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What Is Considered Maintenance on a Rental Property?
As a property manager, you need to set a maintenance schedule on your calendar and have inspection sessions regularly.
Why?
Because you never know when you will face a maintenance issue or request!
Having preventive maintenance inspections in place for the rental properties you own or operate is vital not to lose track of your vacation rental business.
Also, fixing minor issues is more cost-effective to major maintenance issues. Cutting the old tree branches in your backyard is cheaper than the whole replacement of broken windows because of the fall of the same tree under heavy winter snow.
How Frequently Do You Need Property Maintenance?
Before getting to know the long list of items to be checked during maintenance inspections, it is better to know that maintaining your rental property requires you to be attentive at specific intervals. Even if you are too busy to check the property regularly in different periods, make sure to go through everything at least once a year.
Weekly, Monthly, Seasonal, Annual Maintenance Inspections: you should check some items every week, such as picking up the trash, replenishing soap containers, sweeping the floors, and watering the gardens. On the other hand, you need to inspect and replace burnt-out light bulbs and unblock the entrance every month. Every season you need to ventilate the common areas and check the heating and cooling system. And you need to check sprinklers and smoke alarms, clean the carpets, and plumbings annually.
It depends on the climate conditions and the construction techniques used to build your house to determine your property’s proper maintenance intervals. For example, mold inspection in humid areas should be more frequent than in dry areas.
What Does Property Maintenance Include?
A complete preventive rental property maintenance checklist is a long one. Apart from inspection intervals, you can categorise the list based on the building’s interior or exterior.
Interior Rental Property Maintenance Checklist
Fire Safety Equipment
1. Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors
2. Fire alarm and its batteries
Windows, Doors, and Walls:
3. The locks of all the opening
4. Water Damage, cracks, and painting needs
5. Broken windows and shutters
6. Pest control
HVAC system and water heater:
7. Water heater sediment removal twice a year
8. HVAC filter removal every three month
Pipes
9. For any leaks or corrosion
Shower and toilets
10. Seal and refresh by caulking
11. Any leak or damage
Kitchen
12. Cabinets and countertops
13. Dishwasher, oven, and stove
14. Electric outlets
Basement
15. Moist and foundation control
Exterior Rental Property Maintenance Checklist
Gutters:
16. Cleaning gutters as clogged gutter damages the roof
Inspect the Roof:
17. Cracks and damages
Refresh Deck and Porch:
18. Power wash and stain deck and porch
Maintain the Yard:
19. Tree maintenance
20. Inspect for leakage
21. Turn off outside water tabs at the beginning of cold days
22. Remove leaves
More Maintenance Tips?
Deep Clean the House
The easiest way to keep your property in good condition and have the chance to inspect everything is by deep cleaning it once a year.
Notify the Tenants
Before planning your maintenance operations, you need to notify your guests/ tenants and get their permission.
Take photos
Keep a record of your property by taking pictures and making organised notes.
How to Manage Maintenance Issues at Rental Properties?
The more properties you have, the more maintenance issues you need to resolve during a year.
Setting Urgency Levels
Before receiving a maintenance request, you must be prepared with urgency categories. It will help you in timing for reacting to maintenance issues. For example, when hot water is not available in any season over the year, you must fix it immediately, but for fixing a ventilator in summer, you have a couple of hours to take action.
Hiring a Property Manager
You might prefer to collaborate with a property management company. Apart from renting out your vacation rental, the property management company is responsible for monitoring your property for predictive and reactive maintenance actions.
Having a Team of Specialists
If you have not hired a property manager, you can have a team of specialists and contractors in electricity, landscaping, plumbing, etc.
Having a Standardised Maintenance Request Form
Using a standardised form helps you keep a record of the requests, set the urgency of the maintenance request and assign the most applicable team to fix the issue.
Use a Maintenance Management System
You can use systems like Asana or Trello to manage the projects and maintenance issues. Besides that, you can use maintenance tracking tools such as Avail to get the problem solved. Instead of all these tools, you can also use Property Management Systems such as Zeevou to have efficient maintenance management.
What Are the Tenants’ Maintenance Responsibilities?
Micky Deming refers us to check the contract to find the tenants/ guests’ responsibility. Generally speaking, the guests are responsible for the damages caused by their misuse of the property.
Suppose that you arrive at a point to charge the guests because of trashing your vacation rental, the security deposit you are authorised to take in advance will save you.
At Zeevou, with the Signable integration, you get your terms and conditions digitally signed by guests during the 5-Step Online Check-in Process.
To learn more about how Zeevou can help you with maintenance management, click here.
