Habitability is a big concern for landlords in Roseville and the surrounding areas. You are legally required to provide your tenants with a property that’s safe and habitable. When certain issues occur, you need to take action right away. You cannot leave your property unmaintained or posing a threat or risk to your tenants.
Today, we’re discussing how you can ensure your rental property remains in habitable condition.
Examples of Habitability Issues
As professional Roseville property managers, there are a number of habitability issues we often see occur in the properties we work with. The most common problems include:
- Water heater leaks
- Heater and furnace issues
- Toilets that run or don’t flush
- Stoves and appliances that don’t work
- Electrical issues throughout the home
- Broken windows
- Front door locks not working
Required Timelines for Repairs
These are all major issues that need to be taken care of as soon as possible. If you don’t respond to these maintenance issues right away, the tenants will feel legally empowered to move out or stop paying rent.
Our team has 72-hour process that ensures we respond to emergency maintenance concerns right away and within the requirements of the law. As an owner, we feel these things should be handled immediately. Heat and hot water are necessary things for a tenant living in a property. You cannot put off making the repairs because it directly impacts the safety of your tenants.
Benefits of Professional Property Management
When you have a professional property manager, you won’t have to worry that habitability issues are slipping. If you have a good management company working with tenants on your behalf, you can count on them to take care of all these things for you. It’s what we do every day.
Owners have time and resource limitations when it comes to instant maintenance responses. Property managers have maintenance departments or outstanding relationships already in place with qualified vendors. It’s much easier to respond and keep your property habitable.
If you’re managing problems like this on your own and you don’t resolve the habitability issue within 72 hours, you will run into some serious legal risk. Your tenants will be understandably unhappy, and they may move out, refuse to pay rent, or threaten you with legal action.
At Sunburst Properties, we’re extremely responsive to all maintenance and repair issues, but especially to habitability issues that could have legal consequences. Once the tenant contacts us through their online maintenance portal or by phone, we immediately dispatch someone to evaluate the problem and begin mitigating the damage. Not only does this keep you in legal compliance, it also keeps your tenants happy and it protects the condition of your investment.
For large expenses, we’ll always discuss the estimates with our owners first. The important thing is to begin taking action immediately to resolve the problem quickly and completely.
If you have any additional questions about habitability standards or how we respond to maintenance needs, please feel free to contact us at Sunburst Properties.
