Why we do not publish prices
One-off MUMTAZ work is quoted from a survey. The published exceptions are the residential AMC and the home-services packages; there is no price list for the work this article covers, and this is not a coy way of withholding one.
The reason is that a published figure for this kind of work is either so heavily qualified as to be useless, or it is wrong for most of the people reading it. The same nominal job varies by a large multiple depending on the six factors below. A number without them attached tells you nothing you can act on, and a contractor who quotes one over the phone is either guessing or planning to revise it once they arrive.
What is useful is knowing what moves the number, so you can read a quotation, ours or anyone else's, and tell whether it has been thought about.
The six things that move a quote
1. Area. The size of the affected space, or of the site. This is the obvious one and often the least important, a small patch in a difficult place costs more than a large one in an easy place.
2. Severity. How far the problem has progressed and what it has reached. Surface growth on sealed tile is a different job from growth rooted into plasterboard. A first sighting is a different job from an established population.
3. Access. Height, occupancy, live operations, permits and the working window available. Racking that needs powered access, a wall behind fitted wardrobes, a mall unit that can only be worked after closing, a free zone requiring a gate pass, each changes the hours and the equipment.
4. Frequency. A one-off visit is priced differently from a recurring programme. Programmes usually cost less per visit, because travel and scheduling are planned rather than urgent, and because the technician stops starting from scratch each time.
5. Compliance documentation. For a home, a service report is a nice-to-have. For a food facility, clinic or warehouse, a numbered device site plan, per-visit reports, trend data and product records are a substantial part of what is being produced, and a real part of the cost.
6. Emirate. Where the site is, and which of our three offices covers it. Sharjah, Dubai and Abu Dhabi have teams based in them. Al Ain, the Western Region and the northern emirates are scheduled rather than attended at short notice, and that shows up in how work is best structured.
What this looks like for pest control specifically
Severity and frequency dominate here. A single wasp nest is a visit. An established cockroach population in a building with shared risers is a programme, because treating one apartment while the population lives in the shared services gives a short-lived result at full price.
The conditions behind the problem matter as much as the problem. Almost every recurring pest issue has something feeding it that no chemical addresses, a chronic drainage leak, spilled product under racking, cardboard stacked by a goods door, waste storage that is not sealed. A quote that ignores those is quoting for a subscription. Ours says what we found and what needs to change, including when the fix is not ours to carry out.
Compliance documentation is the factor commercial buyers most often under-estimate. For a food facility, clinic or warehouse, the numbered device site plan, the per-visit reports, the trend data across visits and the product records are a real part of what is being produced, and they are what an auditor actually examines.
What a MUMTAZ quote includes
Every quote separates what is in scope from what is not, because that distinction is where disputes come from. Ours states:
- the specific work covered, area by area where a site has more than one
- the method and the products, and the approvals they carry
- what is explicitly excluded and would be quoted separately
- the documentation you receive on completion
- whether it is a single visit, a visit with a follow-up, or a cycle
- what would change the price if the site turns out different from the survey
If a quotation you receive from anyone does not distinguish included from excluded, expect a conversation about extras later.
For pest control, that means the quote covers the survey findings, the treatment method and the approved products used, the device plan where a programme is proposed, the visit schedule, reactive call-outs between scheduled visits where included, and the reporting you receive. Quoted separately: proofing works such as sealing entry points and fitting door brushes, drainage and building repairs, fumigation of containers or stock, and any specialist scope outside pest control.
How the survey and quote work
Straightforward residential work can often be quoted from a description, the property type, the emirate and what you are seeing, sent by WhatsApp or given on 800 688.
Anything where the scope has to be seen gets a site survey first: a warehouse, a whole-building programme, mould with an unidentified moisture source, or any site with access or permit constraints. A surveyor walks the site, establishes the six factors above, and the written quote follows from that.
We schedule the survey when we can actually staff it, and we would rather give you a realistic date than an optimistic one. What we will not do is publish a response time we have not committed to in a signed service agreement.
What to check before you accept any quote
- Is the company municipality-approved for that emirate, and does the name on the approval match the name on the invoice?
- What products will be used, and will they give you the data sheet and the re-entry period?
- What do they think is causing the problem, and what needs to change?
- Is a follow-up visit included, and what happens if activity continues?
- For a business: what documentation comes with each visit?
Treat any guarantee of a pest-free building with suspicion. Any premises receiving goods and people daily has continuous pest pressure, and a guarantee is a sales device rather than an outcome.
Full detail on approvals and process is on the pest control in Sharjah and the UAE. For warehouses and logistics sites, the warehouse cleaning and pest control AMC covers both scopes under one contractor and one HSE file.