How To Make A Property Maintenance Plan

Take Your Property Management Operations To The Next Level By Having a Solid Property Maintenance Plan and Letting It Guide Your Property Maintenance Activities

Fixing leaky toilets and the dreaded 2 a.m. maintenance request call from a tenant are two things every landlord can agree they’d rather not have to deal with. If you’re a rental property owner or property manager, you’ve either dealt with these unpleasant events or you know they are likely to occur sometime in your future.

There isn’t a way to completely prevent these events from happening, but there are systems you can implement into your business to prevent the majority of those surprise calls, make handling repairs a little bit easier or even prevent yourself from having to answer a repair request call ever again. Implementing these systems also has the added benefits of making your property management operations look more professional and it shows your tenants that you are intentional about keeping property in top shape. If they see that you care about the property, they are more likely to care about your property and take better care of it too.

What Is A Property Maintenance Plan

A property maintenance plan is a written document that guides your property maintenance operations. It lets you, your tenants and your property maintenance team know exactly what to do when a maintenance issue arises. The plan makes it clear who a tenant should contact if they have a maintenance request or a maintenance emergency. It spells out what should be considered a regular maintenance request and what should be considered a maintenance emergency. It contains instructions for how to handle common maintenance issues a tenant may face at the property. It includes your routine property maintenance to-do lists and it includes the names and contact information for members of your property maintenance team.

In short, a proper maintenance plan is your ultimate guide for handling property maintenance issues like a pro.

Let Tenants Know Who To Contact For Maintenance Requests

For you to stay on top of maintenance issues and respond to maintenance requests in a timely manner, you first have to know that an issue exists in the first place. You can’t predict every repair that’s needed or prevent all maintenance requests by doing your regular quality checks. You’ll still rely on your tenants to let you know when

something around the home needs your attention. As part of the move-in process, you should let your tenants know who to contact when a maintenance need arises.

DIY or Outsource

Like with many things these days, from getting your oil changed to going grocery shopping, you can choose to handle the responsibilities yourself or outsource the job to a qualified specialist. If you choose to receive tenant repair request calls yourself, it’s recommended that you provide your tenants with a phone number that’s different from your primary cell phone number, as a means of contacting you. Google Voice is a great option for your secondary phone line - giving you access to calls, texts and voicemail all for free. With a phone line dedicated solely to business communication, you can control the times you can be reached by turning the second phone line’s ringer on and off.

If you ever want to have times that you’re not on-call for maintenance requests or you never want to field a maintenance call at all, then you must outsource this responsibility to a third party. Someone has to be available to receive calls from tenants or to respond to tenant messages promptly. It’s rare that a water pipe bursts or another urgent situation arises, but these things do happen. You want your tenant to be able to reach you or someone else with instructions on what to do quickly. You can partner with a friend or family member to handle these inbound calls or hire an assistant who specializes in this type of work.

Who your tenant contacts with a maintenance request might depend on whether the request is being made during the work day or after business hours. It also might depend on whether the request is considered an emergency or not. You should make it clear to your tenants whom to call and under what circumstances. If there are multiple points of contact, be sure the tenants are aware of that and understand your system.

It may seem obvious, but it’s also very important that your tenants understand they still call 9-1-1 when someone’s health and/or safety are in immediate danger. If there is a fire, health emergency, crime in progress or other life threatening circumstances, the tenant should contact the proper authorities and have them handle the situation. They should inform you of the situation as soon as it is safe to do so.

Quick Reference Guide

Your property maintenance plan should also include information about the home that would be helpful when performing repairs and instructions for locating or repairing common items.

The locations of the electrical breaker box and the water shut off valve should be provided to the tenants and to anyone who will receive maintenance calls.

Build Your Property Maintenance Team

Unless you’re a jack of all trades with tons of free time on your hands, you’re going to need to put together a team of reliable professionals to assist in executing your property maintenance plan. Having your maintenance team in place and ready to respond when they’re called upon allows you to take action on tenant requests quickly. Tenants often cite poor response to maintenance requests and issues with property management as reasons for moving out of a property.

High tenant turnover can eat away at your profits and the inability to keep good tenants could ultimately ruin your rental property business, so it’s important that you have a solid property maintenance team in place to respond to all tenant requests in a timely manner.

Let’s take a look at your property maintenance team’s starting five:

Plumber

Choose a plumber who is licensed and insured. You’ll call on this person when there are water leaks, blockages or problems with your sinks or toilets. Tenants have to have reliable, clean drinking water and functioning toilets and sinks. You will want to have a trusted plumber on your team and their number on speed dial.

