Fall is, no doubt, one of the choicest times of the year to perform regular maintenance on some of the hardest-working devices in your rental property. Filters, batteries, and water heaters need to be thoroughly checked and cleaned or replaced regularly to secure that your tenants are protected and your rental property is kept as good as new. By capitalizing on the season to pull off these important interior maintenance items, you can be of help to retain and keep things functioning safely and smoothly all winter long.
Very few other factors are more vital than changing your Pasadena rental property’s air filters routinely. 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, longer periods of time are spent inside the house than outside, and furnaces start to work harder to keep out the cold. This leaves ensuring that your filters are clean all the more imperative. Dependent on which type of filter your HVAC system needs, you might probably need to change the filters as often as every 30 days, every three months, or even every six months. Despite the fact that you may be able to request for your tenant to carry out this duty for you, the risks of your tenant dismissing or not changing the filters often enough are exceedingly great. This may induce strain on your HVAC system, cutting the life short and reducing the efficiency of the unit.
Fall is, likewise, a perfect occasion to test and change the batteries in your rental property’s smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. These devices are critical to be certain your tenants are safe and secure; forgetting to maintain functioning smoke detectors in your rental property could result in you getting sued should your property become damaged or if your tenant gets hurt in a fire.
Quite a lot of smoke and carbon monoxide detectors will need their batteries changed every six to twelve months; others have lithium batteries that can last up to ten years, in effect the useful life of a smoke or carbon monoxide detector. Notwithstanding what kind of battery your devices have, you should see to it that the batteries are being tested and replaced on a regular basis. Hundreds of people are injured or killed in house fires every year, in some respect due to the fact that the smoke detectors in their homes were not functioning perfectly. If you hand over this task to your tenant, there is no guarantee at all that they will carry it through properly. They may even destroy your property’s smoke detectors, causing replacement costs and increased liability.
Even though being among the most frequently used devices in a rental home, water heaters are more often times missed when doing some property maintenance tasks. Though cleaning up your rental property’s water heater is an imperative detail of safeguarding and keeping it working correctly. Over time, sediment builds up in the tank of a water heater, making it less efficient and even leading to clogged water lines.
These issues can be easily averted by flushing your water heater once every six months or so. Although this chore can really take time, it is a vital part of taking full advantage of your expensive water heater unit. Even though asking for your tenant to change the water heater may appear to be a great idea, if you actually do that, you risk a task that is unsuccessfully or inappropriately completed and in the end, your tenant may make more dilemmas than they can solve.
Neglecting these maintenance items can have serious consequences and provoke expensive repairs before long. On the other hand, compelling your tenant to change or clean the filters, batteries, and water heater in your Pasadena rental property is not the best option. You could carry out this job yourself, but your wisest choice is to work with a company like Real Property Management Fairmate to administer all your property maintenance for you. Our full range of maintenance services will ensure your tenants are safe and protected and your property in perfect condition, setting you free to work on expanding your real estate investing business instead. Contact us today for more useful information.
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