Table of Contents
A checklist is a list of items to be done according to some plan or scheme. As you might expect, there are many different kinds of checklists for everything from recipe lists and grocery shopping lists, to chores and school homework assignments. Checklists can also apply more broadly as an idea; in this case they would refer to the activities involved in keeping or maintaining something such as property that needs caretaking on a regular basis
The “free rental inspection checklist template” is a free document that you can download and use to make your property maintenance checklists. It includes information on what to inspect, what to fix, and how often you should do it.
Landlords keep track of their rental homes with a Checklist for Rental Property Maintenance. They must understand what goes into regular, seasonal, and preventive maintenance, plan and conduct jobs, and outsource what they can’t handle themselves to suppliers. This procedure may be made easier with the use of a rental property upkeep checklist.
Maintenance Checklist for Rental Properties is a free tool that you can use to keep your rental
Our Maintenance Checklist for Rental Properties is a free tool that you can use to keep your rental can be downloaded in PDF or Microsoft Word formats and helps landlords organize weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual, and seasonal rental property maintenance tasks. The checklist is organized by these timeframes to help landlords schedule their maintenance across the year.
Our Checklist for Rental Property Maintenances may be downloaded here:
Avail is a web-based property management tool that assists landlords in organizing and tracking maintenance work as well as communicating with renters and suppliers. Avail makes maintenance simple with in-app instant chat, images of concerns, and recommended professionals. It just takes a few minutes to register online, and the first unit is always free.
Take a look at Avail
Checklist for Rental Property Maintenance
The Checklist for Rental Property Maintenance makes sure that landlords are covering their routine and preventative maintenance duties before they turn into emergency issues and costly repairs. It also saves time through scheduling maintenance duties with vendors in advance. Performing and tracking routine rental property maintenance decreases tenant turnover and helps landlords when disputes arise over who is responsible for damage to units.
Planning for Rental Property Maintenance
When you purchase a rental property, you must ensure that it is well-maintained, follows local rules, is habitable, and does not slip into disrepair. This entails arranging maintenance chores to be completed on a regular basis.
Do some planning before you start maintaining your rental home. Consider which duties you should do yourself and which you should delegate to a professional. Consider how far you live from your rentals and whether or not you have the necessary tools and equipment to do the work yourself. Consider the expense of outsourcing in relation to your time, money resources, and skills.
Decide who will be in charge of maintenance tasks.
You’ll need to select who will be in charge of different maintenance activities when planning your rental property upkeep. Will you hire a property management firm or handle everything yourself? In any scenario, the checklist may be used to keep track of and oversee the progress of your rentals. If you decide to employ a property management business, the checklist may be used to negotiate repair and maintenance requirements and expenses in further detail.
Select Vendors
If you want to handle rental property upkeep, you’ll need to figure out which duties you can do yourself and which ones you’ll need to engage a professional for. Any form of maintenance that requires a license should be outsourced. You can also consider outsourcing activities that you don’t have time to do. If you live a considerable distance from your rental property, you’ll also need a list of emergency service providers.
You should outsource the following maintenance tasks:
- Heating systems must be cleaned and tuned.
- Testing of natural gas lines and equipment
- Inspections of the central air system
- Work on trees that goes beyond mere trimming
- Clean-up of the septic system
- Getting a holiday rental ready for the winter
- Local building inspectors conduct annual inspections.
- Maintenance and repairs that have been put off because they are beyond your capabilities
You may do the following maintenance chores on your own:
- Garden and lawn maintenance
- Cleaning
- Replacing light bulbs in public locations
- Changing smoke and carbon monoxide detector batteries
- When it’s freezing outside, it’s a good idea to install storm windows.
- When it’s hot outside, it’s a good idea to put up screens.
This sample shows some of the things landlords should outsource and can do themselves. The Checklist for Rental Property Maintenance is designed to help you determine which tasks you may want to do yourself. In addition to these, it’s a good idea to review local building codes. If your rental property is in a managed subdivision or condominium complex, review the operating agreements and bylaws to determine any maintenance tasks you’re not allowed to complete yourself.
Create a Reserve Fund for Repairs.
You may be required to deposit monies as repair reserves if you engage a property manager. Property management businesses collect repair reserves from landlords in order to pay for repairs. Even if you intend to do it yourself, it’s still a good idea to set aside money from your rental revenue for repairs. You may estimate repair costs by going through prior years’ invoices and maintenance records, or by using one of the formulae used by landlords to estimate repairs.
The following are some formulae that landlords use to estimate building reserve repairs:
- Maintenance costs around 1% of the property value every year, according to the 1% rule.
