As a landlord, there are many things that you will have to deal with on a day-to-day basis. While some might imagine the life of a landlord to be one of ease, simply collecting rent once a month, that is not the case.
Instead, your day might be filled with calls from applicants about your properties and scribbled notes from tenants needing repairs. While you can’t eliminate these activities, you can organize them to make them easier to handle.
When it comes to maintenance requests, having a specific tenant maintenance request form for tenants to fill out when they have a problem can organize and streamline your request process. But what is the right form or letter for tenant maintenance requesting repairs?
Our form can help you fix up your repair process in no time.
First, let’s talk a bit about what you need to know about property maintenance and repair requests when you are working as a landlord or property manager.
Certain types of maintenance – such as ensuring that the heat and water are in working order – are always going to be your responsibility. Beyond those basic requirements, the liability of who is responsible for maintenance should be outlined in your lease agreements.
That being said, most landlords will take on the responsibility for fixing property damages and issues that were not caused by misuse of the property.
As such, your tenant will request your assistance in fixing problems whenever something breaks at the property. Some tenants may write you a note; others may call. Having all of these different types of intel coming in, however, can be confusing. Switching to a tenant maintenance request form will help organize you as a landlord.
Once you have received a maintenance request form from one of your tenants, you will have to decide what you are going to do about the repair and when you will respond.
In cases where the habitable condition of the property is at stake, i.e., the water is not running , most states will require that you respond and begin fixing the problem within 24 hours.
In cases that are not urgent, however, you will typically have a period of between five and seven days to respond to all repair requests.
There may be times when you discover that a problem was actually caused by tenant use or neglect. In these cases, you can bill the tenant for the cost of the repairs as long as your tenant lease agreement includes a clause that allows you to do this.
You may be wondering how a tenant maintenance request form is going to help you handle repairs.
Simply put, the form is going to standardize the way that requests come in.
Without a repair form, tenants may send you half-complete explanations of what they are dealing with, and you might not even know which property the note comes from if they do not deliver the note personally. This can be infuriating and time-consuming to sort through.
If tenants are able to make use of one of our tenant maintenance request forms, however, you will have a clear and precise record of who is making the request, when the request was made, and what the repair request is.
With all of this information clearly organized each time that a maintenance request hits your desk, you’ll be much more prepared to handle the hiring of contractors and specialists as needed to tackle each problem.
Landlords who own more than three rental properties can attest to how confusing it can become to keep them all in line over time, so the following sample form is a great way to get you started on the road to organization.
By simply providing tenants with a few copies of this form when they move in, you’re setting yourself up for an easier future!
Let’s get to introducing our free tenant maintenance request form. While this form is simple, it provides the structure that you need to collect requests in an organized manner and each piece of information collected on it is vital to your business:
| Tenant Maintenance Request Form |
The first thing that you want to collect is all of the information about which tenant is filing the request. Depending on how many properties you own or manage, this information can be incredibly important.
Be sure to ask for a name, address, unit number, contact number, and the date the request is being filed.
The next section should be a simple request list. This list can be a few blank lines that give the tenant space to fill out up to four requests. While you could allow for more requests in a single letter, limiting it to four requests can keep things moving more efficiently.
Not all landlords choose to include this type of section in their maintenance form, but we believe that it is very helpful for organizing the completion of all requests.
Here, the tenant has the ability to grant you permission to do the work as soon as possible or on a specific date. This permission gives you the ability to start repairs without sending out a notice of entry, and that can save everyone a lot of otherwise wasted time.
In this section, provide a checklist to the tenant that indicates how you prefer the notice to be delivered to you. You can ask them to drop it off at the office or to mail it to you, but be clear about which method you prefer when you give the forms to the tenant.
Additionally, let them know if they should call you to let you know that they have sent in a request or not. Some landlords like this additional layer of notification while others find it to be redundant. Ultimately, that is up to you.
As you have seen, the tenant maintenance request form can make your life simpler without being very hard to put together. In fact, our free sample template means that you don’t have to put one together at all!
Set your tenants up with this form as soon as possible. You’ll find that your repair work order organization will become much clearer and more efficient in no time with one simple form.
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