Rental Property Repairs and Maintenance – How Does It Work?
Responsibility
Owner Responsibility – Generally, the owner of the property is responsible for any and all maintenance, upkeep and repairs.
For Example:
- Sun fade on flyscreens
- Gutter cleaning
- Leaking taps and showerheads
- Wear and tear on flooring, carpets and blinds
Tenant Responsibility – If the tenant damages the property either accidentally or intentionally.
For Example:
- Blocked drains due to incorrect use (excess toilet paper or children’s toys being flushed)
- Trimming of trees and gardens to a manageable height
- Sprinkler maintenance (removing lawn and dirt from around sprinklers)
- Burns to benchtops and carpet
General Repairs Process
Encore Property Group has appointed a number of qualified and insured local tradespeople capable of repairing and maintaining items around your investment property.
An owner may use their own preferred tradesmen to attend to any maintenance or repairs that are required to be done if desired.
An outline of the general process is as follows
- It always starts with an email from the tenant containing a description and photos of the maintenance issue
- If an emergency, the owner will be notified immediately and work orders will be issued to the contractor straight away
- If any immediate action or advice is required i.e turning off the water at mains then this will happen first
- The owner is contacted and provided with details of the issue provided by the tenant and we seek permission to issue work orders or quote requests as required
- No owner permission, NO work orders sent!
- If a quote request was made then trades will liaise with the tenants to gain access and provide a quote
- Once a work order is in place trades will again gain access and complete works
- To pay for the works owners can either pay directly or the invoice can be paid from their rental income. If the tenants have to pay the invoice, the process is the owner pays from the rental funds and the tenant re-imburse
Property Upkeep
It is the responsibility of the tenant to maintain the property on a day-to-day basis.
This includes but is not limited to:
- General cleaning throughout the home
- Carpets
- Dusting
- Vacuuming
- Mopping
- Lawn and garden care
- Cleaning of exhaust fans and rangehoods
- Outdoor areas free of cobwebs etc
We are also proud to offer annual/seasonal services at discounted rates to keep on top of the regular items that need attending to as well as compliance needs.
Some of these include:
- Pre-winter gutter cleaning
- Air-con summer start up service
- Roller door service
- RCD & smoke alarm compliance
- Timber pest inspections and any required treatments
It’s all part of our job as your property managers.