Electrician

Like your plumber, your electrician is another team member that should be licensed and insured. Your electrician will be the one to help you when any issues arise with a component of the home’s electrical system. Working with electricity is dangerous and should only be done by those who have had special training.

HVAC Repair

As a landlord you are responsible for providing a safe living environment. In many places, that means providing reliable heat and air conditioning, especially during certain times of the year. Because you don’t want to leave your tenant suffering in the heat or shivering in the cold, it’s important to have a heating and air repair person in your starting five and ready to tackle any heating and air issues that arise.

Appliance Repair

Appliances always tend to break down at the most inconvenient times. There’s never really a great time for an appliance to breakdown … but that’s beside the point…

Have a professional on your team ready to handle appliance issues for your properties. Many times appliance repairs are not emergencies, but addressing appliance repair requests quickly goes a long way in making tenants happy and eager to stay in a property.

General Handyman

The final member of your property maintenance team’s starting five is a good general handyman. A good handyman can help you assess repair requests and determine exactly what type of repair is needed. He can also step in for you and do any maintenance tasks that you can't do or don’t want to do.

If you’ve built and maintained a good relationship with this person, you should be confident in the work they do and you should know they will perform to your standards.

Managing Your Team

With each of these professionals, you’ll want to establish and maintain a close professional relationship. You’ll want your starting five to be made up of individuals you can trust and feel comfortable counting on.

You should do more than just Google handymen in your area and jot down their phone numbers in case you need them sometime. You should meet these individuals before you need them to do a job. Talk with them. Get an understanding of each person’s work style and see if their style fits with what you’re looking for in a team member. Gauge their professionalism and work ethic to see if it aligns with yours. You don’t want to have to deal with personnel issues on top of a property emergency, so know who you’re partnering with from the start.

You’ll also want to iron out the details of pay, timelines and methods of communication during your team building phase as well. Find out if there will be a trip charge for responding to a service call and if the charge varies based on the day of the week or the time of day the call comes in. If there is a trip charge, you may want to save up the cost of two or three trip charges so you have the money available when an issue pops up.

Perform Regular Maintenance

It’s very important to have a system in place to handle a surprise maintenance request or the (hopefully) rare maintenance emergency. It’s equally important to have a system in place for performing routine maintenance checks on your property and the systems and components that make it all run. With regular attention and preventative maintenance, you will be able to keep your properties running well and in good condition for a long time.

This list of items can be added to a checklist that you use at least once a year or preferably each quarter to ensure you’ve covered all your property maintenance bases. These seven items are just a few of the areas you may want to check. The items you decide to include in your regular maintenance checks depend on the needs of your specific property.

1. Property is Generally Tidy and No Obvious Lease Violations

Visually inspect the property and be sure the tenants are not doing anything that would constitute a lease violation. Also be sure the property is generally being kept in good condition and is generally tidy.

2. Water Damage or Leaks

Look for active water leaks or signs of water damage from a leak that already occurred. Check under sinks and around the base of toilets too.

3. Replace Furnace Filters

Check that furnace filters have been changed. It’s usually recommended to change the filters at least every three months.

4. Inspect Roof and Clean Gutters

Have a look at the roof and check for signs of damage. You’ll also want to check for potential risks like limbs hanging over the home. Ensure your gutters are clear of debris and are working properly.

5. Refresh Caulk and Grout

Check around sinks and tubs to be sure the caulking is holding up and there are no cracks for water to get into. Refresh or add any grout necessary between tiles.

6. Check Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detectors

Most detectors come with a test button. Use it to confirm that all smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors are working properly.

7. Pest Control

Look for signs of pests or critters affecting the home. Treat the property with products to eliminate the pests of call in a professional pest control company to handle the problem for you. Pest control issues don’t usually fix themselves. It’s best to tackle any issues early.

Have A System For Tracking Maintenance

Now that you’re performing routine checks and are staying on top of regular maintenance, it’s a good idea to keep track of the maintenance checks and the repairs you make. That way, you’ll be able to notice patterns and easily tell if one property has higher maintenance costs than all the others. You can then determine if the tenant of or the property is the reason for the higher cost and make decisions accordingly from there.

In addition to logging each repair request, we recommend that you also use a checklist for your routine property inspections. This way you don’t forget to review an important element of the property. You can also use the checklists to show that you are taking care of the property and providing a quality product to your tenants.

Get Started

Don't wait until a maintenance call comes in to start thinking about your property maintenance plan. A little planning on the front end can save time, money and your sanity on the back end.