Whether you're a tenant or landlord, maintenance management and repair of your building is one of the most important responsibilities. Residents are an asset to the building but the success or failure of creating good quality of life is hinged on not just the landlord and caretakers, but on all parties like tenants and contractors working together in an organised manner. This article will serve as a guide to successful building maintenance for both landlord and tenant use.
Buildings perform better with routine maintenance. It avoids costly emergency repairs that could have been avoided through carry preventative maintenance. The thing is however, repair & maintenance is a skilled job and is more than just hiring and supervising people as they work. Good communication is necessary between Tenants, Landlord and Contractors (T.L.C) and other employees assigned to do work such as the cleaners. For this to happen you need to have a building repair & maintenance committee to act as a representative.
Problem Awareness
To make this guide more interactive, let's engage in an exercise together. Observe what it presently going on in your building or personal property then ask yourself the following questions.
What condition the building is in internally and externally. Take note of any repairs that need obvious attention.
Does preventive maintenance occur regularly?
Is there a repair & maintenance committee?
Do you follow clear paths and procedures for planning and carrying out repairs such as a program of works and info letters to all tenants?
Are regular apartment and/or building inspections carried out following a letter giving notice of such?
Are updates for tenants available when repairs and projects are in progress or completed?
Are outside contractors well supervised by a tenants committee member or a hired project manager?
Your findings should highlight what has to be done to improve it.
Maintenance work
When we talk of maintenance work, we refer to the regular work done to keep your building in good condition. This includes cleaning, servicing and oiling hinges & locks especially in wet seasons, or making sure all fittings are in working condition. Some of these jobs are complicated but some can easily be handled by tenants too. It is important for tenants to know how to carry out some level of maintenance as it becomes their personally responsibility when they decide to purchase the apartment they are currently renting in a building. For landlords, maintenance skills will lower costs of labor and aid in managing contractors when needed.
Maintenance by the tenant committees or estate agents
Responsibilities:
Ongoing maintenance of the building, including a yearly ground to roof inspection. Property inspection reports (P.I.R) with building codes like health & safety failures.Planning repairs and renovations.Were reasonable, a tenant committee can start special work days for all tenants to help with small projects like planting, painting, repairs or various upkeep jobs. This promotes tenant relations and can prove useful when an emergency occurs, everyone has a sense of ownership and partnership among each other.
Maintenance by tenants
Responsibilities:
Individual tenants can also do maintenance work within their own apartments, the cost of materials being catered for by the building owner or committee. It can make for good savings and rapid improvement of your building as a whole. This is important because some problems can be fixed very quickly thus avoiding further damage that becomes expensive to repair needing contractors. It must be documented carefully what cost limit and materials the committee will provide. You may find that some of your tenants are tradesmen in different fields and could fix their own problems or help others. It should be made clear that the tenants labor will not be paid for.Report quickly any problems before further harm is caused. Care for the surroundings by keeping clean and also being vigilant of people squatting or vandalizing the building and reporting any suspicious behavior.
Building managers
Responsibilities:
Draw up building maintenance schedule and present it to the tenants.Conduct full building inspections, roof to ground and every apartment individually.Confirm with the city council which repairs require permits and follow codes.Provide contractors for repair and ensure they are properly monitored either by a hired manager or by a knowledgeable member of committee.Draft a budget for repairs and organise them by order of priority.Qualification vetting and registering names of regular tradesmen, handyman and contractors.Creating a scope of work, create and advertise tenders and receive bids from contractors for evaluation and nomination of the right one.Schedule all repairs and projects by taking record of contractors details, cost of the job and your projects chosen supervisors name.Progress meetings with contractors and quality inspection on projects and monitoring carefully until completion.Create a repair & maintenance file for all projects for future reference.
Steps to building a tenant's committee.
Door to door announcement of your plans and their needed involvement. This will give you time to answer questions and get views on the matter. It is also a good time to leave letters under each door informing people of the initiative with a contact number.
Organize a meeting with the tenants to nominate committee representatives. At least two of them should be relevant stakeholders such as the landlord or estate agents. Find out if any of the members have trade skills and have them be part of it.
To stay with the times, a WhatsApp Business group could be created for tenants to keep everyone up to date with current affairs pertaining to the building. A Facebook Community page can also be used for posting notices reaching people quicker. These should be managed by responsive members of the tenant' committee and kept orderly.
Thanks for reading, that's the end of Part 1 of our building maintenance guide. Do subscribe for Part 2 & continue to get more. I hope you've found this informative and have taken a minute to observe the basics of building inspection. Please leave a comment below.
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