Should Residents Be Allowed to Do Their Own Maintenance?

Should Residents Be Allowed to Do Their Own Maintenance?

Should Residents Be Allowed to Do Their Own Maintenance?

Should Residents Be Allowed to Do Their Own Maintenance?

As an investment property owner, you’ve probably had at least a minor maintenance issue or two at your property.

And once your resident notified you of this minor issue, chances are that you were met with the statement:

“I don’t want to wait for a vendor to come out. Can’t I just repair this myself?”

Well, that depends.

Essentially, the blanket answer is no, but there are exceptions to every rule. 

 

Professional Maintenance of Your Property

When it comes to the maintenance of your property, you want to ensure that you’re utilizing skilled professionals that know what they’re doing. 

If you allow your resident to perform repairs at the property, a couple of less-than-desirable outcomes could occur:

  1. They don’t do the repair correctly, causing you additional maintenance and additional expense
  2. The resident can damage your property if repairs are done improperly 
  3. The resident gets hurt while performing maintenance, which causes a liability to you as an owner

But when using a professional, you have the peace of mind that they can perform skilled work because they’ve been trained in it. 

The cost is a little higher up front, but will ultimately save you money in the long run. 

 

Licensed & Insured Vendors

An important item to note is that you want to ensure that the vendors you work with have appropriate insurance and licensing in their field. 

If the vendor you hire does something wrong, damages property, gets hurt, etc. their insurance will cover it. 

With hiring properly licensed & insured vendors, your liability is greatly reduced in a number of ways.

 

Examples of Maintenance that Residents Should NOT Do:

  • Any major mechanical repairs involving: 
    • Plumbing
    • HVAC
    • Appliance
    • Electrical
  • Roof repairs
  • Flooring/carpet installation
  • Siding or window repairs
  • Gutter clean out
  • Lawn maintenance and snow removal when there are multiple units at a property

This isn’t an exhaustive list of everything that residents shouldn’t do maintenance-wise. 

However, it does serve as a brief summary of some of the most important items that you don’t want to risk a resident handling themselves.

 

Examples of Maintenance that Residents Can/Should Do:

  • Small routine maintenance that would be expected when living in a home
    • Change out a furnace filter
    • Water filter
    • Changing light bulbs
    • Lawn maintenance for a single-family home
      • Cutting grass, trimming trees, shrubs, etc.
    • Snow removal for a single-family home

At times, an item may need to be purchased to aid in small routine maintenance, like a dehumidifier or space heater. 

You can allow the resident to purchase the item, provide you a receipt, and you can reimburse them if there is a need for that specific item (that doesn’t require professional installation).

Any good lease (like ours) covers these topics and puts the responsibility on the resident for these routine service items.

 

Overall…

It’s in your best interest to hire professionals to handle most major maintenance items/repairs at your property. 

Professionals are best when considering liability concerns, properly done maintenance, and long-term care of your property. 

After all, your property is a big asset that you want to protect.

But, with that being said, there are always a few minor things that the resident should be responsible for outlined above. 

The list does not include anything major, but just what would be regularly expected of someone occupying a home.

If you’d like to discuss any of this, please contact us about your specific situation. We’d be happy to walk through your situation and property needs with you!

What To Do When an Evicted Resident Leaves Belongings Behind

What To Do When an Evicted Resident Leaves Belongings Behind

What to Do When an Evicted Resident Leaves Belongings Behind

What to Do When an Evicted Resident Leaves Belongings Behind

Evictions: Unfortunate, But Sometimes Unavoidable

As you may know, evictions are an occasional obstacle that we deal with in property management.

Maybe you’ve dealt with an eviction before as an owner, and maybe you haven’t.

If you haven’t had any experience with evictions, check out our blog post on the timeline of an eviction.

In that post, we detail out the course of the whole eviction process.

But, whether you’ve had to evict a resident before or not, you may have asked yourself the question: 

“What do I do if the resident I evicted leaves their belongings behind in my property?”

While each eviction case is unique, we’ll try to break this part of the process down into the simplest terms.

 

What to Do if the Evicted Resident DOES Contact You 

Chances are, the evicted resident will want at least some of their belongings back.

If that’s the case, the resident has 10 days to contact you and let you know that they’d like to retrieve their belongings.

If they do contact you, you must arrange for them to have access to gather their personal property within 30 days. 

Note: This 30 day period begins the day of the eviction.

