Managing a successful multi-family property requires some serious multitasking. Whether you’re a landlord or a property manager, you’ve got plenty of duties that need your attention every day, and there will always be a never-ending stream of maintenance HVAC requests.
Some maintenance, like landscaping and cleaning common areas, is pretty routine and easy to plan, but other requests seem to come out of nowhere. No matter how organized you try to remain, you’ll never be able to completely foresee everything that might break down or wear out at any given time.
As every multi-family property is different, there is no one-size-fits-all checklist. There are specific maintenance categories. However, that will almost always need to be included:
However, through a regular HVAC preventative maintenance plan, multi-family property operators can help prevent – or at least limit – the need for sudden repairs and replacements, boosting resident confidence and satisfaction while making the property manager’s job a lot less hectic.Not only will regular preventative maintenance HVAC add needed organization to the management of a multi-family property, but maintaining its facilities will save money otherwise spent on last-minute repairs while protecting the overall investment. For example, consider how much it might cost to repair some pipes when the leaking water is but a trickle. Then, imagine the cost if that leak is neglected, and instead, floors, carpets, drywall, and paint all have to be replaced.
Multi-Family Properties & HVAC Maintenance
How often you need to work on HVAC maintenance depends partially on the size of your multi-family property. For example, a building housing eight families might be able to schedule all its annual HVAC preventative maintenance plan tasks a couple of days a month. However, a property with 20 or more family units might need to dedicate time each week to get everything completed. An effective HVAC preventative maintenance plan isn’t something that can be planned for one day a year. Careful scheduling is required. Rather than performing all annual jobs on a single apartment during the same day, some multi-family property managers will stagger the dates to take a look at the property during each season. When it comes to HVAC maintenance, there are four types of tune-ups that include the following:- Corrective maintenance.
- Preventive maintenance.
- Risk-based maintenance.
- Condition-based maintenance.
Creating an HVAC Preventative Maintenance Plan
Of course, to create an efficient schedule, you’ll need to organize a checklist of all the preventative maintenance tasks, with details on how long they typically take and how often they should be completed. The entire list should be completed at least once a year for every property, but a few tasks will need to be done more frequently.- Water Leaks and Damage
- Roof and Gutters
- Ceiling and Drywall
- Shower Caulk and Grout
- Pest Control
- Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detectors
- HVAC and Water Heaters
Motili’s Multi-Family Maintenance HVAC Services
A skilled contractor must complete most HVAC maintenance. Motili offers multi-family property operators a nationwide network of more than 2,000 contractors. Its asset and data management technology tracks all of a multi-family property company’s HVAC and hot water properties. The technology analyzes the data generated by every HVAC system and uses it to plan for preventative maintenance and schedule future needs.Motili’s Multi-Family Asset Management product suite features site inspections, asset tagging, planned and unplanned repairs and replacements, and strategic insights and analytics.Motili enabled communities have seen their resident satisfaction improve by 20 percent after implementing the Asset Management solution. Plus, since projects are completed by Motili staff and a national professional network of contractors, property managers’ lives are made easier by a single point of contact for all their HVAC and water heater needs.