If you look at the different seasons of the year, fall would be the best one for you to perform regular maintenance on some of the hardest-working devices in your rental property. Make the most out of the season by doing your important interior maintenance items. This way, you’ll also be preparing your property, making sure things run safely and smoothly all winter long. Some of the things you can do are check and clean your filters, batteries, and water heaters. And, depending on its condition, they may need to be replaced. These tasks should be done regularly to reduce the risks your tenants are exposed to, and to make sure your rental property is in great condition.
It’s important that your Bellevue rental property’s air filters be changed regularly. These filters keep your property’s HVAC system clean and running efficiently. This is why changing the air filters in your rental property is an important part of seasonal maintenance. As the winter months draw near, your tenants would want to keep out the cold since they’ll be spending more time indoors. They would then have the furnaces work harder. This being the case, it’s clearly important that your filters must be kept clean. There are all sorts of HVAC systems and they use different filters. So, depending on which type of filter your system requires, you may need to change the filters as often as every 30 days, every three months, or even every six months. While you may think that having your tenants do these things would be a smart move, the truth is, many tenants would probably forget to do it or not change the filters often enough. Not doing the maintenance tasks properly would strain your HVAC system and may result in the life of the unit being shortened and its efficiency greatly reduced.
Fall is also a great season to test and change the batteries in your rental property’s smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. These devices need to be kept working correctly to make sure your tenants won’t be in danger. Think about it; let’s say a fire damages your property and hurts one of your tenants. Then it turns out your smoke detectors weren’t functioning because the batteries were running low and weren’t replaced. What do you think will happen? You’ll probably be sued— that’s pretty much guaranteed to happen. In other words, it really is critical that these devices be maintained and kept running properly.
There are also different kinds of smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Some of them need their batteries changed every six to twelve months while other— with lithium batteries— can last up to ten years. That’s amazing considering the useful life of a smoke or carbon monoxide detector is also ten years. However, no matter what kind of battery your devices have, you must have them tested on a regular basis. And the batteries must also be replaced without delay when it’s necessary. Hundreds of people are injured or killed in house fires every year. This is partly caused by the smoke detectors in their homes failing to alert them in time. If you would have your tenants do this task, you cannot guarantee that they would actually do it. What’s worse, they may damage your property’s smoke detectors as they try and do the maintenance— especially if they weren’t properly trained. This would lead to additional replacement costs and the increased liability on your part.
Then we’ve got one of the most frequently used devices in a rental home— the water heater. Despite being used so much, it’s often forgotten when it’s time to do property maintenance tasks. It shouldn’t be neglected or forgotten. Cleaning your property’s water heater is important to keep it working efficiently. Over time, sediment builds up in the tank of a water heater, making it less efficient and even leading to clogged water lines.
You can dodge these problems easily by flushing your water heater once every six months or so. The task takes time to do but it should be done so your expensive water heater unit can work efficiently. This may be another task you’d want your tenants to be handling. However, there is no guarantee that they’ll clean out the water heater properly. Instead, they may just be doing more harm than good.
Neglecting these maintenance items can have serious consequences and you may have to spend more on expensive repairs after a while. But giving your tenant the tasks to change or clean the filters, batteries, and water heater in your Bellevue rental property is not the best option. The other option would be to do it all by yourself— but that would leave little room to do more meaningful and important tasks. That’s also not so good. The best option would really be to get a company like Real Property Management Eclipse to handle all the property maintenance tasks for you. Our full range of maintenance services can free up so much of your time. This way, not only will your property be in good shape and your tenants kept safe, but you would also be able to focus on what matters most. You would now have the time to work on growing your real estate investing business! To learn more about what we can do for you, feel free to contact us today.
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