When scheduling maintenance on an occupied unit

Question

When scheduling maintenance or repairs for an occupied unit do you spend time trying to coordinate with the tenant and repair company?  Do you let the tenant and the repair company work it out?  Or do you schedule the maintenance/repair and let the tenant know you will let the maintenance/repair company in if they are unavailable?

Alison P. · Answer

I usually make the first contact with the contractor after receiving a call or text from my tenant.  If it goes back and forth a couple of times with me in the middle, I ask the tenant if they would be comfortable arranging a time with my contractor directly.  I've never had a tenant say no to this.  I give them my contractors name and number and let my contractor know the tenant will contact them directly to arrange a time.  I am pretty close with all my contractors and they know only to talk to me about the repairs etc and only give the tenant the very basic info and hopefully get the repair done on their initial visit.

Most of my tenants, with one exception but that's another story for another time, are also fine with me going in with the contractor if they can't be there.  If it's for a scheduled annual thing, like servicing the furnaces, I always give at least 24 hours notice and go in with contractor regardless if they like it or not (it's in the lease).  If it's their emergency and they have to be at work when the only time I can get the contractor in to fix something occurs (less than 24 hours), then I just get their permission to enter.  Again, no one has ever worried about it and always said, "yes, that's fine". I will always be there with a contractor if my tenant cannot be.  I believe this covers the contractor from any liability from accusations of theft etc.

Eric Bustamante · Answer

@Alison P.

Alison, thanks for the info.

Eric Bustamante · Answer

@James Wise

Thanks for the input

James Wise · Answer

There are multiple ways to go about this. Sounds like you are self managing so in your situation I'd say the easiest thing would be for you to talk with contractor & the tenant (separately) give each one of them the other one's contact info & tell them to call to schedule it. I assume only 1 of the two will actually make the call so you've got your bases covered by telling them both to do it (separately)