Tenant Request Repair But Block Contractor
We had some tenants this morning that canceled a contractor attempt to get into the unit to execute a repair. So what's going on is the tenants had submitted a repair request for a plumbing issue. We worked to schedule the plumber, the plumber attempted to get in to do the repair. The tenants turned the plumber away telling the plumber that it's not a good time. The problem is that a good contractor is difficult to schedule. If they're good, they're booked, and that's the case with great plumbers. He is very good. He does have a full schedule. It is difficult for him to drive halfway across the city to go to a repair appointment and to be turned away by the tenants.
When the tenant submit a maintenance request, that is considered notice that we will be entering their unit. We don't have to give them 24 hours’ notice, even though we do give them 24 hours’ notice. Even though they're given notice and they were warned that the contractor would be coming, that necessarily doesn't even have to happen.
They're the ones that basically stated that there's a necessary repair, they're notifying themselves of an impending visit from a contractor. So in this case, we actually have built into our lease that tenants would have to pay a missed repair appointment fee. And what we typically do with that fee is we give over to the contractor. We value our contractor relationships. In fact, our entire property management company is built upon contractor relationships. We are not going to charge the tenant this one time, and so we're giving them a warning letting them know that they have to let this contractor in. You cannot block a contractor. You guys created this repair request to begin with. But even if the tenant didn't submit this maintenance request, if there's a necessary repair, it needs to be done to the property. The tenants have to let the contractor in.
We issued the warning to them this one time, letting them know that they can't block these guys. And again, as I've said before, the contractor was sitting on a couch waiting for a call. The contractor who can accommodate a tenant's desired schedule is not going to be the contractor who can actually do a repair. A good contractor is going to be booked and they're going to be able to do the repair when they can do the repair. So, if you have any tenants that are trying to cancel any of your work, I would just go ahead and give them notice that it's required and you have legal right to do it.
