It’s 2 a.m. and your phone rings. It’s your tenant telling you there’s a leak in the house and it needs urgent attention. If you have a real estate property manager, you probably wouldn’t get that call and you can go right back to sleep. A benefit of hiring a property manager is that they can coordinate repairs for you.
But who pays for rental property repairs?
Today we are explaining to you about repairs on rental properties and who pays. The tenant, landlord, property manager, or maybe the neighbor’s dog? 😂 Before we get started, if you’re on YouTube make sure to subscribe to this channel and click the alert notification. Depending on the contract and unless it was negligence from the property manager, typically, the owner is responsible for the cost of repairs. So, here are some steps, I take on handling repairs for properties that I manage.
Communicate with the tenant and try troubleshooting.
Say, for example, the tenant calls you and he says, there’s a leak in the property. Well, the first thing you want to tell them to do, is shut off the water and direct them where to shut it off. Or maybe they say that the electrical outlets in the bathroom are not working. Have they check the breakers or GFI’s? Troubleshooting can save time and money and keep both parties satisfied. The next step is try to respond within 24 to 48 hours and I recommend having everything in writing. So depending on which state you live in, certain states require the owners to respond or take action within a certain timeframe. Otherwise the tenant can withhold rent. So, as soon as the tenant reaches out to you confirm with them in writing via an email or text with the contact information of the vender or at least letting them know that you’ve received their repair request and you’re working on it.
Coordinate with the technician and tenant.
Sometimes tenants have problems coordinating directly with the technician. So a lot of times I like to help in this. I’ll call the technician, let them know about the repair, call the tenant and let them know of the technicians availability. Also, again have all this in writing. Start emailing the tenant and emailing the technician confirming the appointments and the availability dates.
Next up, multiple bids if you need them. Depending on the repair, it could be a high-cost repair and you might want to get multiple estimates from different vendors. Sometimes you can get technicians to compete on prices to get the best price for the repair. Confirm the appointment time and completion.
So now the repairs scheduled with the technician and tenant. This doesn’t mean that you’re done. You still want to confirm that appointment time and confirm even the completion when it’s done. So, what I’ll do is reach out to the technician,
see how the repair went, see if they finish, then reach out to the tenant and make sure that what the technician told me is what actually happened and the repairs complete and the tenants satisfied. Then I also confirm this with an email. Everything in writing so there’s no misunderstandings of what the repair was or what happened.
Inspect the work or ask for photos.
So depending on the repair I might go to the property and check it out. For example, if it’s some drywall repair from a leak I want to go see, did they repair the drywall correctly? Does the paint match the rest of the house to make sure that the quality of the work was good. Or I might just ask for a photo if it’s something minor. I can ask for a photo from the technician, a lot of technicians will submit photos with their invoices. If they don’t do that I’ll ask the tenant for a photo. Finally, when I’m satisfied with the work I’ll go ahead and I’ll pay the vendor.
Now remember organization and follow-ups when it comes to repairs is the most important thing. It saves time, money and headaches in the future. If you’re interested in more information on how repairs and rental property maintenance is handled at our company we have a helpful article on our website. I’ll be sure to leave a link below. If you live in the Las Vegas area and would like my team to help you manage your property make sure you visit us online at faraneshlv.com If you have any questions, leave a comment below and I’ll answer it and help you out. Lastly, if you enjoyed this video like it, share it, tell people about it.
