How To Keep a Rental Home Well-Maintained and Habitable

Keeping a rental property well-maintained is essential to keeping tenants happy. Not only that, your tenants have a legal right to a habitable home. But finding a contractor when you need them (i.e. fast!) isn't always easy.

Let’s conduct a little thought experiment. Let's say you didn't hire a property manager and decide to self-manage. Let’s say instead you went it alone or decided to work with a broker who helped find a tenant and did a background check draw up the lease and get it signed.

Now the tenant’s moved in, all settled, sending in rent checks without any prompting or follow up. Life seems pretty sweet. 

Then a faucet starts dripping. Which causes a mold problem. Which attracts bugs. Which attract spiders. Then randomly a Hitchcockian pigeon crashes into a window and shatters it. Hell breaks loose, in other words. 

What’s a homeowner to do? You don’t know any good contractors or exterminators, much less a good glazier. And what started as a minor repair has now escalated into a potential legal issue.

Finding a contractor for rental repairs is easier said than done

What's next? You think, “I’ll call a contractor. Big whup. I need to pay a property manager just so they can call a contractor? That’s what you call a compelling argument?”

The fact is that finding anyone to get work done is hard on the immediate-need level, and finding a contractor organize and supervise everything is even more difficult. They are notoriously hard to wrangle, especially in major metropolitan areas, where there is often too much work and not enough skilled labor to perform it. As a matter of fact, currently, in America, there’s a massive contractor shortage.

Some property managers have relationships with contractors and service providers, having worked with them closely over the years. But you’re still relying on busy, overtaxed individuals, and taking care of problems as they crop up, on a case-by-case basis. Then there's the markups...

How minor repairs can create habitability issues for landlords

It's the law for landlords to provide 'habitable' rentals. This means a safe, clean and comfortable environment for your tenants, with a legal requirement to ensure:

• The property is structurally sound and intact (including floors, stairs, walls, roof)
• All electrical, plumbing, sanitary, heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and elevators are operating safely
• There is sufficient cold and hot water
• No known hazards are posing any danger to tenants (such as lead pant, asbestos)
• Reasonable measures are in place to prevent foreseeable criminal intrusions
• The property is pest-free

This means that some minor repairs could quickly turn into a breach of your tenant's right to a livable place and allow them to take legal action against you, stop paying rent, or even move out without liability to their lease. For example, if your property has a front door that won't lock - this may sound like a minor repair, but it's classed as a habitability problem due to the risk of break-ins. Same with a faulty water heater. In these instances, you're going to need to get onto repairs very quickly, to keep your tenants comfortable (and yourself out of hot water).

Belong connects you to over 10,000 vetted contractors

Belong's extensive vendor network puts over 10,000 qualified professionals at your fingertips. All you have to do is reach out to your concierge or put in a request through our app and we’ll find the perfect pro to do the job.

Learn More: Discover Belong PRO, the best alternative to Property Management in Seattle, Redmond, Oakland, and many more cities across California, Florida and Washington State.