Among the 4 seasons of the year, Fall is the best time 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. Among the things you can do, you can have your filters, batteries, and water heaters checked and cleaned or replaced. These tasks must be done regularly to make sure your rental property stays in good condition and your tenants out of harm’s way.
Changing your Worcester rental property’s air filters is very important, and it should be done on a regular basis. These filters keep your property’s HVAC system clean and running efficiently. Because of this, changing the air filters in your rental home 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 is why keeping your filters clean is crucial. Now, there are many kinds of HVAC systems and they use different kinds of filters. So, depending on the specific model you have, you may need to change the filters as often as every 30 days, every three months, or even every six months. While you may want to let your tenants do this themselves— and some may be willing— there is a likely chance that they’re not going to change the filters often enough or just outright forget to do it. This sort of neglect would cause undue strain on your HVAC system, reducing both its life and the efficiency of the unit.
Fall would also be the perfect time 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 others— 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. Instead, they may damage your property’s smoke detectors as they try their hand in testing and checking them. This would just give you additional expenses in replacement costs and increase your liability.
Then we have water heaters. They are often forgotten when doing property maintenance tasks even though they are one of the most frequently used devices in a rental home. It should not be neglected. It is important to clean your rental property’s water heater so it continues to work efficiently for a long time. Over time, sediment builds up in the tank of a water heater, making it less efficient and even leading to clogged water lines.
These problems wouldn’t bother you if you just flush your water heater once every six months or so. The task may take longer than you’d like but it’s something you have to do to get the most out of your expensive water heater unit. This may seem like another thing you’d want your tenant to do. But if you let them clean your water heater, you risk a lot of things. They may not do it correctly and cause even more problems.
Neglecting these maintenance items can have serious consequences and you may end up with expensive repairs. But leaving it to your tenant to change or clean the filters, batteries, and water heater in your Worcester rental property is not the best option. While it may be the case that you could spend your time and energy to do the jobs yourself, the best choice would still be to employ a company like Real Property Management Metro West-Worcester to do all the property maintenance tasks for you. We have a full range of maintenance services that will keep your tenants safe and your property in good condition. With us by your side, you can be free to focus on growing your real estate investing business! For more information, feel free to contact us today.
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