- The 50 percent rule states that maintenance and repairs should account for half of your overall operating expenditures.
- The 5x rule states that maintenance expenses should be averaged out. 1.5 times your monthly rental revenue
- Maintenance will cost around $1 per square foot each year, according on the square foot formula.
Weekly Cleaning and Maintenance
To keep your rental property in great shape, you’ll need to perform a variety of weekly maintenance tasks. These include Garden and lawn maintenance during summer months, trash removal, and cleaning common areas such as hallways, laundry rooms, and stairwells. The Checklist for Rental Property Maintenance includes typical weekly chores most landlords perform. It also includes some blank lines with check boxes for you to add chores not on the checklist.
Keeping the Common Areas Clean
In a rental property, common spaces include communal areas such as entryways and corridors.
Dust cobwebs, pick up garbage, circulars, or fliers, and dust and spot clean fingerprints on walls, banisters, windows, and doors. Vacuum or sweep the floors, then mop them. Rep on each subsequent floor. If you have an indoor recycling bin, keep it neat and clean or wipe it down as required. Surfaces in the common laundry room should be disinfected, lint traps should be cleaned, and garbage should be emptied. Remove coins from machine coin bins and replenish soap dispensing machines.
Make sure you have enough cleaning tools on hand, such as mops, buckets, brooms, rags, a vacuum cleaner, dusters, trash bags, and cleaning chemicals, before you begin. Some landlords store them in a lockable shed, storage room, garage, or basement at the rental property. Weekly inventory checks should be made, and supplies should be replenished as required. Have a strategy in place. Starting at the top and working your way down is a good rule of thumb. Make any necessary repairs.
Exterior Maintenance is performed once a week.
When you’re finished inside, you can move to the outside. Again, you’ll want to have the equipment and tools you’ll need for your Exterior Maintenance is performed once a week. readily available. If you have an available space, you can store your equipment on-site in a locked area.
The following are some examples of outdoor equipment and tools:
- Rakes
- shovels for removing snow
- a mowing machine
- A weed whacker is a tool that is used to remove weeds from
- cutters for hedges
- a hose for the garden
- Window washer
- Trash bags with a lot of weight
- Sweep pathways, decks, stairs, and drives with this sturdy broom.
Begin by strolling around your home with a garbage bag in hand. Pick up garbage, examine recycling bins, and lock up receptacles and bins. You may need to rake leaves, mow the grass, or shovel snow depending on the season. Clear the area of any fallen branches or other debris. When it’s dry, it’s simpler to mow and rake than when it’s raining. The weight of wet grass and leaves is greater. Remember to weed your flower gardens and hydrate your plants as needed.
Routine Maintenance on a Monthly Basis
If you keep on top of weekly maintenance, Routine Maintenance on a Monthly Basis is easier. Monthly maintenance is more about performing inspections and addressing unresolved maintenance issues. Even though there may be less work to do, it’s still a good practice to perform monthly general inspections in case something is missed while doing weekly tasks. To save time, you can do these inspections and repairs on the same day you do weekly maintenance.
Routine Maintenance on a Monthly Basis tasks are:
- Inspect lighting in common areas and replace any burned-out bulbs.
- Inspect basement & attic: Make sure attic vents are secure, inspect sump pumps
- Windows & doors: Make sure locks are functional; repair broken glass or torn screens
- Common regions in general: Check for damage and make sure there are no obstructions in the way.
- Check bait and traps for pests. Replenish the bait and get rid of any dead rodents or bugs.
- Check and clean the gutters, and ensure sure the exterior lighting is in good working order.
- Walkways, walls, paving & driveways: Inspect for safety and repair or clean as needed
Seasonal & Quarterly Routine Maintenance
Some of your landlord responsibilities may change if your rental property is located in a region with changeable seasons. You’ll also have duties that you’ll do on a quarterly basis, regardless of the seasons. Choose the month in each quarter that best suits your climate and schedule constraints.
The following items are included in seasonal and quarterly maintenance:
- HVAC ducts should have clean air filters.
- Make sure the communal spaces are well ventilated.
- Examine the screens and storm windows and repair or replace them as necessary.
- Replace storm windows and doors with screens, or the other way around.
- Check the thermostats for heating and cooling.
- Check for frozen outside faucets and ice dams, and make any necessary repairs.
- Seasonal rentals and empty apartments should be winterized or reopened.
You don’t need to schedule an additional day to complete these chores. You may choose from one of your normal maintenance days, albeit seasonal maintenance takes longer. The checklist is intended to help you save time by allowing you to prepare ahead of time.
