Why Maintenance Matters More than You Think

Under most state and local laws, landlords must offer and maintain housing that satisfies basic habitability requirements. Hence, it is among the many duties of a landlord is to repair rental property and keep it in habitable condition. The best advice I can give any property manager or landlord is to repair a problem with a rental property as soon as possible or risk running into legal and financial issues down the road!

A habitable property is the one that has basic facilities like such as adequate weatherproofing, available heat, water, and electricity, and clean, sanitary, and structurally safe premises. First of all, the tenant should ensure that the property has all that when the tenant first moves in and once the tenant moves in, a landlord is required to make repairs and conduct maintenance to keep the rental property the same way.

Some states also require that landlords must be aware of their tenants' safety and that they should protect. In such states, it would be apt if landlords ensured that there are latches on all exterior windows, a locking doorknob and deadbolt on each exterior door, a pin lock mechanism and handle latch lock for each exterior sliding glass door. Moreover, it is a standard practice in some states that landlords to change all the locks to a rental property between tenancies.

The nature of duties, landlords have towards the tenant regarding the maintenance differ from state to state but basic ones are the same. Hence, you must keep track of the basics as well as the specifics. If a landlord fails to respond to the queries of the tenants, they may face serious consequences.

Firstly, the tenants can simply choose to not pay the next month’s rent or they may pay lesser rent. Secondly, if the issue is in direct violation of the state law, they can contact the authorities and you can end up paying a fine or face a penalty. Thirdly, if the repair issue makes them unsafe in the property or renders the property inhabitable, they can simply choose to move out. What would this lead to? Vacant properties... and nobody wants that to happen.

To conclude, it is imperative that you fix the problems as soon as possible and not let the tenants be disappointed. If your property is vacant, it is you who will face money losses and it is you who will have to invest further! If you use a property management software, some like rentigo let tenants file maintenance complains right from their phone and offer a convenient way to monitor them in the system. Bigger solutions like buildium also have great integration capabilities (if you're managing hundreds of units).