How to take care of your rental property: Preventative maintenance and emergencies
What constitutes an emergency for a rental property? Here are some guidelines:
- A repair issue that is a threat to a tenant’s health
- Unresolved issues that could cause an injury to tenants or their guests
- Disrepair that could cause serious property damage
- Some critical items are situational - e.g. what if the AC fails during an extreme heatwave and your tenant is elderly? Or, if your heat fails during a cold snap in the winter?
- Repairs or maintenance problems that could cause liability
- Here’s a sampling of some emergency-level repairs that would need to be made for your rental property. This list is no way all-inclusive but gives you an idea of the type of things to look out for:
- A gas leak or elevated carbon monoxide levels
- Plumbing backups (especially if there is only one toilet/shower in the home, or if all the plumbing is backing up)
- Plumbing leaks (to prevent water damage to surrounding areas or other floors in the property)
- Loss of hot water
- Heating failure where interior home temperature is at or below 55 degrees
- Air conditioning failure where inside temperature is above 85 degrees
In these instances, landlords must address the issues right away not just to prevent potential liability, but also to make sure all parties affected are as safe and sound as possible.
When you keep tenants happy by addressing difficult concerns that come up regarding the property, it greatly helps with tenant retention. Even a maintenance request that is not an emergency can be addressed in a timely manner to make tenants happy. This is a win-win for everyone, and good financial management.
Consider getting your tenants on board with your plans for property upkeep. Perhaps you can provide them with a list of what ongoing maintenance items are on the horizon and when to expect them to be performed.
Also, make sure not to allow tenants to move forward with their own agenda with scenarios such as these: Painting or renovating, bringing pets onto the property, or removing landscaping. Any of these types of modifications would surely need landlord permission, which is in everyone’s interest to maintain the safety of the property.
If you have any questions about how to best handle maintenance issues, we’d be happy to discuss it with you. Give us a call at 408-982-5977 or email us at info@rezidehome.com! A member of our staff will get back to you.