Routine Maintenance on an Annual Basis
Some maintenance procedures should only be done once a year. They don’t all have to be dealt with at the same time. Because they are often large projects, you may spread them out across the year to maximize efficiency. Many yearly duties, like monthly maintenance jobs, entail inspections when tenants depart at the conclusion of a lease; you may include them on your monthly inspection day, but if a repair is required, you’ll need more time.
Annual interior maintenance entails:
- Clean the carpets and fix the flooring in the communal rooms.
- Dryer vents should be cleaned regularly.
- Water heaters should be drained
- Examine the inside for mold.
- Clean and adjust your HVAC systems.
- Examine smoke alarms, fire extinguishers, carbon monoxide detectors, and sprinklers.
- Examine appliances, fans, plumbing, electrical, walls, floors, and ceilings, and make any necessary repairs.
The following items are included in yearly exterior maintenance:
- Ensure that all fire exits are operational and free of obstructions.
- Inspect the siding and roof for holes, leaks, cracks, and deterioration, and make any necessary repairs.
- Make sure your chimneys aren’t clogged or decaying.
- Check for mold on the outside and treat as required.
- As required, power wash or paint the siding.
- Inspect the fence and make any necessary repairs or paint.
- Aerate the grass and seed it as required.
- Garden beds should be mulched
- As required, reseal parking spots.
- Obtain a compliance certificate from the local building inspector.
Many of these jobs will require little time or money if you keep up with rental property upkeep. Deferred maintenance is a concern since it deteriorates over time, resulting in expensive repairs. It is worthwhile to keep up with normal maintenance since well-maintained rental homes attract higher rentals and sell for greater prices. Even the best-kept homes, however, need unforeseen repairs from time to time.
Make Provisions for Unexpected Repairs
Fires, floods, broken heating systems and water tanks, appliances, and Tenant-Inflicted Damage are all examples of unexpected repairs. Some of these problems need immediate attention, while others must be corrected within an acceptable time frame. The amount of time a landlord has to repair anything varies by state, but it usually ranges from three to thirty days.
The following are some examples of unanticipated emergency repairs:
- In the winter, faulty heating systems
- There isn’t any hot water or drinking water.
- Bathroom plumbing that isn’t working
- electricity that isn’t working
- Infestations of rodents and insects
- Fire and safety equipment that works, including fire escapes
- If your landlord provides refrigerators, use them.
The following are some examples of unanticipated non-emergency repairs:
- Ceiling fans that don’t work
- Faucets that drip
- radiators that squeak
- Storm windows or screens that are torn or missing
- Floors or doors that squeak
- Microwaves and other small appliances
Tenant-Inflicted Damage
Landlords aren’t responsible for Tenant-Inflicted Damage that exceed normal wear-and-tear. Having detailed records of maintenance and repairs can help resolve disputes about tenant-caused damage. Include the Checklist for Rental Property Maintenance in your maintenance records, and use one of the online property management software maintenance tracking features to keep thorough property maintenance records that include time-stamped photos and videos of before and after conditions.
Alternatives to Property Maintenance for Rental Properties
There are instances when landlords will need to execute maintenance responsibilities in addition to scheduled and preventive maintenance and unforeseen repairs. When tenants leave but before new renters come in, or when hazardous contaminants such as mold, lead paint, or asbestos are discovered on the premises.
Move-In & Move-Out Maintenance
You’ll also need to maintain your rental property when existing tenants move out and new tenants move in. You want to be thorough but also move quickly to avoid vacancies and lost rental income. To help, we’ve created a Move-In/Move-Out Checklist you can use as you inspect your units during tenant turnover. You can use this checklist with the Checklist for Rental Property Maintenance.
Lead Paint & Hazardous Materials
You must remedy lead paint and other dangerous items such as asbestos if you are aware of them. You must provide renters with the statutory lead paint notice if your property was constructed before 1978. An EPA-approved brochure on recognizing and managing lead paint, disclosure of any known lead paint on the property, and a “Lead Warning Statement” verifying the landlord’s compliance are all included in this disclosure.
Pro Tips for Rental Property Maintenance
You should have a thorough understanding of what is involved in maintaining your rental property. The Checklist for Rental Property Maintenance can be your go-to guide for planning tasks. We asked a few experts for tips they’ve learned when maintaining rentals.
The following are six expert rental property advice:
1. Create digital records and reminders that are automated
“Establish a routine for house upkeep. Homeowners need an automatic reminder system to remind them of seasonal duties that must be completed in order to maintain the value of their equipment, appliances, and construction materials. For any significant project, it’s critical to keep track of budgets, prices, images, documentation, and warranties. Because vacation houses are particularly vulnerable to natural calamities, it’s critical to keep a digital inventory of the house and its contents. It’s vital to have sufficient vacation home insurance and to be fully paid if it’s damaged.”
