When your rental needs a repair.
Regardless of how new, luxurious, or well cared for a rental property is, every now and then it will need the occasional repair.
After all, life happens – things break, they need to be replaced, or simply require maintenance. So what happens when something in your rental is in need of repair?
Bring it to your property manager’s attention
As a rental occupier, part of your role in looking after the property involves notifying your property manager of any issues or any items that might be in need of repairs or maintenance.
The simple act of flagging repairs and maintenance has two purposes:
- Â Â Â It ensures the house remains safe, usable and functional for you to live in.
- Â Â Â It protects the value of the property.
Unless it’s an emergency, requests for repairs are generally put in writing but can also be discussed with your property manager during your regular routine inspections.
Two types of repairs
Wnem it comes to repairs, there are two different categories:
- Â Â Â Routine repairs
- Â Â Â Emergency repairs
Routine repairs tend to relate to something which needs fixing or attention in a timely manner, but isn’t considered urgent. A sticking gate, broken TV antenna, leaking tap, or broken air-conditioner are all examples of typical routine repair requests.
In this instance, the property manager will look to have the issue fixed in a timely manner after liaising with the property owner, sourcing tradespeople and notifying you of when the tradesperson responsible will attend.
As the name suggests, emergency repairs are more urgent and have to be undertaken as quickly as possible.Â
Emergency repairs tend to relate to essential items or services in the home that affect your safety, security or ability to reside there.
They include things like:
- A burst or broken hot water service
- A blocked or broken toilet system
- A serious roof leak
- A gas leak
- A dangerous electrical fault
- Flooding or serious flood damage
- Serious storm or fire damage
- A failure or breakdown of any essential service for hot water, cooking, heating or laundering
- A failure or breakdown of gas, electricity or water supply
- Any fault or damage that makes the rented property unsafe or unsecure
- A serious fault in a lift or staircase in the rented premises
In addition to routine and emergency repairs, there is also something known as routine maintenance. Rather than repairing an existing issue, routine maintenance is designed to prevent a problem from occurring.
It includes things like having the trees trimmed back to prevent them damaging the property or having the gutters cleared. There’s no damage as such, but the maintenance prevents potential damage from occurring.
A good owner appreciates it
If something breaks or is no longer working properly in a property, it can potentially feel like an imposition to ask for it to be fixed.
But the reality is, a good rental owner and property manager appreciate that timely repairs and maintenance are part and parcel of owning a rental property.
They also know that tending to repairs protects the value of that asset.
How we can help
Our experienced property managers pride themselves on establishing great relationships with both rental occupiers and owners.
We manage every property as if it were our own and you can learn more about our property management services here.
Alternatively, if you are looking to rent a property, you can view the properties we currently have available here.
