Anyone who has rented out a property for any amount of time knows that dealing with emergencies can be a part of everyday life. When you have a tenant living in your rental home, anything can happen. You’ll need to prepare for emergencies such as floods, fires, or other unexpected incidents.
It’s stressful.
Your residents feel that stress, too, and you want to make sure you keep them calm while preventing a major loss to your investment property.
Let’s discuss some tips and strategies to help you handle any maintenance emergency that may arise at your Los Angeles rental property.
Put Together an Emergency Plan for Your Los Angeles Rental Home
When you have an emergency plan in place, you’ll know exactly what to do when something unexpected happens. Even better is ensuring your tenants have a copy of that emergency plan and understand the action steps.
Think about what kind of emergencies are most likely to happen in your rental property and create a plan to deal with each one of them. First step of the plan should be for your tenants to mitigate any damage that they can. For example, if a sink is flooding or a pipe has burst, ask them to shut off the water supply. Then, you’ll want your tenants to contact you as soon as it’s safe to do so.
Prepare to be Available to Los Angeles Tenants 24/7
Unless you’re working with a Los Angeles property manager, you’ll need to be the point of contact for your tenants. Be available to answer those phone calls and attend to any maintenance emergencies at your rental property. Your tenants will need a reliable phone number where they can reach you in case of an emergency.
Property managers have systems in place for emergencies to ensure they’re responded to right away without you being the initial phone call. This is a huge relief for many investors. If you don’t want to be the person fielding late night phone calls or trying to find vendors over the weekend, partner with a Los Angeles property manager who can take that responsibility off your plate.
Responding promptly to these maintenance emergencies is a non-negotiable. You are required to keep your tenants safe, and you want to save yourself from bigger problems down the road.
Establish Good Vendor Relationships
When an emergency maintenance request comes in, you’ll want to dispatch the right professional team to the scene right away. Building strong relationships with vendors and contractors can pay off in valuable ways when an emergency strikes. Make sure to screen potential vendors thoroughly and check that they are licensed and insured before you hire them. Having a list of tried-and-tested contractors on hand can also save you a significant amount of time and money when an emergency occurs.
Handling maintenance emergencies at a Los Angeles rental property can be a challenge and it can also, unfortunately, be expensive. Save yourself time, frustration, and money by working with a reliable and expert Los Angeles property management team. We will ensure there’s a plan in place, and we’ll execute it consistently.
We’re also available 24/7, and we have a strong network of vendors available to help us.
If you’d like to talk more about how we can help maintain your investment property, especially during emergencies, please contact us at EGL Properties. We can help with any Los Angeles property management needs.
