Planning and Budgeting for Emergency Situations

Planning and Budgeting for Emergency Situations

I often share with landlords that “late night emergencies” seldom occur. However, in late January and early February when significant storms and freezing temperatures occur, we do need to plan for emergency calls from our tenants. Last weekend, we had four emergency calls. There were two no-heat calls, one home without hot water, and one ruptured pipe inside a home.


In order to prepare for such emergencies, we have a 24 hour maintenance emergency call service, we remind tenants to change HVAC filters regularly, we coordinate with HVAC companies and plumbers in advance to ensure that we can receive priority service if needed, and we stock several room/space heaters to lend to tenants if failed heating systems can not be promptly repaired.


While our management contract requires any non-emergency repair exceeding $250 to be approved by the owner in advance, such emergency situations will be handled to the best of our ability and may exceed that financial threshold. Our obligation is to protect the home against further damages and to ensure the tenants have a safe and habitable environment in the home. We inform owners immediately if such emergency situations occur. While these types of situations do not occur frequently, we do suggest that all owners budget for the potential costs associated with such emergencies.

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