Once you’ve confirmed that they’ve retrieved everything they want, you’re legally allowed to do what you see fit with the the items that they leave behind.

 

What to Do if the Evicted Resident Does NOT Contact You

If the evicted resident fails to contact you within the initial 10 days, they forfeit their right to retrieve their belongings. 

After the 10 day period of no contact, you are allowed to do what you see fit with the items they left behind.

However, to be on the safe side, we recommend you hold onto their items for the full 30 day period. 

 

In Simplest Terms: 

 

What to Do When an Evicted Resident Leaves Belongings Behind Eviction occurs → Resident has 10 days to contact you If you are contacted → Resident has 30 days to get their belongings If you are not contacted → After 10 days, you can handle their belongings how you see fit

 

Eviction occurs → Resident has 10 days to contact you

If you are contacted → Resident has 30 days to get their belongings

If you are not contacted → After 10 days, you can handle their belongings how you see fit

 

All in All…

While evictions are not a “fun” part of owning a rental property, they do come with the territory.

The good news is that we can help!

We’ve gained expertise in all aspects of property management, including evictions, over the past 40+ years that we’ve been in business.

Contact us today for a free consultation to discuss your unique situation!

Disclaimer: We are not attorneys, and this is not to be considered legal advice. We encourage you to contact your attorney for guidance on your particular situation. This article is meant to provide a general rule or procedure on how this process works.

This is the process as we understand it in Pennsylvania and may not pertain to other states or specific cities within Pennsylvania. We always encourage a consultation with a local attorney who knows and understands Landlord Tenant Law for specific locations.

Arbors Management, Inc. Gains Management of Lakeview Manor

Arbors Management, Inc. Gains Management of Lakeview Manor

Lakeview Manor 1

Stoneboro, PA – Arbors Management continues to expand their reach by adding Lakeview Manor in Stoneboro, PA to their portfolio. Effective June 1st, Arbors will become the new management agent of the 50-unit senior building near their new office in Grove City and other Arbors-managed properties, such as Evergreen Arbors in Franklin and Towne Towers in Oil City.

Lakeview Manor is an affordable independent senior living facility that offers a wonderful community of residents and has been a staple of the community for 36 years since its construction in 1987. Located near Lake Wilhelm, Goddard State Park, the Stoneboro Fairgrounds, Grove City Outlet Mall, and Conneaut Lake, residents have plenty to do just minutes from the property.

Since 1982, Arbors Management, Inc. has built a portfolio of over 4,000 residential units with a large majority in the affordable housing segment across Western PA and West Virginia, and it continues to grow each year. The team at Arbors Management is thrilled to begin building a lasting relationship with the residents of Lakeview Manor.

Read the original article online on the Pittsburgh Business Times here.

How We Keep Our Clients in Compliance with the Law

How We Keep Our Clients in Compliance with the Law

By: Nick Griffith & Nicole Fandel, Director of Conventional Housing and Marketing Specialist

How We Keep Our Clients in Compliance with the Law

One of the most important facets of property management is maintaining legal compliance. As daunting as that can be for one owner, Arbors has a dedicated Compliance Department to ensure that you and your property are in the clear.

So how do we keep our clients legally compliant? We’ll break that down in this article over these five different categories:

  1. Fair Housing
  2. Occupancy Permits
  3. Inspections
  4. Reasonable Accommodations and Reasonable Modifications
  5. Compliance Department Review

 

1. Fair Housing

First and foremost, we want to make sure your property is compliant with fair housing regulations, one of the most important aspects of managing rental properties. How do we keep you in compliance with fair housing law? 

One of the best ways for us to do this is through our screening criteria. We’ve developed our screening criteria over the 40 years that we’ve been in business and abide by that criteria on properties that we manage in order to avoid any fair housing violations.

In an effort to eliminate unfair advantage or preference among applicants, we process applications by the standards set by the Pennsylvania State Law. We also process applications in the order that they are received.

Additionally, our agents representing you have their real estate salesperson license. With this comes continuing education to ensure we stay up to date with all legal requirements and updates pertaining to keeping you compliant with local, state, and federal laws. 

 

2. Occupancy Permits

Another way that we keep you in compliance is by keeping your property in rental housing code compliance with any state, local, or municipality housing standards. One of the items that is included in many of these local requirements is an occupancy permit or a rental registration. 

