Preventative Maintenance Tips for Landlords

Keeping your rental properties maintained can be daunting, but with a little planning, preventative maintenance can save you significant problems in the long run.  Make a practice of walking through your rentals on a regular basis to avoid repair surprises.

Preventative Maintenance Schedule

Keeping a  preventative maintenance schedule will save time, money, and most importantly headaches.  Keep your renters happy, too many problems could cause a good tenant to move out and give you a negative review.  Plus, it’s your property you should know what’s going on in there.

Preventative Maintenance vs Reactive Maintenance

Get out of the habit of “reactive maintenance:, dealing with a maintenance problem when it happens, like when you get a  middle of the night phone calls from your tenants. Become maintenance proactive with these upkeep tips.

Preventative Maintenance: Avoid Safety Issues

Some landlords have their tenants replace the batteries, but you should still make sure smoke detectors are fully functioning every year. Loose door handles and windows with cracks could lead to a dangerous situation for your renter and potential damage to your property.

It’s The Little Things

Small cracks in the ceiling and walls could be a sign of something larger, become bigger over time more costly to fix.   Repair now to save time and money later.

Loose shower curtain rods and towel racks could come off the wall and cause damage to your property or hurt your tenant. A quick turn of the screw could prevent future issues.

Heating &  Cooling Issues

The last thing you want on a cold winter evening is to get a call from your tenant that the heat is not working properly.  One of the best ways to avoid heat or air conditioning issues is to change the filters at least every year.  The small cost of a filter is worth your piece of mind, plus new filters can lower the energy bills.

Check In The Dryer

Dryers are a significant cause of house fires every year, which is many times caused by lint buildup.

Filters do their job and catch lots of dust during drying, but not all if it.  Lint gets stuck in other parts of the dryer like the hose and inside the ventilation system.

Remind your tenants to clean the lint filter after every use.  Schedule time yearly to take the vent off the dryer to clean and vacuum out any leftover, residual lint and clean the inside of the dryer for the back.   You can hire a professional to do this critical preventative maintenance task.

Septic & Plumbing Concerns

According to the experts, you should pump your septic tank every five years.  This preventative maintenance task helps avoid a world of problems that sludge buildup could cause.  If you have a model with an alarm, instruct your tenants to keep an eye on it in between regular maintenance checks.

You or a professional should check your plumbing for clogs and any small drips or leaks periodically.  Make sure the drains are operating properly as well to avoid a messy repair and cleanup should a sink or tub overflow.

An Ounce Of Prevention

If you have multiple properties, or limited time, many of these tasks can be hired out at reasonable rates.

Questions regarding your rental property?  Please contact us today, we would be happy to help.