Property management maintenance calls: triage without waking the whole office

Mostly routine, with a few that can't wait. A dripping faucet, a sticking window and a broken dishwasher are calls for the morning. A gas smell, water coming through a ceiling, no heat in freezing weather or a tenant locked out at night aren't.

Who has to fix what, how fast, and how much notice you give before entering a unit are set by state and local landlord-tenant law and by the lease, so they differ from one property to the next. Check the rules for each place you manage, and agree with each owner what you can approve without asking.

Those calls come to you, not the owner, and the way you answer them is part of the service the owner pays for.

With a written list. Answering a repair call isn't the same as sorting it: if two people take the same report and one logs it as routine while the other sends a vendor out at midnight, tenants and owners both lose faith in you.

Use your own written list, agreed with your owners, so whoever answers follows the list rather than their own judgment. Here's an example to adapt. It's illustrative, not a legal definition.

Some calls depend on who lives there. No heat in a unit with a baby or an elderly tenant may need to move up a category, so add a question about that. Whatever you decide, write it down so every call is treated the same way.

To leave right away and call for help from outside, before anything else. The American Gas Association says natural gas is given a smell like rotten eggs so leaks are easy to notice, and that anyone who smells it should leave the building immediately and take others with them (American Gas Association).

• Don't light a match or smoke.
• Don't turn appliances or lights on or off, use a flashlight or start a car.
• Don't use a phone near the leak.
• From a phone away from the area, call 911 or the gas utility.

Put this at the top of your list and in your after-hours instructions. That call is for 911 or the gas utility, not your plumber. Once the tenant is safe and the utility has been called, your on-call person can follow up with the owner and any repair needed.

Enough for a vendor to show up with the right parts and get in without a second phone call.

1. 1The tenant's name, cell number and the property address with unit number.
2. 2What's wrong, in the tenant's own words, and when it started.
3. 3Where in the unit it is, and whether it's getting worse.
4. 4Whether anyone is at risk, such as no heat with a baby or an elderly tenant at home.
5. 5Whether they've done anything already, such as shutting off the water valve.
6. 6When a vendor can get in, and whether they give permission to enter if they're out.
7. 7Photos, if the tenant can send them.

Photos save a wasted trip. A follow-up message after the call, asking the tenant to send pictures of the problem, often tells a vendor more than a description does. Permission to enter is worth asking every time, because entry notice rules vary by state and city.

The same way every time, with everything the vendor needs in one work order.

1. 1Check the job against the owner's instructions, such as an approval limit or a preferred vendor.
2. 2Send the vendor the address and unit, the problem, the access details and the tenant's number.
3. 3Tell the tenant who is coming and roughly when.
4. 4Tell the owner what's been reported and what's been arranged.
5. 5Log the work order, and close it when the vendor confirms the job is done.

Keep a short list of vendors who'll take emergency jobs after hours, with their numbers, so the person on call isn't searching for a plumber at 11 p.m.

With one person on call for emergencies and something that answers every other call. That's the difference between one manager being woken up for a gas leak and the whole office being called about a dripping faucet.

Our guide to after-hours real estate calls covers the leasing and sales side of the same evenings, and our general guide to after-hours answering services compares the options for any business.

Only if it follows your list. Answering the phone isn't the same as sorting the call: every report needs to be classed as emergency, urgent or routine the same way, whoever takes it. Prices for property management answering services vary too much between providers to quote fairly; most charge per call or per minute, often with a monthly allowance.

Whichever service you use, ask every tenant the same questions. The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing because of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status or disability (HUD), so a repair script should be about the repair, not the person, and every tenant's report should get the same treatment. State and local laws may protect more groups.

Our real estate answering service guide compares voicemail, a receptionist, a human answering service and an AI receptionist on cost, and our guide to what happens when an AI receptionist can't help covers setting urgent-call rules, with a locked-out tenant as the example.

Ringzel is an AI receptionist for property management that answers every call you forward to it, 24/7. You keep your number and forward calls when the office is closed, or whenever nobody can answer.

• It answers in your company's name, tells every caller it's automated and asks your questions about the repair.
• It follows your list. For repairs you class as emergencies, it gives the tenant your emergency instruction word for word. It isn't an emergency service: if a caller describes an immediate danger to life, it tells them to call 911.
• Put the gas instruction in your emergency rules, so anyone who smells gas hears it first: leave, then call 911 or the gas utility from outside.
• Routine repairs are taken down for the morning, so your on-call person only hears about the calls that need them.
• After each call you get a recording, a transcript, a summary and a check report.
• On Professional and Premium, it can transfer calls and route them to the right person, such as the manager for that building.

Plans are $99, $179 or $299 a month, or $990, $1,790 or $2,990 a year, as shown on our pricing page. Every plan has a 14-day free trial with no card to start.