Property managers have a primary responsibility which involves the maintenance of the property they oversee. It is important to understand what your firm expects as far as when maintenance should happen and on what kind of regular basis.

Too often, managers get fired or get pay cuts due to not properly recording when they had maintenance done. Because of this, it is very important to look at the tips we will lay out to help you avoid potential problems with your property firm.

One of the first things you should do it talk to your firm about how often they would like things to be serviced. Most firms will have a log book with a designated time of year that something should be serviced, but if not make one.

With this list, you can create a check list or log so that you can mark the dates when things were maintenances and keep a record. This record will come up often as it will be there to save your butt in case anything catastrophic breaks. When something bad happens, the firm will ask you when you had it serviced. If you have a log book with dates and signatures, the firm will take full responsibility for the damaged item and pay what they need to in order to fix it without giving you a whimper.

On the flip side, if you don’t keep good records, you will have a hard time explaining yourself to the firm. Often this leads to firing depending on the amount of damage, or it can lead to probation and pay cuts that are never fun. Because of the he said she said issues that can happen, do yourself a favor and have a great log book.

We hope that these tips have been helpful as you go out and do your best as a property manager. In a world of uncertainty, you can take control of the property maintenance by keeping better records and doing a better job of keeping the firm accountable for the issues that end up happening with properties.

Mike writes about property management salary and about property manager salary