Property Management- "Emergency" phone #?

Question

Ok Landlords and Property Managers, chime in...

I had my first significant "Emergency" call from my property manager today. Water leaking from the ceiling in my tenants child bedroom. It turns out it was a corroded galvanized drain pipe ( the 4-plex is probably 75yrs old) so when a sink was on upstairs a significant amount of water leaked.

My question is. Is it normal that the tenant would call the "Emergency" number the property manager supplied and the response didn't happen until 7 hrs later? The leak happened at 11pm and I got a call at 7am. The tenant was only able to leave a voicemail. If it had been a pressurized water pipe the whole place would have been flooded plus another unit below. So I wasn't too happy with the response time.

Thoughts?

Dawn Anastasi · Answer

For any real emergencies I tell the tenants to call 911.

Otherwise it can wait until normal hours.

A downed power line? They can call the local energy company.

Water issue?  They are shown how to turn off water to the house.

Electrical issue? They are shown how to shut off the main breaker.

If a furnace goes out in the middle of winter I've had them replaced within a day.  You can use space heaters in the meantime.

David Frandsen · Answer

@Dawn Anastasi just to clarify: are you advocating that if a pressurized water line breaks the tenant should call 911 and the fire department show them how to turn off the water? Aren't we left with the same problem- a flooded apartment that the PM needs to address?

Thanks for your feedback.

James Wise · Answer

Why would a landlord who employed a PM want to know about this issue at 11pm at night?

Not taking late night phone calls is one of the reasons one hires a PM.

Pipe broke, fix leak, tell owner about it during business hours. Case closed.

Kevin Harrison · Answer

Im on the fence on this one. on the one hand I feel like you should have been alerted that a call from one of your tenants was placed to the emergency line, but on the other hand if it is truly just a leaky drain I don't think it warranted any action until normal business hours. The upstairs tenant should have definitely been alerted to not use the sink until the next afternoon though.

Kathryn Daniel · Answer

You should create a list of emergency situations and provide that to your PM.  Specify that anything that occurs which falls into one of those categories must be responded to within 15, 30 etc. minutes depending on your specifications.

I manage a large apartment complex and we do treat broken pipes as emergencies (some companies don't).  Our standard is that once the resident contacts emergency maintenance and leaves a voicemail, it must be responded to within 15 minutes.  We use an automated system for this and if the tech does not respond within the designated time frame, it calls the next person on the list until it gets to me, the property manager ... and no emergency call should ever get to me (we have a maintenance staff of 6 FT techs).

I do agree with you and would be upset if it took 7 hours for me to get wind of that situation as well.  The longer you wait, the worse the damage could be.  I'd have that conversation with your PM if you haven't already and hopefully things will go better next time.

David Frandsen · Answer

@Kathryn Dillon Ok. Good to know. Thanks.

Kathryn Daniel · Answer

I manage 579 units.  6 FT office staff, 6 FT maintenance.  The rule of thumb I've gone by is 1 FT office & maint person for each 100 units or so.

David Frandsen · Answer

@James Wise I agree maybe I don't need to know about it until the morning but I would expect the PM to at least make sure the water is off (or in this case the upstairs tenant told not to use the water). The PM didn't get the message till the AM. I'm worried she is the only one getting the emergency calls. : /

Thanks for  the feedback.

@Kathryn Dillon can I ask how many units you manage to have 6 techs? I think my property manager is fairly small ( I think she has 2 employees). But I think I need to set some expectations for response times. Especially when water is involved.

Nicole A. · Answer

I also agree that the response time seemed to take a while. However, you'd hope the tenants had some common sense and told their neighbors about the situation and maybe not use the water for the rest of the night. But some tenants just panic and don't really think.

Rob Beland · Answer

As a PM I wouldn't treat a leaking drain as an emergency and as a landlord I wouldn't want to get a call at 11 PM about a leaking drain. Hopefully he would have thought to call the upstairs tenant and ask them not to use that sink until the morning when a plumber can be called.

Property Management- "Emergency" phone #?

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