If you’re living in a rental property, sooner or later it will become inevitable that you will have to call in a maintenance request. Knowing when and if to call the request in, is critical in helping you save money and time!
On any given day, the maintenance department of a property management company will probably have several work tickets to get through, not just yours. And it is important to understand that these work tickets vary in their urgency, complexity and cost. Many times, tenants do not realize that a lot of maintenance issues can be resolved in a matter of minutes with some simple troubleshooting. And since tenants can be charged a repair deductible for each service request they submit, trying to troubleshoot a problem on your own can save you big bucks! Here are a few common maintenance requests that we get that could easily be troubleshooted by the tenant:
Replacing light bulbs
Unclogging a toilet or drain
Patching a minor hole in drywall
Fix a running toilet
Cleaning gutters
Resetting the breaker in a power outage
Oftentimes, it could take days to get a professional to your home and they will charge the owners top dollar to fix the issue. According to these Phoenix property managers, this will in turn cost the tenant money because they will be charged a repair deductible as stated in the lease. That said, there are some issues that require immediate attention from a professional. Delaying maintenance could cause further damage to the home and to your personal belongings. Here are a list of common issues that you should call in as soon as possible so that we could get a professional out to your home:
Evidence of a plumbing leak such as wet or stained drywall
No running water
No hot water
Broken safety equipment (stairs, smoke detectors, railings)
Non-functional appliances
Anything that you can not fix with basic common sense should be a maintenance request. It is important to recognize the severity of your issue and first decide if it is something you can resolve yourself. If not, you will have to call the property management company. In extreme instances, a maintenance issue may require you to call the police or fire department.
The bottom line is that if you can do it, just do it.
Comments