As a landlord, you cannot remain present inside your rental property all the time unless you decide to live in one of the units. You also know that anything can go wrong inside your property at any time despite your best efforts. Landlords keeping 24-hour surveillance have admitted the fact that they are unable to be inside their properties at the instant when something goes wrong. Yes, you cannot be inside the premises on a 24X7 basis but who stops you form using your tenants as your own eyes and ears.
All it takes for a landlord to be well informed of events taking place inside rental property is to pay attention to the grievances of his tenants. Complaints, requests for repairs, and suggestions made by tenants reveal the true condition of the affairs taking place inside the property. Tenants may not be right all the time but being attentive to their complaints helps you in avoiding costly repairs and maintenance issues inside the property. Many a times, complaint made by a tenant does not turn out not be a huge problem. But you can pay a huge price by ignoring or overlooking what your tenants are saying.
You have advised your tenants to not call regarding repairs after 6 PM in the evening as a problem cannot be attended to by a handyman after business hours. But you still get many calls after business hours as what is not an emergency can often be a big emergency for some tenants. You cannot ignore the calls for repairs made by your tenants after business hours just because it is against the rule book. In many instances, these calls are hyped up but in some cases, they truly reflect an emergency.
If a tenant calls up at midnight to in from you that power is out in some units of your property, you need to take such a call seriously. If power is out in all the units, it indicates problem with the supply of electricity. But is power is out only in some units, either some MCBs have tripped because of overload or some mishap has taken place. The problem may be small or big but you need to take action immediately to avert a fire or any other serious problem. It is not prudent to take chances and do nothing just because the call has been made at odd hours of the day. You could be paying a lot of money in the name of repairs if you ignore a problem and allow it to grow into a costly repair.
Let us take up another complaint made by a tenant. If tenant says that lights in his home are flickering, you can choose to ignore the problem thinking it to be a fluctuation of voltage in his unit. But if your tenant adds that his phone charger has burnt and melted after being plugged in a power socket, it is certainly an alarming situation. You must call up your trusted electrician to attend to the problem before it is too late and a big fire has broken out because of short circuit. This tenant has played safe by calling you at night and he has probably saved your rental property form big damage because of fire.
If a tenant complains about a bad odor emanating out from the walls of his house, you should not take it lightly. It could be a signal of water seeping inside because of a leaking pipe. Delaying and not calling a plumber to look into the matter could result in a serious damage to your property.
Smart landlords trust the complaints made by their tenants and treat them as their eyes and ears. Listen to what your tenants are saying. Check out the problem if you suspect something serious.
If you’d like to talk more about property management, or you need help with Everest Property Management, please contact us at Everest Realty.
Property Management Service Areas
Palm Coast Property Management
Flagler Beach Property Management
Ormond Beach Property Management
As a top producing Realtor and Property Manager; Terry specializes in sales, extensive construction homes, rentals, REO’s, short sales, and all aspects of Real Estate. After graduating the University of Michigan with a master in MBA, Terry continued his endeavor and now has over 15+ years of experience in the Real Estate world. If there is anything that has to do with Real Estate and sales, you can always be sure of Terry to provide important, specialized knowledge.
