Apartment Maintenance

Question for all of you in Property Management. 3rd party management companies often have maintenance techs on staff and utilize their services on small properties. When I refer to small properties, I'm referring to properties too small to support a maintenance tech on the site's payroll.

Question, as a 3rd party management company, how do you charge that maintenance cost back to the property? or do you? Are they treated as a vendor? Or is there a charge or % for maintenance built into the management fee? Any advice or help on this topic is much appreciated!!! Thanks in advance!!!

I can't express enough how important a GOOD, MOTIVATED maintenance team is in the success of your property.  This is not an epiphany, I am not a genius because I'm saying this - I know this!  But, what are we doing day to day to keep our maintenance teams motivated?  Although I hope I don't have to tell you why it is important to keep them motivated but I will so we are on the same page.

WHY keep them motivated?

• Motivation builds loyalty and engagement - what they deal with daily is a challenge - I mean when was the last time that YOU unclogged someone else's toilet?
• We frequently forget when we have events or meetings to include maintenance so they are forgotten
• They know what is happening on your property and in your units -- if you connect with them and make them feel like they are part of the team then they will feel more comfortable telling you what is happening on site.

I want to give you all a few quick activities to help you get started in maintaining good, motivated teams:

• Have a make ready contest - take a perfect make ready and stage some things in it that are out of place, i.e.,  missing vent, minor leak in sink, lights out, missing rod on blinds, etc.. then have a timed race for who can find the most errors in the make ready - give gift cards, etc..
• Attach customer comments to the work orders and give away gift cards to the team member that gets the most positive ones returned wins something
• Have a vendor come in and host a training meeting and then give them lunch
• Trading Spaces for the day -- have the leasing agents work in the maintenance shop and the maintenance work in the leasing - make sure the entire teams don't switch on the same day but have them change jobs for the day so they build a level of respect for each other and appreciation
• Host a mini maintenance mania
• Let the maintenance teams train your office team on basic maintenance troubleshooting

By Colin McCarthy, J.D., Robinson & Wood, San Jose, CA

I once lived in house in downtown San Jose that was next to an abandoned "historic" house. The house was abandoned because it was "historic." The city had an ordinance that prevented the owner from demolishing the building and rebuilding it, or selling it. Because the house was built before a certain time, the city ordinance prohibited him from doing anything with the property other than fixing it up. Rather than doing that, in protest, he did nothing with the property. And I mean nothing, other than board it up.

Mistake! You see it was downtown San Jose. It was right in the middle of urban, night time activities. The abandoned home soon became a sort of an attractive spot for the seedier and less fortunate souls. We frequently had to call the police. There were the typical late night guests, drinking, broken glass, and other non-printable activities going on in there. After enough of these visits, the neighbors reported the landlord to the city, and hearings were held. Fines were levied. Landlords got mad. Fences were put up.

By Colin McCarthy, J.D., Robinson & Wood, San Jose, CA

I enjoyed philosophy classes in college. I enjoyed thinking about such questions, as: If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound? I enjoyed even more Bart Simpson's reply to the question: What is the sound of one hand clapping? (He immediately held up his one hand and patted his fingers against his palm, making a muted clapping sound).

My enjoyment of these questions has found a natural outlet in the law. The law ostensibly provides you with an answer, whether it be found in a book, or in a code section, or recommended by experts. So it is one of those questions today that is our focus: If a tenant hurts himself in an apartment and the landlord did not know about the condition which caused the injury, was the landlord at fault?

By Colin McCarthy, J.D., Robinson & Wood, San Jose, CA

Even after our little spigot fiasco, my father and I are speaking again. In fact, it did not take long. We both bonded over the fact that later that night, my wife and I walked out of the George Clooney movie, the Descendants. My wife and I both were bored out of our minds and had little empathy for a guy who owned all of Hawaii. I mean, really? I'm supposed to feel sorry for this guy!? Dad, being generally anti-Hollywood applauded our decision to vacate the movie theater in favor of the bar next door.

We got to talking, and we agreed that in the future, it would be best if I not ask him to do repairs on our house. It's not really something I should delegate to him. We decided on the McCarthy "non-delegable duty of repairs” rule - I must do my own repairs.

By Colin McCarthy, J.D., Robinson & Wood, San Jose, CA

Well, hello there and happy 2012 to you all. It has been a little bit of time since we have had a chance to chat. I will beg your forgiveness for being pre-occupied with year end duties, and a jury trial in Visalia, California that preoccupied my time and has prevented me from indulging in the blogging world. Now that I am able to focus, I want to talk to you about every one's favorite topic – repairs – from everyone's favorite perspective – a lawyer.

But before I do, I'll share with you how I spent my New Year's Eve. It's a story that pretty much exemplifies why it is important to have a good handyman at your disposal. And why it is important that you not rely on your father to do repairs at your home or your leased property.

This is a brief message that has nothing to do with fair housing, but which I felt compelled to share.  Here in Atlanta on Friday we had an apartment community fire (sadly, that in and of itself is not news).  This was not tragic (no one died or was hurt, with the exception of minor injuries to two firefighters – thank goodness for firefighters who risk their lives for others every day), but it was sad – 27 people in one building now homeless and all of their belongings lost forever.  The fire might have been more contained had the firefighters had access to enough water (it appears that water is a very necessary part of fighting fire).  Why did the firefighters not have enough water, allowing the fire to go on for three hours?  Because the hydrants were not working well.  And why was that?  Allegedly (from the news stories) because the apartment community had not maintained them.

I realize that laws differ from state-to-state, city-to-city, county-to-county (I am a lawyer, I should know things like that – LOL), but “in these here parts” if hydrants are on private property, the fire department inspects (as budget constraints allow), but does not maintain, hydrants.  So my message is this:  find out about this for where your community is located; make sure your hydrants are working, and if not, find out who has responsibility for that.  A fire at your community can be sad, sadly even tragic; but it should never be unnecessarily worse than need be because your fire hydrants are not working.  Insurance issues, legal issues, and moral issues all come into play here.  Don’t get burned…

Last month in the article “The Top Secret Apartment Marketing Weapon: Your Maintenance Team,” I shared my positive experience with a hotel housekeeper and how it made me wonder about the effect a maintenance staff can have on marketing an apartment property.

Curious to learn what others thought, I posted some questions in a couple of multifamily LinkedIn groups and Multifamily Insiders:

By Linda Day Harrison, theBrokerList, Chicago, IL

Do you manage your property, or does it manage you? This should be at the forefront of your mind every day. This question is meant to keep you on track and focused. Why? Because property management is an industry that can make or break you! As property managers we are the ultimate in multi-tasking. We know that anyone can become a property manager, but the ones that truly standout and differentiate themselves are the ones that manage their building. Not the other way around.

By Salvatore Friscia, San Diego Premier Property Management, San Diego, CA

In a recent notice received by our legal counsel addressing this very issue, apparently if you own rental property in California the scary answer is yes! The great state of California is widely known as a pro-tenant state when it comes to tenant-landlord related issues. Many cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles are saddled with pockets of rent controlled areas making investment opportunities less attractive. They also have unfavorable statewide eviction laws that allow deadbeat tenants to continue residing in properties months after defaulting on rental payments.