How Quickly do you respond to Maintenance Requests..

What timeframe do you work on,and depending on access do you just let the PM sort out the problems,or under self management what system do you have in place with the Tenant ..

That is one of the good part's of having a switch on PM,Tax wise just one email and let someone else sort out the problem,the next day..

 

Whats good about complicating things with a PM and their dodgy tradesman with dodgy bills ? What has tax and email got to do with it ? Why wait until next day ? Just have your plumber electrician and handyman on fast dial , or give your tenant the plumbers phone number. One 30 second phone call and problem solved. I would have my plumber take care of it in hours, generally other things can wait a day or two.

 

I don't think all the tradesman the company we use are dodgy,the Plumber who they use I have knows for 45 years his sons now run that very successful 24/7 business ..The Electrician they use is also the same..
The Handyman charges $85.00 per hour ,everything will be fixed by late today without me leaving the fibro office..With "TAX" EMAILS as I used to cover all the maintenance myself not anymore,,my time is more important as that is what success is ,that's if you measure success by how much free time you have..

 

ASAP..

Think if you were the property tenant, painful if landlord/PM is lazy or painful to deal with...

 

I don't understand what's it got to do with tax other than all maintenance costs adding up for negative gearing ?

I have instructed the PM to tend to maintenance requests asap. Its a business - and I want my customers happy. They pay good rent, I give good service. I do feel its hard to find a PM who can take really good care of tenants.

If the tenants begin to request unreasonable maintenance requests too frequently, then I will put a brake on it and review things - still will action all reasonable requests the same day.

 

With the tax side,we are at different part of the investment cycle ,negative gearing is long gone ,everything is debt free so it's a different passive income landscape,so it's just better to employ someone and claim at tax time..
That's what the Accountant told us yesterday ,and I do pay tax and don't having any problems paying tax,just under Labor from the way the possible outcomes were explained yesterday it may well be very different..

 

Maintenance request comes in, work order to respective trade goes out with tenant details, usually let the contractor (trusted and vetted) deal direct with the tenant re: access or permission to collect keys, makes everything so much easier and streamlined. The worst thing is for the contractor or you to play piggy in the middle going back n fourth sorting out suitable times. If there's problems with the tenants then entry notice goes with the work order following quick call to the contractor to find out when they can attend etc, tenant doesn't really get a say, job has to get done. 2 weeks is considered reasonable to get maintenance issues sorted (non-urgent), however a lot of tenants think everyone should drop everything to attend to their job, and that is challenging to deal with sometimes when they are difficult people.

 

As soon as I read the email or get the call, I respond.
So generally, same day.

 

same here,

• get notification from PM.
• reply "go ahead"
• PM actions repairs.
• job done, happy tenants, go fishing.

what other action would one take ?

 

Spot on. I authorise maintenance as soon as it comes in as you're under obligation most times anyway and if you're going to have to pay for it you may as well keep your tenant happy. A common tenant complaint (and reasoning, at least in part, for moving out) is that the landlord never responded to maintenance requests. Of course, this could just be a lazy PM not passing them on also...

 

You'll find that in some states, there are time limits to when maintenance requests must be carried out. If you aren't contactable in a timely manner, in Victoria the tenant can choose their own tradesman and bill you up to $1,800 (for urgent repairs).

As someone who rented in the past, I found it was generally the PMs who failed to pass on maintenance requests. Thankfully my landlord (of 9 years!) was very proactive, he came around roughly once a year to clean the gutters etc. He was a plumber by trade but he still would invest a certain amount in the property each year, he said he could deduct it against taxable income. So instead of paying other tradies for maintenance or repairs, his money went into installing new stoves, hot water service, etc. basically items that would add value to his property. I came to know the landlord quite well during his maintenance visits. In our last few years of living at the property we would drink beers in the backyard with him and talk about life.

A few years into living at that property, the landlord offered to exchange personal phone numbers with us because the PMs were consistently hopeless - landlord was disappointed to hear we had been asking for heating to be fixed (technically an urgent repair) and he had never been told. Obviously exchanging details with your tenant is going to be discouraged by any PM, and it could go badly if you had a difficult tenant. But it worked out perfectly for our situation!

Sometimes the PMs would contact us tenants and claim things like "the landlord is requesting an inspection on x day", and we would find out directly that the landlord had never requested this at all, since he'd already been at our property a few weeks earlier to do his repairs.

 

What did your accountant say about maintenance and potential tax changes?

 

As soon as possible, regardless of whether it's an urgent repair or not. I'd say roughly 90% of maintenance requests that come through to me are approved with a work order the same day, I have quite a few clients that are happy for me to just approve work myself using common sense and with set approval limits.

The other ~10% or so are generally sent within 24-48 hours depending on the issue and the client. I don't like things sitting around, maintenance has to be done, no point dragging your heels and risk losing a good tenant.

Make sure you have a PM you can trust and/or use your own tradespeople to get things done quickly. Much easier for everyone involved.

 

ASAP, I am currently a rentvestor and understand the frustrations of a lazy or uncooperative landlord.

I was recently charged $79 attendance fee for my property manager “on site manager” when a new hot water system was being installed.
Seems to me it was not nessecary for him to attend nor did I request this.

Can anyone clarify this being normal?

 

If a pm ever did that to me, they would be out on their ass before they knew what hit them, AND I'd be demanding my $79 back.

 

Who arranged the HWS replacement? What is listed in the fee agreement? Who checks the quality of the installation?

 

Unless there's a separate fee for co-ordinating maintenance/repairs etc, that would normally be part of their job as PM..

 

I have been referred to the agreement where it states a $15 attendance fee + 5% & GST of the invoice cost.
It’s in the agreement but in my opinion this is bs. Thoughts?

 

Ah on site managers. If it's in the agreement you're liable to pay, but I'd be asked why it was necessary for them to attend and also looking to remove that going forward or changing to someone that doesn't charge for something so simple. It's part of doing your job.