As a property owner, it’s likely you’ve experienced your share of conflicts with tenants. Providing impeccable service won’t make you immune from complaints because no one is happy all the time. As a Tampa property management company, we know what tenants complain about the most. Here, we’ll share these complaints and how you should go about solving them.
MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR COMPLAINTS
Providing a comfortable, safe, and habitable space is crucial for keeping tenants happy. Normal wear and tear will happen when tenants live in a property for years. Outside of that, you’ll have to make regular maintenance and repair a top priority. An effective way to handle complaints is according to their level of urgency.
– High priority: involve HVAC, electrical, and plumbing issues. Handle safety or life threatening issues immediately.
– Low-priority: involve issues like broken appliances or minor faucet leaks for instance. Other complaints may involve issues that aren’t your responsibility. This could include battery replacement and trash.
You may also receive complaints about things that really aren’t your responsibility. As a courtesy, you can repair damage but require the tenant to pay. This could include broken blinds for example.
NEIGHBOR COMPLAINTS
Landlords get noise complaints all the time. Tenants complain about noisy neighbors with loud music, television, and radio. They will complain of stomping, parties, and rambunctious kids. Give attention to these complaints, but set guidelines to prevent abuse from either side. Most properties will abide by local county noise ordinance when defining appropriate noise levels. For example, quiet hours may be set between 10pm and 7am. With quiet hours, tenants will enjoy their homes when most would be resting, and tenants won’t have to walk on eggshells in normal daytime hours.
PET COMPLAINTS
Tenants have a hard time finding properties that welcome pets. This is why it’s great to make your property pet-friendly, but you should still set some rules. Solve these issues by having strict size and breed restrictions and poop scooping rules. Fine individuals that do not abide by your rules set forth.
PEST COMPLAINTS
From time to time, you’ll deal with pesky pests. It’s important to draw a line at the tenant’s responsibility and your responsibility as a landlord. Tenants should maintain the cleanliness of the property while landlords should perform routine preventive maintenance like pest control.
HANDLING COMPLAINTS
Handle complaints by acknowledging them, recording them, fixing the issue, and following up. Remember the way you handle tenant complaints is a direct reflection on you and will cost you plenty in money and reputation when handled improperly. Save yourself the headaches and hire a property management company Tampa with tenant expertise to keep your community running smoothly.
Contact us at (813) 968-5665 to learn more about our property management services.