Maintaining your property helps you run a successful rental business. You can also avoid hefty bills if you take care of minor problems on time. On top of that, being in the rental business it is you are bound by law to provide inhabitable residence to your tenants. It is recommended to take care of problems before your tenant complains about it.
Maintenance and the Law
Landlords are supposed to ensure that the property is up to the housing standards. That means a rental property must have a working cooling, heating, safe electrical system, hot water and plumbing. The appliances in the house must not only be working but should be safe to use as well.
Maintenance Requests
You can get a call for a maintenance time of the day or night. Often you will get a maintenance request that the tenant thinks is an emergency. Some maintenance requests are emergency situations and others are not.
As mentioned, maintenance could be emergency or non emergency.
An emergency situation could be any unfortunate accident that needs instant response like fire damage, pipe burst that may flood an entire unit, or electrical wiring that may damage appliances and possible power outage. These kinds of situations need immediate repairs.
Non-emergency situations on the other hand could be small repairs that help prevent major damages in the near future. For example, These repairs do not need immediate response like the ones we discussed above. You can schedule these repairs as per the lease agreement.
Let’s see what maintenance tasks you can cater for in advance to stop it from becoming a disaster to your property or your wallet
CO and Smoke Detection
A property should be safe to live in and it is the responsibility of a landlord to provide a safe environment to their tenants. Therefore, it is very important to check carbon monoxide and smoke detectors every year to make sure the property is safe to live in. Some states require landlords to install detectors at properties and maintain them.
Grout and Caulking
Cracks and gaps between tiles look really ugly and that’s not the only problem you will face when there are cracks and openings, it can cause very serious trouble in the form of water damage. Therefore, it is highly recommended to check the joints and tiles and make sure they are filled with caulking or grout so that damages can be avoided in the future.
Water Damage
A small water leak or a dripping pipe may end in a major water damage that can cost a fortune to clean and fix. Water leakage results in mold, property damage, and flooding. The good thing is you can solve these problems upfront and avoid paying hefty bills for water damage restoration.
HVAC System
The HVAC system is considered to be one of the most expensive repairs on property. Maintaining it will make sure it doesn’t break down. A better approach is to hire professionals to maintain the HVAC systems of your property.
Keeping the HVAC system maintained not only decreases your overall repair cost on the property, it will also make your tenants happy.
Security
A secure residence is the basic right of a tenant and hence the landlord is required to provide a property that is secure. This reduces the chances of theft or a crime happening on the property. Therefore, make sure the doors and windows are secure and open and shut properly.
Additionally, rental leases forbid tenants to change locks. You can use the master key to check all the locks during a routine inspection and make sure no locks were changed by the tenant.
Conclusion
Maintaining rental property is essential to running a successful rental property business. On top of that, regular maintenance keeps your property, its appliances and other essentials in order.
This reduces your repair bills and increases the profits. It also helps avoid tenant complaints, holding rent, or even paying less rent due to poorly maintained property. Not only that, the tenant can even move out because you broke the lease.