If you do have a rental property under our management, we will take care of occupancy permits or rental registrations required by any local municipality or governments. This includes:

  • Payment on our clients’ behalf of rental registration fees
  • Coordinating and potentially attending occupancy inspections
  • Arranging any repairs needed in order to stay compliant with local municipality occupancy standards

 

3. Inspections

We perform annual inspections – we call them interim inspections. At these inspections, we’re looking for common things at your property that are required by the local municipalities to make sure that you’re able to obtain occupancy permits. The most common things are:

  • Smoke detectors
  • Carbon monoxide detectors
  • Handrails
  • Any other obvious safety deficiencies at the property

If we do find that any of these items need attention, we will address them. 

 

4. Reasonable Accommodations and Modifications

Occasionally, a resident may request for a reasonable accommodation or a reasonable modification to your property.

We are trained and well-versed in the requirements necessary in order to approve or deny these requests.

We will handle the proper paperwork and forms to document the request to complete everything, all while making sure – you guessed it – that you are staying in compliance by abiding by fair housing laws when accommodating or denying a request.

 

Here’s the difference between the two:

Reasonable Accommodation: request for a change in our policies and procedures to accommodate a resident for a need that they have.

*Responsibility of the landlord to pay

Ex: Allowing a service animal to occupy a property with a no-pet policy

 

Reasonable Modification: request to change the physical nature of the property to accommodate a resident for a need that they have.

*Responsibility of the resident to pay

Ex: Installing a ramp to the front entrance of a property because the resident is wheelchair bound

 

5. Compliance Department Review

Any new residents moving into your property will be reviewed by our Compliance Department in order to ensure that we met all of the screening criteria appropriately.

A few items that the Compliance Department review are:

  • The lease
  • Application
  • Credit and criminal reports
  • Photo identification
  • Proof of income

If they do find any errors or discrepancies, our management staff will be alerted and those will be corrected as soon as possible.

 

Arbors Management Keeps You Compliant

With over 40 years of experience in property management in Pittsburgh, Western Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, we’ve learned a thing or two about legal compliance.

When you hire Arbors Management to manage your property, you are also hiring a dedicated Compliance Department that ensures that you and your property are operating within the bounds of the law.

If you have any questions about our professional Pittsburgh property management services, including how our Compliance Department works, please contact us through this form, or give us a call at 1 (800) 963-1280.

Disclaimer: We are not attorneys and the information herein is not intended to be legal advice. Please consult with your attorney for any matters pertaining to your specific situation.

Property Spotlight: Donnan Avenue Apartments in Washington, PA

Property Spotlight: Donnan Avenue Apartments in Washington, PA

By: Nicole Fandel, Marketing Specialist

 

Welcome to Donnan Avenue!

Are you looking to live in an area that’s close to everything that Pittsburgh has to offer yet still has the cozy hometown feel of Western Pennsylvania? Well, we’ve got you covered!

We currently have 2 apartments available located at 395 Donnan Avenue in Washington, PA. Each spacious unit is newly renovated and has 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom, along with plenty of windows letting in lots of natural light.

Our building on Donnan Avenue has a laundry room for resident use as well as a parking lot in the back – never worry about trying to parallel park on a busy street again! Not to mention, the building is just minutes away from I-70.

A Sneak Peek at Unit 6:

          

 

A Sneak Peek at Unit 24:

   

 

What Does Washington, Pennsylvania Have to Offer?

But, these apartments aren’t just close to I-70; they are within walking distance of different shops, restaurants, and businesses like Dollar General, Walgreens, Goodwill, PNC Bank, Post Office, Little Caesars, Subway, and much more! Our Campus - Washington & Jefferson College

Not to mention, Washington County is the home of Washington & Jefferson College, only a 4 minute drive, as well as the Pittsburgh Tanger Outlets, only a 10 minute drive! Near the outlets, you’ll find Pittsburgh’s famous Sarris Candies shop, Chick-fil-A, Hobby Lobby, Sportsman’s Warehouse, Walmart, Target, Sam’s Club, and plenty more.

At 395 Donnan Avenue, you truly are just minutes away from everything you could want or need – don’t pass up this opportunity because it won’t be around much longer!

Interested in a Donnan Avenue apartment?

If you’re interested in filling out an application or learning more about living at 395 Donnan Avenue in Washington, PA, please take a look at the Appfolio pages for apartment 6 or apartment 24. You can also contact portfolio manager Karina Smoke at 412-930-4925 or KarinaS@arbors.com for more information or to schedule a tour!