Maintenance Policy

Save Yourself The Cost Of An Unnecessary Service Call

Any maintenance request submitted must get approval from the Landlord. This means that every request must be submitted through the tenant portal. We do not have authorization to approve requests without a work order submitted to the portal and approval granted by the Landlord.

Our goal is to get necessary repairs resolved as quickly as possible. With that being said, there are factors that affect this that are outside of our control. Some of the factors include: Waiting on Landlord approval, back ordered parts, availability of repair contractors (during extreme cold or heat, response time will vary). It is very important for Tenants to understand that there is no incentive for us delaying a repair or not making a repair. We do not get compensated differently for not making repairs. We understand that waiting for a repair to take place can be frustrating but we ask Tenants to be understanding of the factors involved and know that our goals are aligned (ie. getting the necessary repair completed).

Emergency Maintenance – If you are experiencing an emergency that affects the basic livability or safety of your space (After hours), please call our after hours number at (202)400-3685. The live call service will give you contact information for the emergency service needed. If no one picks up, please try calling again. Any request during normal business hours should be submitted through the portal.

Emergencies include:

Fires: DO NOT CALL OUR EMERGENCY LINE FIRST. (CALL 911 Immediately)
Gas Smell: DO NOT CALL OUR EMERGENCY LINE FIRST. (Call Your Local Gas Company's Emergency Line Immediately).
Serious flooding (defined as pooling, running water and not just a moist area in a room)
Major electrical outages. Call your local utility company first to see if there is an outage reported. If there is an outage reported, and an electrician is sent out, the Tenant will be billed for the service call.
Sewage back-ups
Non working toilet. This is only considered an emergency if there is only one toilet in the property.
Storm damage that threatens the exterior of the house or has intruded on the house. If it is still raining, and there is water intruding from the outside, the Tenant must attempt to put a bucket under the water. Any repairs to the exterior will only take place after the rain has stopped.
Not heat in winter (below 55 degrees inside for more than 24 hours)
Leaking or exploded hot water heater
Downed tree over power lines (CALL PEPCO)
Broken/burst water pipes (CALL WATER SERVICE AS WELL)
Lock-outs. We do not provide a lock-out service. (Tenant is required to call a locksmith)
Any other condition which affects life, safety, or is necessary to preserve the condition of the property.
Not having air conditioning is NOT an emergency. We treat non working AC as an urgent repair but this will be handled during normal business hours. **Emergency per DC law: "The A/C system shall be maintained during the period no later May 15 and ending no earlier than September 15. Inside temperature in rooms that the A/C system is intended to serve shall equal the greater of 78° F or at least 15° F less than the outside temperature**
Non working appliance is NOT an emergency. We treat a non working appliances as an urgent request but this is not considered an emergency. **only a non-working refrigerator is considered an emergency**

Standard/Non Emergency Maintenance Requests are responded to within 24-48 hours Monday-Friday. The average time to complete the repair is 48-72 hours (pending availability of contractor). Before submitting your request, review our help center to troubleshoot the issue – this will save you money by not being billed for a request that is the responsibility of the Tenant. These articles were put together for you – in all cases, we want to avoid charging a Tenant and the only way to do this is if the Tenant takes proactive steps to avoid an unnecessary call. Maintenance Repair Articles

Non-emergency maintenance issues include but are not limited to:

Broken or clogged garbage disposals (if clogged disposal is caused by coffee beans, or any hard substance that should be not put into the disposal, the tenant is responsible for the cost of the service call)
Broken appliances. First check this article to see if your issue can be resolved: Avoiding Common Appliance Repairs.
Broken/hanging gutters
Leaking faucets / shower heads
Non working toilets **unless there is only 1 working toilet in the unit**
Non working central air conditioning/heating
Non working electrical outlets
Broken garage door ** unless this is no safety concern**

You will or should have already received the log-in instructions for your personal tenant portal in software – if you haven’t let us know. Please be sure to bookmark that link and save your password. When you issue a maintenance request Monday – Friday we will schedule a repair during the week. Response time will vary depending on the issue and owner approval for the repair. Requests that come in during the weekend will be triaged on the morning of the next business day. We manage requests based on severity of the issue but do everything we can to coordinate a solution for you as quickly as possible. In some cases the fix is as simple as resetting a switch and we’ll walk you through doing that with assistance. (As an FYI: our office follows all federal holidays, so maintenance requests will be triaged when our staff is back in the office.)

Tenant Responsibility:

There are certain little things around the house that we expect tenants to be responsible for and they are pretty basic.

Changing light bulbs (even the specialty kind)
Changing air filters every three months
Making sure exterior drains are clear of debris
Ensuring heat is set to a minimum of 50 degrees if you are away during the winter
Installing mesh traps in drain to prevent clogs in tub drains
Turning off exterior hose bibs off in the winter and on in the summer
Setting your thermostat
If you are in a house, keeping walkways free of debris, trash receptacles in proper places and yard in good repair
Shoveling and icing during inclement weather
Setting roach and mouse traps

The Root of the Problem: Maintenance Trouble Shooting

So we can bill properly and find cost-effective solutions, we will identify the cause of the problem and offer a plan of action for the repair. If the source of the repair issue is caused by user error, it will be billed to you. Otherwise, all maintenance is billed to the owner. The standard Trip Charge is $110.00 which includes the first (1) hour of diagnosis and/or labor. Any time over (1) hour is charged at $110 per hour, calculated at 15-minute intervals. If the issue can be repaired by following one of our maintenance articles (PLEASE CLICK THIS LINK) the Tenant will be billed for the repair.

Some examples of user error are:

Tenant placing bones or non-food items in the garbage disposal. Causing disposal to break.

Tenant braking windows or putting holes in walls (by non-picture hanging nails).

Tenant not changing the air filters of the heating and cooling system, causing it to malfunction.

Tenant placing non-flushable items (i.e. feminine sanitary products) in the toilet.

Our Key Policy

Each property comes with a full set of keys for each tenant. Our office keeps one additional set. We keep lockboxes on-site for emergency issues and for office staff use. This is for your safety –but not for your personal use. If you are locked out, we cannot offer the code for your use. One set of house keys per tenant are provided. Any additional key copies will be made at the expense of the tenant.

The Appointment

When you have a maintenance appointment scheduled, we might require tenants to be present. There will be certain circumstances where we will need to enter the property without a tenant being there. If you are unable to meet our maintenance team, let us know as soon as possible. If you don’t show up and we have to send that team member back out, then we may have to charge the hourly maintenance rate.