—John Bodrozic, HomeZada Co-Founder
2. Outsource to save time and money
“When real estate owners realize they don’t have the time, money, or knowledge to efficiently handle the various obligations of rental property upkeep, they should employ a property management firm.” It’s usual for inexperienced real estate investors to believe they can handle everything, but with all of the legal, financial, and general service demands, most people discover that outsourcing their upkeep to a certified property management business saves them money and allows them to earn more money.”
—Erick Carrier, RedStar Property Management’s Multifamily Property Manager
3. Inquire about the vendors used by property managers.
“One component of property management that is often forgotten is whether the upkeep is performed by vendors or in-house workers. You’ll usually obtain a higher rate if your management hires specialists to tackle maintenance difficulties. Expect your maintenance fees to be higher if they solely hire third-party contractors since vendors include greater profit margins in their bids.”
REthority.com Editor Andrew Helling
4. Engage the Services of Skilled Contractors
“When it comes to managing your rental home, you must determine how ‘hands-on’ you want to be. You will save money if you maintain the property yourself, but the savings will come at the expense of possible difficulties and annoyance. If you just have one home to manage, it’s easier if you have the time to devote to it. Finding professional certified and insured contractors—plumbers, electricians, and handymen—so that they are accessible when required is the finest advise I can provide. Examine them thoroughly and form connections with people who can handle difficulties quickly if they develop.”
—Pavel Khaykin, owner of Pavel Buys Houses, a real estate investment firm.
5. Consider the Benefits of Do-It-Yourself Maintenance
“While many people think of renting out a property as a kind of passive income, the time and effort required on a weekly basis is more than a part-time job.” On top of weekly upkeep, apartment leases need a significant amount of time. Units will need modifications in the long run, whether it’s new furniture, appliances, or a total remodel. When deciding whether to maintain a rental yourself or hire a property manager, consider the following questions: Do I have the time every week and throughout the year? Do I have more professional skills and relationships in the sector than a property manager? Is it true that maintaining my property fulfills me or gives me better peace of mind?”
—Keenan Wong, Blueground’s Content Marketing Manager
6. Conduct inspections and risk assessments.
“Do a thorough walk-through of your property and note all of the components that will need to be maintained. Subcontractors may help with the finishing touches. Additionally, do a risk management evaluation to identify any possible threats. If you don’t feel comfortable doing it yourself, your insurance company may do it for you, typically at no cost. Knowing the value of your property can help you budget for operational and capital costs, as well as provide a safe environment for your renters.”
—Chris Dowler, Dowler Construction Services, LLC co-owner
Most Commonly Asked Questions (FAQs)
How much of the rental money should be spent for upkeep?
According to the 5X rule, your monthly rental revenue should be 1.5 times your maintenance expenditures. If your rental revenue is $2,000 per month, your monthly maintenance charges should be $250, or $3,000 per year. This will be determined by the size and condition of your property, as well as the cost of upkeep.
How often should inspections be performed?
One to four times a year, landlords examine their premises. Include your rental inspection walk-through timetable and regulations in your contract so renters know what to expect and so you may visit their homes with at least 24-hours’ notice. When feasible, some landlords like renters to be at home to ask questions and ensure that everything is in order.
Is it possible to deduct maintenance costs?
Investment property maintenance costs are tax deductible, according to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). You may deduct the price of various materials, supplies, repairs, and maintenance, as well as contractor fees, to maintain your property in excellent working order.
Can renters refuse to let landlords in for repairs?
Tenants have no right to deny admission to a landlord who needs to make repairs or conduct inspections. Landlords, on the other hand, are required to provide renters with reasonable notice. A minimum of 24 hours is usually required. If a landlord has to make an emergency repair, such as a busted water line or frozen pipes, he or she may usually enter without warning to avoid additional property damage.
Conclusion
A Checklist for Rental Property Maintenance is a schedule of tasks for landlords who want to schedule routine and preventative maintenance and make sure they’re keeping their properties up to building code standards. The checklist puts all of the landlord’s maintenance tasks in one convenient place so they can plan ahead. Download our free rental property maintenance PDF checklist to organize your maintenance.
Consider Avail if you need a way to keep track of and manage your rental property upkeep. By providing you with a central location to monitor and manage all of your rental property maintenance, Avail can help you avoid the frustrations of trying to recall when you last mowed the grass. You can join up in minutes on their website, and the first unit is always free.
Take a look at Avail
The “annual rental property inspection checklist” is a checklist that can be downloaded for free. The checklist covers the most important tasks to be performed on an annual basis.
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