{"id":34083,"date":"2012-12-10T05:34:13","date_gmt":"2012-12-10T12:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/renewsblog\/?p=34083"},"modified":"2021-03-16T09:57:25","modified_gmt":"2021-03-16T15:57:25","slug":"2012-12-10-landlord-maintenance-emergency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/2012-12-10-landlord-maintenance-emergency","title":{"rendered":"When Is a Landlord’s Maintenance Emergency Truly An Emergency?"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you are a landlord like I am, property repairs<\/a> and upkeep are just routine parts of the job.\u00a0 Something is always breaking or in need of upkeep.\u00a0 Tenants tend to think that their particular maintenance request is the most important and is always an emergency!\u00a0 This article examines those maintenance requests that are emergencies requiring quick action by the landlord.<\/p>\n

What Are True Landlord Maintenance Emergencies?<\/h2>\n

Some things really are maintenance emergencies that require an immediate response.\u00a0 Generally anything regarding gas or electricity will get my attention pretty quickly.\u00a0\u00a0 Problems with these two could actually hurt someone.<\/p>\n

Gas Emergencies<\/h3>\n

If a tenant complains of a gas smell, we respond fairly quickly.\u00a0 Leaking gas could lead to major problems, plus not all tenants are aware just how dangerous gas can be.\u00a0 We had a tenant call once to report a gas smell.\u00a0 She did this in between drags on her cigarette!<\/p>\n

Most times the calls for a gas smell are an easy fix.\u00a0 A pilot light may need to be re-lit or a gas line connection may have become loose.\u00a0\u00a0 But I have also seen gas lines that have been worn away by rust.\u00a0 So no matter what, leaking gas gets prompt service.\u00a0 At the very least I can shut off the source of the gas at the meter and potentially save lives and property.<\/p>\n

Electrical Emergencies<\/h3>\n

Electrical issues are a slightly different matter as not all calls are an emergency.\u00a0 Sometimes we get calls saying the power has gone out.\u00a0 We ask if the whole block is out.\u00a0 If so, there is nothing we can do (yes, we really do get those calls.).\u00a0 Or, if it is just their location it is likely a tripped breaker and we can talk the tenant through that.<\/p>\n

Other electrical calls are different.\u00a0 We once got a call late one night from a tenant that said her phone charger had just melted after she plugged it in.\u00a0 I was not sure what that meant but felt that it could not be good.\u00a0 So, I went to see what was happening.<\/p>\n

I am glad I did because one of the ceramic connections on the electric meter had cracked and power was surging through the system.\u00a0 I shut off power from the red hot and smoking electric meter just in time.\u00a0 That truly was an emergency.\u00a0 I was minutes away from the building going up in flames.<\/p>\n

Water Emergencies<\/h3>\n

Another item that will get my quick attention is gushing water.\u00a0 Water will generally not hurt anyone but it can cause a lot of property damage.\u00a0 Again late one cold and icy night we got a call that water was \u201cpouring\u201d through a ceiling.\u00a0 The tenant had put a 55 gallon trash can beneath the leak and it was now half full.\u00a0 I thought a pipe had frozen and cracked. Something gushing like that could not be left until morning without severe drywall and wood damage.\u00a0 I had to at least go over and shut off the water.<\/p>\n

So to minimize potential damage, I braved the icy roads and went to the property.\u00a0 Sure enough, quite a big stream coming down through the ceiling.\u00a0 I ran upstairs and banged on the door.\u00a0 No answer so I let myself in.\u00a0 Seems the tenant had passed out and left the sink running! \u00a0Ah alcohol.\u00a0 You can guess who paid for those repairs.<\/p>\n

Other Emergencies<\/h3>\n

There are other emergencies to be sure, backed-up sewer lines, lack of heat or a leaking roof for example.\u00a0 But these are things that require an experienced contractor.\u00a0 Sure the tenant wants these things fixed right away (so do I, honestly). But for these kinds of problems I have to place a call in to the proper contractors and get it on their schedule.\u00a0 We usually can get these problems taken care of within 24 hours.\u00a0 As a landlord, it is so important to have a variety of contractors (and back-ups if they can\u2019t be reached) that you can call upon when an emergency happens.<\/p>\n

Everything else is generally a non-emergency that gets placed lower on the non-emergency list.\u00a0 Tenants know that these repairs are lower priorities so they will try and talk them up a little bit.\u00a0 They may say that their kitchen cabinets are falling apart when a drawer is stuck or a door has come off its hinges.\u00a0 Your job as a landlord<\/a> is to learn to see through these \u201cenhancements\u201d and prioritize them accordingly.\u00a0 We still try to get to most repairs within a day or so, but it also depends on what else is going on.<\/p>\n

So yes, there are true emergencies that you need to respond to quickly.\u00a0 These generally will involve gas, electricity or gushing water.\u00a0 When you are just starting out in this business, everything feels like an emergency, but as you get more and more experienced in this line of work you will develop a pretty good filter of what is and what is not an emergency and what does and does not require quick action.<\/p>\n

Photo: Jason Hargrove<\/a><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you are a landlord like I am, property repairs and upkeep are just routine parts of the job.\u00a0 Something is always breaking or in need of upkeep.\u00a0 Tenants tend […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5183],"tags":[190,59,3073,2443,569,3731],"class_list":["post-34083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-landlording","tag-landlord","tag-real-estate-investing","tag-rental-properties","tag-repairs","tag-tenant","tag-tenant-repairs"],"acf":[],"comment_count":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34083\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}