Maintenance

RSS

Most residents are good about reporting maintenance problems. Some owners and managers may say that they’re too good. But there are residents who don’t report maintenance problems. Perhaps these residents are too busy or don’t want members of your maintenance staff in their units. But residents’ failure to report maintenance problems could result in severe damage to your site and harm to residents.

You and your maintenance staff have different issues to tackle during each season of the year. In the fall, most sites need to prepare for winter. But because some of the things that should be on your “to do” list for fall haven’t been done in an entire year, it’s easy to forget all the things you need to do.

Here’s a checklist that you can use to remind yourself of all the things you and your maintenance staff need to do this fall to get your site ready for winter.

If your site needs non-routine maintenance and repair work, you must decide between either using your own staff or hiring outside contractors. Some managers think that it’s always cheaper to use their site staff, but that’s not necessarily so. There are costs associated with using your staff just as there are with hiring outside contractors. If you do a comparative analysis of these costs, you may find that it’s more efficient to hire an outside contractor for a particular job.

Extreme weather frequently knocks over electrical lines. Owners and residents who rely on backup generators for temporary power should be aware of the danger of inhaling carbon monoxide. A 2012 review of the American Journal of Public Health identified 75 deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning during natural disasters between 1991 and 2009. And backup generators were responsible for 83 percent of deaths.

If you’re like most managers, you probably follow up with a resident after an annual unit inspection only if you found serious housekeeping problems during the inspection. But by limiting your follow-up to this situation, you could be missing a great opportunity to head off maintenance problems and HUD violations at your site. Instead, follow up with all residents after annual unit inspections by telling them what you found during the inspection, what they did right and wrong, and what behavior needs to be changed.

On July 10, 2016, HUD released Inspector Notice No. 2016-03, which clarifies standards to all HUD Uniform Physical Condition Standards (UPCS) inspectors regarding repairs made to sites. The changes implemented in this notice are effective on Aug. 1, 2016. According to the Public and Indian Housing Real Estate Assessment Center Inspector Administration, quality assurance inspectors had noticed a growing trend of non-industry standard inferior repairs in preparation for a REAC inspection at some sites for the past several months.

If you’re like most owners or managers of assisted sites, you probably conduct annual inspections of the units at your site. Owners perform unit inspections on at least an annual basis to determine whether the appliances and equipment in the unit are functioning properly and to assess whether a component needs to be repaired or replaced. This is also an opportunity to determine any damage to the unit caused by the tenant’s abuse or negligence and, if so, make the necessary repairs and bill the tenant for the cost of the repairs [HUD Handbook 4350.3, par. 6-29(A)(3)].

Major storms or other natural disasters may leave your site and residents without power. And in anticipation of future storms or disasters that may knock out power, your site may have an emergency backup generator. Generators offer the convenience of using our everyday devices despite a prolonged power outage. They can even be life-saving in the case of hospitals or elderly residents who depend on oxygen machines. But they can be dangerous if used improperly. So before you fire up a backup generator, here are a few safety tips to keep in mind:

Toxic mold lawsuits against site owners and managers have been making news. Most recently, a group of residents filed a class action lawsuit against the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), the nation’s largest public housing agency, for apartment conditions that constitute “an emergency or danger to their life, health, or safety.” The tenants hope a judge will force the agency to fix moldy bathrooms, leaky pipes, and breakdown-prone heat and hot water systems.

HUD rules make it hard for you to pass on the extra cost of emergency repairs to your residents, so you’re the one who will be stuck paying them. Fortunately, you can keep emergency repair costs to a minimum by reducing the number of these repairs your site needs, and by planning ahead to keep their costs and the damage they cause under control. Here are four tips that will help you avoid having to make emergency repairs and control the costs of those emergency repairs you can’t avoid.