.
Send the reminder
A few weeks before the window, an email or letter goes to the customer with two or three proposed dates and a way to reply.
Confirm the visit
The customer picks a proposal or names a preference. The confirmation gives the day, the time slot and what should be prepared, such as clear access to the boiler room.
Hand over the report
After the visit, the inspection report goes out by email with findings, photos and, where needed, a quote for repair or replacement.
Each contract gets a window rather than a fixed day in the maintenance list: heating in September and October, roofs in March. The list lives in the software the business already uses.
A few weeks before the window, an email or letter goes to the customer with two or three proposed dates and a way to reply.
The customer picks a proposal or names a preference. The confirmation gives the day, the time slot and what should be prepared, such as clear access to the boiler room.
After the visit, the inspection report goes out by email with findings, photos and, where needed, a quote for repair or replacement.
A reminder of an agreed maintenance visit is usually part of performing the contract and not advertising, as long as it contains no further offers. It is different when the business writes to customers without a contract, for instance everyone whose boiler it repaired years ago, to offer them a maintenance contract. That is advertising by electronic mail, and it needs prior express consent (§ 7(2) No. 2 UWG) or the conditions of § 7(3) UWG: the address was obtained in connection with a sale to that customer, the advertising is for the business's own similar services, the customer has not objected, and the customer is told of the right to object when the address is collected and in every email.
On the service page this is easy to solve: whoever concludes a contract receives the reminders as part of the service. Whoever has no contract yet can sign up for a reminder before the next heating season via a separate box. How appointment requests through the website can be organised overall is described in the article on organising appointments via the website.
Planning maintenance windows by trade
A maintenance contract promises the customer a window, not a day. That is more honest and easier for the business to keep. The windows follow the subject: heating is serviced before the heating season so that faults show up before it turns cold. The roof is inspected after winter, when storms and frost have left their marks. The electrical check can be placed freely and so fills weeks in which little else is due.
The windows also help steer capacity. Capacity utilisation in the German skilled trades stood at 76 percent in the second quarter of 2026 (ZDH). Where the subject allows, the business deliberately places maintenance visits in the weaker months and so shifts work from the peaks into the troughs. On the page this becomes a sentence such as: “We schedule boiler services from September to October; for contracts concluded by the end of June, we plan the first visit within this window.”
A window instead of an appointment
How the maintenance page fits into the website
The maintenance page does not stand on its own. It gets its own address, such as /boiler-service-contract/, a title that names the service and the town, and links from the places where customers look for it: from the heating service page, from the services section of the home page, from the business profile and from the email with which a new installation is handed over.
- Title: “Boiler service contract in [town] | [business]”
- Description: scope, interval and price range in one sentence
- First screen: what is serviced, for whom, and the enquiry button
- Below: scope, exclusions, interval, price, term and cancellation
- At the end: questions and answers on procedure, report, moving house and breakdowns
A questions-and-answers section catches what the table leaves open: what happens if I move? Does the contract also cover a new system? What does a breakdown between two visits cost? Answered on the page, such questions save the business time on the phone and spare the customer a follow-up question they might not have asked at all.
What it costs to build
A maintenance page is a service page like any other and fits within the scope of a fixed-price website for trade businesses. The fixed price starts at 1,490 euros net for up to eight pages, including copy, enquiry form and legal texts. Ongoing support starts at 49 euros per month and hosting in Germany at 15 euros per month, both cancellable monthly and with no minimum term (prices as of September 2026). The full overview is on the pricing page.
Not included in the fixed price are contract conclusion directly on the website with a cancellation button and withdrawal function, customer portals and interfaces to your trade software. Most businesses do not need them: the page describes the contract and takes the enquiry, while contracts and reminders run through the tools the business already has. If you want to offer maintenance across several trades, you will find the building blocks under our services.
Sources for this article
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