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hey I'm Clint with rent like a pro in this video we're gonna talk about dealing with tenant maintenance requests research has shown that not responding properly to maintenance requests is one of the top three reasons tenants don't renew their leases so if you want good long term tenants that help take care of your property you'll handle maintenance requests like a pro first off the maintenance that the tenant is responsible for and that you're gonna provide should be outlined in the lease and the lease packet require all maintenance requests in writing email is great for this you want to make sure the tenants understand to be as detailed as possible here's the catch most leases I've seen have in the lease maintenance requests need to be made in writing but landlords fail to enforce this they just start taking them over the phone in other ways don't make that mistake get all Maine's requests in writing why is it so important to have request in writing this helps document multiple requests for the same thing which can show you have a needy tenant that requires too much or an issue that needs to be addressed differently when a tenant submits a written maintenance request they are giving you permission to enter the unit without giving notice reduces frivolous calls and requests we got a letter from a tenants attorney this tenant lived in a seven unit building downtown apparently she had tripped in a hole in the yard gone to the hospital with in an ambulance and had four pins put in her ankle it's a pretty big deal and she was preparing to sue us she was claiming that she'd sent in multiple requests on this hole in the yard we never fixed it now she tripped in it and was injured well has a landlord at first it's a little bit of a nightmare situation because you get a letter from an attorney and we looked at it and we freaked out a little bit at first but then the insurance company's attorneys get involved and the key to her claim was that she had been sitting in maintance request saying there was a hole in the yard and we needed to fix it well she actually hadn't been and we don't know how she hurt her ankle but because in our lease and everything else we require written documentation for maintenance request they have to do Manus quest in writing and we had a history of her requests and our responses showing that she would request something we would take we had a history of this but no request for the whole new yard we weren't held liable for her medical expenses after they reviewed this information now we still fix the whole coz we're pros but we didn't have to pay a ton of medical bills response time is regulated in some states so if the tenant says I asked for this seven months ago but you always required in writing then no they didn't there's no record of that verbal agreement should not be made now that you know the importance of requiring every maintenance quest to be made in writing let's talk about how to respond to those requests whether you're going to take care of the issue or not you need to respond to each request in writing after you've received their maintance request if it's something that you can take care of or need follow-up questions this is a great time to do so you want to get as much detail as possible on the actual issue this saves you or your vendors a lot of time in the repairs in your response you want to notify the tentative window expect maintenance to be done and who will be doing it don't let tenants request maintenance directly from a vendor always inform vendors doing work on your property that they can only do more work if you approve it this gets rid of the problem where a vendor shows up and the tenant starts asking them to do a bunch of stuff vendors usually get paid by the hour so they're like oh yeah I'll help out the tenant and you get this giant bill that started off with a small issue they're not allowed to do additional work without your approval tell vendors if they notice anything unusual to notify you on HVAC electrical issues or if an appliance isn't working have the tenant reset the GFCI outlets and flip the breakers before sending someone out and obviously keep copies of every maintenance request rather in the tenants file or electronically we've already covered documentation in other videos but make sure you're documenting all of this here's your rent like a pro insider tip over your career is a landlord and especially as you grow a larger portfolio you'll find you're responding to the same maintenance requests over and over for some of these most common issues you can save a lot of time and money by building these canned responses a good example of this is garbage disposals so a tenant sends in a maintance request for a garbage disposal we already have that response and what to do in an email that we send out we'll provide that as an example below this video but we're sending them an email that shows them instead of just sending out a repair guy most garbage disposals there's a simple reset button on the bottom or they can take a broom handle or an allen wrench and turn the crank that takes care of about 90% of garbage disposal issues so they send in the mainus request we send back the email it's usually taken care of and tenants actually love it they're like oh thanks that was so easy thank you so much pros understand that dealing with maintenance appropriately and taking care of it in a timely manner keeps tenants happier reduces your vacancy rate and at the end of the day it makes you more money a lot of people avoid maintenance and let it go on unaddressed and the starts that downward spiral with the property take care of your maintenance keep your tenants happy make more money if you have any questions thrown in forum thanks for watching