4 Unit Appt- How do you handle your tenants maintenance requests?

Question

How many times a month do you have to fix something in 4 Unit apartment building?

Do you come on every tenant request to fix a problem or you set up certain times of the week or month or day to come and solve it?

We live approximately 30 min. drive from our rental property.

Dan Baker · Answer

I had the exact same call from a tenant. They swore the furnace was broken because it wasn’t getting to 74. I had to point out that being below feeezing outside it would be much colder than 70 in the house if the furnace was out.

Peter B. · Answer

@Lena S.

I think you need to expedite the departure of these tenansts as soon as legaly possible.  I could write a book on entitled inherited tenants. Get your building back.

When you have your new tenants placed, set up a policy for service. Make it clear non emergency will be taken care of on your schedule when handyman or contractor is on site. We don't make a special trip for the smalls we group them together. For the emergency have a back up plan make sure they are aware of water shutoffs or you have a back up heat plan. Until you or your contractor can make repairs.

@Bettina F.  We have a sixteen unit that has 2 groups of 3 family members and one more moving up here this spring. It is kinda like an episode of seinfeld with everyone coming and going in eachothers apartment and knowing eachothers buisness.

Bettina F. · Answer

I think I used to rent to your tenants!  The power trip behavior of not telling you about a maintenance issue when you are at the property, but then texting you once you are home and expecting instant service, is something these tenants would do!

We had inherited tenants in our building  who were brothers, both married, so 2 out of our 6 units were occupied by these brothers.   Living in the same building must somehow affect the renter's psychology because these two brothers acted like they owned the building -- way worse than the usual inherited tenant "I was here first" mentality.    These two brothers and their wives were demanding and rude to us, and always late on rent.    The best decision we ever made was to not renew the leases of these two, so we could remodel the units.

After they were out, we started hearing stories from the other tenants about how bad these brothers were.  They had been intimidating the other tenants.  The whole building breathed a sigh of relief when these clowns left.

I will never let a relative of an existing tenant move into another unit of my building.   It encourages an unhealthy building psychology.  The related tenants think they have power over the landlord.  Get rid of them as soon as you can legally do so.

Matthew Olszak · Answer

@Lena S. Part of my PM introduction letter explains that maintenance issues are to be emailed to a certain address I have setup for this purpose. And EMERGENCY maintenance requests, "such as an active leak", are to be called in to our 24hr line IN ADDITION to being emailed.

That way, I can forward the request to the appropriate party on MY schedule, such as my handyman, hvac guy, etc, and filter out nonsense requests like a certain light bulb isn't as bright as the rest (IE I'm not sending that to my electrician). There are tenants out there that will run you dry if you cater to their every beck and call. Just like the stairs being slippery. For the $5 it costs, I leave a bag of salt at every exterior entrance so the tenants can toss out some salt if they feel our shovel/plow crews are not fast enough. Do they? Likely not, but it quells these nonsense complaints so they'll only reach out if the ice/snow is still there DAYS later, so I get on my snow crew's case about why that property hasn't been taken care of.

In the beginning, I wanted to please everyone, show them I cared and was different/better than "the rest". But you have to establish limits, and the best way to do so is force them into methods of communication that allow you to respond to non-urgent issues when YOU have time. Also, as a rule in our leases, tenants are responsible for any service call cost + $50 for any complaints determined to not be true - like "the heat isn't working" and I send my HVAC guy on overtime for a $250 service call to find the thermostat is set to 50. That also makes the abusive tenants think twice about calling, but I make it clear that its only used in the most egregious cases and to feel free to call during business hours for us to work out potential issues over the phone.

Patrick M. · Answer

I am about 10 minutes away. I go to evaluate every issue unless it can be trouble shooted from the phone (“I can’t get my thermostat up to 75.” “I know- the new ones are capped at max 71.” Real call).

I will always make it there that day for an assessment. Where we go from there depends on the issue- solved on the spot or fixed at a later time.

Lena S. · Answer

Thank you for all the tips! Of course, we become tougher and stress resistant the more experience we gain.  What we can do is wait and hope they pay rents, and see if the situation improves with them, we also think to not renew their leases.  Although, having two empty units will be no fun, especially that our plan was to improve one unit at a time.

Patrick M. · Answer

@Lena S. under those circumstances I would be looking to remove the tenants.

Christopher B. · Answer

Lena, just don't renew their leases. Getting new tenants will allow you to thoroughly screen them (hard to screen for crazy though) and establish expectations upfront. Make the rules and procedures clear, written, and signed.

I once told a tenant I would pressure wash their porch right after they moved in. I sincerely forgot, totally my fault. Over the next 3 months they had a couple maintenance requests that I handled quickly but never mentioned the porch. One of the issues they made the situation worse and it cost me an extrs $200 to fix but I didn't charge them for it. During this time I was in a bad accident so hadn't been to the property much which is why I hadn't thought about it again. One day he contacts me and starts calling me a liar, this and that. I acknowledged my mistake to him and tried to defuse the situation but he would have none of it and I don't put up with that junk so encouraged them to leave and they did. Funny thing is I had noticed the porch a few days earlier and scheduled it for a pressure wash and it was done before they moved. The next tenant has been fine, 1 maintenance request in 9 months. I walk the property inside quarterly and outside 1-2x's per month so no issues. Moral is don't put up with bad tenants. Desperation or fear of losing 2-4 weeks of rent from a turnover is what ultimately drives people out of this business because they put up with the bad tenants. Those expenses should be accounted for when you buy it. Good luck.

Lena S. · Answer

Thank you.

We are new and first time landlords purchased 4 units in 31st Nov. 2017 Problems with our tenants started in January, (both tenants  live in  units #1 and #2  and are family connected, they moved to the building in April 2017) First, we got late rent from all of them, then after next couple of days #1 sms us with problem, we came fixed it, day later #2 called us and we came and fixed it too.  Suddenly, just yesterday night we got another sms from #1 to fix something, not mentioning we just came from the building after shoveling snow and salting, they've seen us and didn't mention anything. On top of it today morning #2 send as a picture that she fell off from stairs because they were slippery.  Those are the only tenants that complain.  This situation is so strange to us. In April their lease will be ending and we seriously think we should not extend a new lease with them. We like our new investment ideas but can't simply understand our tenant's behavior?

4 Unit Appt- How do you handle your tenants maintenance requests?

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