Maintenance agreement renewals: what to send and when

A renewal email has one job: show the customer what the agreement did for them this year, then ask for another one. Most renewal emails skip the first part and go straight to the price.

This covers what to say, when to send it, whether to auto-renew, and the rules some states put on plans that renew on their own. It applies to HVAC memberships and to plumbing plans like annual water heater service. The renewal is one of eleven emails every HVAC company should send and twelve every plumber should send. If you’re looking for the settings, ServiceTitan calls these Memberships (Service agreements for commercial work), and Housecall Pro calls them Service Plans.

What the renewal data shows

ServiceTitan looked at commercial service agreements on its platform as of January 2026. Agreements that reached the end of their term renewed at 37 percent overall, and how the shop handled renewals made a difference:

Source: ServiceTitan, published May 2026.

Read it with three caveats. It’s commercial work, not residential, so don’t read it straight across to your membership base. ServiceTitan doesn’t disclose how many agreements or contractors are in it. And ServiceTitan notes that correlation doesn’t imply causation, which is fair: the shops that turn on automation probably differ from the ones that don’t in ways that also affect renewals. It also sells the automation it’s measuring.

Even so, it’s the only renewal data with a platform behind it that we’ve found, and it points one way: the shops that reminded people renewed more of them. Here’s what else we know about retention, and what we don’t.

What a renewal email should say

Lead with the year. Pull it from the job history in ServiceTitan or Housecall Pro: the visits you made, anything you caught early, priority service when they needed it, and discounts they used. FieldPulse, which sells field service software, puts it simply: “remind the customer what the contract already caught,” like a minor repair found on a routine visit.

Then the terms, in plain words: when it renews, what it costs, what it covers, and how to change or cancel.

For plans that renew automatically, California spells out what its notice must say: that the plan renews unless the customer cancels, the length of the renewal term, the cost and how often it’s charged, at least one way to cancel (with a link if it’s sent electronically), and how to reach the business (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 17602). That list makes a good standard anywhere.

Put together, it looks like this:

Subject: Your maintenance plan renews next month. Here’s what it did this year.

This year your plan covered [the visits they actually had] and [anything you caught early]. It renews on [date] for another year at [price, and last year’s price if it’s going up]. If you’d like to change it or cancel, reply here, call us at [number], or use [cancel link].

Only list what they actually used. If they haven’t used a visit yet, add a line offering to book it before the plan renews.

When to send it

Ad Genius, a marketing agency for home service businesses, lays out a sensible sequence: an advance renewal notice, a reminder closer to expiration, a message on the expiration date, and a follow-up after the plan lapses. It also says the timing should follow your agreement’s terms (Ad Genius). That’s the part people miss. If your agreement gives customers until 30 days before renewal to cancel, a reminder that lands 20 days out arrives after their deadline, and that’s how surprise charges happen.

Where the law sets timing, the law wins:

• California: for a household plan with a term of a year or more that renews automatically, the notice goes out 15 to 45 days before it renews.
• New York: an automatic renewal clause in a service or maintenance contract can’t be enforced unless you give written notice, in person or by certified mail, 15 to 30 days before the customer’s deadline to cancel (N.Y. Gen. Oblig. Law § 5-903). Email alone doesn’t meet it.

Templates can get this wrong. LeadDuo’s maintenance agreement template has the company send a renewal notice “no less than [45] days before the renewal date,” and its article suggests notices 45 to 60 days out (LeadDuo). Earlier reminders are fine, but in California the required notice itself has to land 15 to 45 days before renewal. Check your template against your state.

Auto-renew or ask again?

The business case leans toward auto-renew. In ServiceTitan’s data, agreements with auto-renew turned on renewed at 42.4 percent, against 29.8 percent for fully manual renewals, with all the caveats above.

The legal side turns on one distinction. The automatic renewal laws we checked cover plans that renew, or keep billing, on their own. A plan that only renews when the customer says yes falls outside those definitions, and its renewal email is a sales email.

How that works in your software depends on how your plans are set up. ServiceTitan’s help center says fixed memberships renew when a renewal task is sold on an estimate or invoice, ongoing memberships don’t expire, and service agreements can be set to renew automatically (ServiceTitan). In Housecall Pro, a Service Plan with an end date renews when the customer accepts the renewal, which waits in Pending Renewal until they do, and a plan set to continue until canceled stays active until it’s canceled. Its renewal reminders can go out 1, 3, 7, 14, 30 or 60 days before expiration (Housecall Pro).

For plans that do renew on their own, the rules vary a lot by state. Three examples:

California exempts some service contracts regulated under a separate state law, so check whether yours is covered.

At the federal level, there’s no “click to cancel” rule in effect. The Eighth Circuit struck down the FTC’s 2024 rule on July 8, 2025 (the decision), and the FTC asked for public comment on starting over in March 2026 (Federal Register). As of October 2026, it hadn’t proposed a new rule. A federal law called ROSCA still applies to plans sold online with recurring charges: clear terms before you take billing information, the customer’s express consent, and a simple way to stop the charges (15 U.S.C. § 8403).

None of this is legal advice. These are examples of how much the rules vary, so have a lawyer in your state look over your agreement and your renewal notices.

The members who already lapsed

Ad Genius’s last step, the follow-up after a plan lapses, is the easiest one to forget. Some of those customers meant to let it go. Others just missed it.

Subject: Your plan ended last month. Want it back?

Your maintenance plan with us ended on [date]. If you meant to let it go, no problem. If it slipped by, reply and we’ll pick it back up where it left off.

After that, a lapsed member is a past customer like any other. Here’s how to bring them back.

What not to do

• Surprise charges. A renewal the customer didn’t see coming is a good way to lose them, and in some states it can cost you the renewal itself.
• Hiding how to cancel. Put it in the email. California wants cancellation available the same way the customer signed up, and Minnesota lets customers cancel at any time.
• Guilt. When someone asks to cancel, Minnesota lets you ask once whether they’d like to hear an offer. That’s a good rule anywhere.

Common questions

When should I send a maintenance agreement renewal reminder?

Before the cancellation deadline in your agreement, with another reminder close to the renewal date. If the law in your state sets a window, like California’s 15 to 45 days for yearly plans that renew on their own, make sure one notice lands inside it.

Should maintenance agreements auto-renew?

ServiceTitan’s data says auto-renew goes with more renewals, with the caveats above. It also brings notice and cancellation rules in some states, like the three above, so if you turn it on, set your reminders up to match.

What should a renewal email include?

What the plan did this year, the renewal date and price, what it covers, how to cancel, and how to reach you.

Do renewal emails need an unsubscribe link?

A plain notice about the customer’s existing plan can count as a “transactional or relationship” message under CAN-SPAM, which doesn’t need one (15 U.S.C. § 7702). But the FTC reads that category narrowly and warns against assuming that emails to members of a membership program qualify (FTC). An email that sells the renewal, an upgrade or other work is commercial, and it needs the unsubscribe link and your postal address.

The practical rule: keep notices the law requires plain and free of promotion, and send them to everyone on the plan, including customers who unsubscribed from your marketing. Send them from ServiceTitan or Housecall Pro rather than your marketing list. Housecall Pro’s renewal reminders even have a “Send to customers with notifications off” setting. Here’s more on what email law actually requires.