The post-pandemic period has witnessed many rental property issues such as eviction, low or zero rental income, negligence in maintenance services, high vacancy, and inability to pay rents regularly. In such circumstances, retaining your existing tenants is one of a few possible ways to earn from rental investments.
Best Practices for Dayton Landlords to Implement While Handling Maintenance Requests
Paying due attention to tenant maintenance requests is important if you want to stop your tenants from leaving. Here are the best practices for Dayton landlords to follow while addressing tenant maintenance requests.
- Understand the maintenance issue in detail
As a landlord, you should listen to your tenants’ requests carefully. Understanding the problems of your tenants in detail will help you to address their issues more efficiently. Consider asking for more details to identify the exact issues. You must be able to determine the cause of the issue, the severity, and the potential solution in order to serve the best.
- Be responsive to the maintenance requests
Responsiveness is an integral part of building a healthy tenant-landlord relationship and providing safe and habitable space to your tenants in Dayton. It is necessary to respond to the maintenance requests placed by your tenants, whether via calls, messages, emails, or any means of communication decided by you during the signing of the lease.
For example, if your tenants find leakage issues in a bathroom or sink, they will expect you to resolve the issue quickly. But, if the problem is about a damaged floor, you can take two days or a week for that matter. It is good to be sincere in replying to your tenants’ requests within 24 hours. Landlords can personally visit the Dayton rental property or hire an expert and ask them to visit the property to solve the maintenance problem.
- Conduct routine maintenance
Regular maintenance helps you avoid the time and costs required for frequent repairs that may arise in the future. For example, yearly furnace inspections, fixing leakage problems, or testing smoke and carbon monoxide detectors can save you from heavy repairs and replacements. Landlords should conduct maintenance processes with the help of professionals and give them a monthly or yearly contract to make repairs in your rental property.
- Hire professionals to deal with maintenance issues
You may require professional rental managers and licensed contractors to identify and deal effectively with maintenance requests and fix the property damages. Use certified vendors with insurance to make repairs to your house. Non-professionals can put your property at risk and can cause more damage.
- Follow up after repairs
Lastly, make sure your tenants are satisfied with the maintenance service. Taking feedback can help you to identify if you have done your job correctly. It helps you in recognizing the scope for improvement if needed.
Besides, it reaffirms that you are providing the best possible maintenance services to your tenants and that you value them. It is the duty of landlords to resolve maintenance issues at the earliest possible time; failing to do so may result in the breach of fair housing standards.
You must be professional in conducting property inspections, proactive maintenance, taking feedback, and checking on your rentals. If you come across any significant damage during the inspection, document it and take suitable action. It can save you extra repairing and replacement costs in the future. Also, consider adding rules about rental damage, repairs, and other maintenance rules in the lease agreement.
If you require any rental assistance in dealing with the maintenance requests of your tenants, contact us at ManCo Property Services. We are the leading property management company in the Dayton area and can offer end-to-end rental management assistance for your properties.