An HVAC maintenance agreement is a yearly service plan: the HVAC company inspects and tunes up a customer’s heating and cooling equipment on a set schedule, and the customer pays a flat fee and usually gets perks like priority service and repair discounts. Heating and air companies use it to keep steady work between the busy seasons, and homeowners and small building owners use it so the furnace gets looked at before the first cold night. This free HVAC service agreement template works for both residential and light commercial plans.

Who is this template for, and when is something else better?

It’s for recurring maintenance on equipment that’s already installed. If you’re installing a new system or replacing ductwork, that’s a project with a defined scope and payment schedule, and a construction contract fits better. If the job is one fixed-price repair, a signed quote is enough. For recurring work that isn’t HVAC at all, our general service agreement is simpler.

What should the plan cover?

Covered equipment

List each piece of equipment with make, model, serial number and location. A plan that says “the HVAC system” invites a disagreement the first time the second-floor mini-split fails. The template has a table for this.

Visit frequency

For a house, two visits a year is the usual shape: cooling in spring, heating in fall. A restaurant with rooftop units, a walk-in cooler and a kitchen exhaust may need quarterly visits. Write the number, the season or months, and how visits get scheduled (who calls whom).

The checklist

This is what the customer is actually paying for, so write it out. Our template lists the standard tasks separately for cooling and heating (filters, coils, condensate drain, electrical connections, thermostat, burner and heat exchanger inspection, and so on), with room to add your own. Customers compare plans by these lists, and a clear checklist also protects the company when someone later says “you were supposed to check that.”

Perks: priority service and discounts

Plans often promise faster scheduling for repairs and a percentage off parts or labor. Write these carefully. “Priority scheduling ahead of non-plan customers” is a promise you can keep in a heat wave. “Same-day service” may not be. Say what the discount applies to (parts, labor, or both), and whether it covers equipment replacement.

Who can work on refrigerant?

Only certified technicians. EPA’s Section 608 rules require technicians who maintain, service, repair or dispose of equipment that could release refrigerant to be certified, and they prohibit intentionally venting refrigerant while working on air conditioning or refrigeration equipment. EPA’s certification page lists the test sections: a core exam plus Type I (small appliances), Type II (high-pressure systems) and Type III (low-pressure systems), and it also refers to universal certification. EPA doesn’t issue the certification cards itself; approved certifying organizations do.

The template has the company confirm that refrigerant work is done by properly certified technicians and that refrigerant is recovered rather than vented. It also treats refrigerant as a separately priced item, since a plan fee rarely covers topping off a leaking system.

What does a maintenance plan usually exclude?

Be generous with the exclusions list. It’s the section that prevents the most arguments. Typical exclusions: repairs and replacement parts (discounted, not free), refrigerant, ductwork, equipment past its service life or not listed, damage from power surges, flooding or misuse, code upgrades an inspector requires, and work on equipment someone else modified. The template gives each its own line so you can delete what doesn’t apply.

Say, hypothetically, a family in Raleigh pays $219 a year for two visits. In July the condenser fan motor fails. The plan gets them on the schedule the next morning and knocks 15% off the motor, but the motor itself isn’t free. If the contract says that plainly, nobody is surprised on the invoice.

How should renewal, cancellation and door-to-door sales work?

State how long the plan lasts, whether it renews automatically, how the customer cancels, and what refund applies. If it auto-renews, say so in plain words near the price, and send a reminder before the renewal charge.

If a technician sells a plan while standing in the customer’s kitchen, the FTC’s cooling-off rule may apply. It covers many sales of $25 or more made at the buyer’s home and gives three business days to cancel, with written notice of that right and a refund within 10 business days of cancellation.

How do you set up an HVAC maintenance plan and get it signed?

  1. Record the equipment details on the first visit.
  2. Pick the plan level, visit count and checklist.
  3. Fill in the fee, the discount percentages and the service call rates.
  4. Tidy up the exclusions list so it fits the equipment.
  5. Get the customer’s signature and give them a copy with the renewal date.

Service plans are well suited to e-signing; under the ESIGN Act, a contract can’t be denied legal effect just because it’s electronic. See how to sign a PDF online if your customer has never done it.

Download it, fill in the blanks, and send it for e-signature with any tool you like. (If you’d like to try SignWren when it launches, join the waitlist.)

This template and guide are general information, not legal advice. For a specific agreement, talk to a lawyer licensed in your state.