In Saudi Arabia as well as in other countries, building owners often differ in their approach to evaluating the work performance of their maintenance contractors. To unify the approach for such evaluation, the intent of this paper is to assess the evaluation approaches used by a variety of building owners and then focus on the main criteria used for the evaluation. To achieve this objective, this study is divided into two phases. The first phase includes a review of literature on the main criteria that can be used to evaluate maintenance contracts, followed by interviews with building owners and maintenance contractors to modify and update the criteria obtained from this review. The result of this phase is grouped into eight major categories. Each category involves a detailed list of the criteria used for the evaluation. The main categories include providing proper planning and scheduling; procuring materials for the site; providing suggestions on cost cutting; providing safety precautions at the building site; subcontracting control; and ensuring management efficiency, equipment availability, and man-power competence. The second phase consists of developing and then distributing a questionnaire for both building owners and maintenance contractors to rank the importance of each one of the detailed criteria indicated in the first phase of the study. The results of this survey indicate the significance of the criteria that should be used to evaluate contractors. Furthermore, the study indicates that owners and maintenance contractors generally agree on the ranking of the importance of the performance criteria.
