Landlording & Managing Expectations

[mswhitac]

Hi All - first post and new(er) landlord.  On our out of state property, the lease indicates we pay for the pool/landscape maintenance and have fortunately landed on two very good contractors.  They generally have fixed days and blocks of times that they come.  But here's the rub, there is some inconsistency sometimes and the tenants want privacy and have safety concerns for the area and so have added a lock to back yard area - necessary for the pool and yard.  We learned of the lock and they provided the combo, and we in turn shared that with the contractors.  Tenants want a call ahead, text or doorbell ring before service from the contractors.  What say you on how best to manage expectations on some service time inconsistencies with our contractors?  Any similar stories you can share wrt routine maintenance and expectations?

[ncornilsen]

Become familiar with the legal requirements first; for example you may be required to give 24hrs of notice before any maintenance work anyway, for example.

[chasingthegoodlife]

If you have a good relationship with the tenants, it would be ideal if they could deal directly with your contractors.

Eg - you authorise the contractor to bill you for 1 garden service quarterly and the tenants arrange the service with the contractor at a time that suits them.

[clarkfan1979]

I would try to get your tenants to get in touch with the company. They can work out out a deal.

The best way to manage expectations is to do it before they move-in. I explain my philosophy and my expectations. If they don't like it, they should find another place to rent. No hard feelings.

[pasadenafr]

Your tenants' expectations are perfectly reasonable. If contractors come to perform work that require them to access private areas, or that may be disruptive, I also expect advance warning. I mean, nobody wants to have the pool maintenance guy come in when the whole family is in the pool (nor does said maintenance guy want that to happen).

Whenever a contractor is supposed to come to my place, my landlord shoots me an email and confirms I'm ok with the schedule (or simply informs me if there is no choice). It's kind of basic courtesy.

If there's scheduling issues, I usually tell her to tell them to contact me and I work it out with them - no need for her to spend time going back and forth between the contractors and me in order to find a time that works for both of us. This has only ever happened for maintenance inside the home, though. If it's outside and I'm not required to interact with the guys, all I need to know is who's coming, when (approx.) and why. But I do expect to be informed in advance.

If it's not on private (enclosed) areas, like my front yard, I don't care. I usually don't know when the yard maintenance guys will come (neither does my LL, tbh), and I'm fine with that, because they don't have to get inside a fenced area.

[calimom]

While I think it's a possible good solution for the tenant and the contractor to have the ability to communicate and work things out between them, it sounds like we're discussing routine service here. If it were for one-off repairs it would be entirely different. Please understand that the pool service and landscape maintenance people are on routes that are likely based on geography and bundling clients in one general location. For example, if the pool service generally happens on Tuesdays between 9 and 11 great, but if there's a Monday holiday and all accounts are pushed into the week, a quick text from the contractor to the tenant is fine to inform that service will be Wednesday around noon.

But having the tenant try to schedule their own preferences around reasonable changes would be a non-starter for most professionals. "Buffy is practicing her cello then so please come on Thursday at 6 PM" would be the type of request most contractors are not going to be able to accommodate. They may end up declining the business relationship, thus putting the remote homeowner at a disadvantage. Routine service is very different than a refrigerator delivery for example, and especially when the service is exterior.

[mswhitac]

Thank you all for your replies.  Super helpful responses.  As noted by Calimom, thank you, this is for routine yard and pool service.   They do come on a route, and on planned days as noted.   Typically, even rough rough timeframes.  But, storms happen and other challenges, so timing changes.  What has also changed is the tenant added a combination lock to the gate for safety reasons.  They also added their phone numbers on the gate on a note.  So, bottom line, tenants expect a call before routine weekly service.  There’s some inconsistency in the contractor calling before they show up and that irritates the tenant.  I suggested the simply leave gate unlocked Tuesday afternoon.  They didn’t like that.  So, I really like the contractors, so not sure if this may be the straw the breaks the camels back for either the contractors or tenants.  Thanks again

[pasadenafr]

I mean, that's also how I understood it. A text to inform the people living in the house of a scheduling change. I still think that's perfectly reasonable - whether you want to do it yourself or agree with the tenant that they can text them directly is a matter of personal preference.

[regenaeb]

I also own a home that has a pool and has yard maintenance weekly. I am shocked your tenants would put a lock on the fence gate and ask for the contractors to work around their schedule. To me these are services I am providing for them. If they can't handle the schedule of said contractor then they need to provide those services themselves and pay for the cost of those services themselves. My contractors (and most I know of) only provide these services in certain areas at certain times to keep their crews running as efficiently as possible. I have a fenced in back yard that has a gate, my tenants learned quickly which day the lawn people and pool people come and keep their dog in the house those days. I don't now how they can expect any contractor to work on their individual schedule on a weekly basis, this is a lawn guy, not your personal butler.

I did have one tenant early on that had a problem with the lawn schedule due to her work schedule and he wanted to come on the day she worked late and normally would need to leave her dogs having free access to the yard on that day. We have a dog door that they use and her dogs would charge at the lawn mowers when they came on that day, which freaked the lawn crew out. The lawn guys could not accommodate her schedule, so we agreed they would not cut the lawn in the back fenced in area and that was her responsibility to do since she could not get anyone to come let her dogs out on that day. She was fine with it. The lawn guy was fine with it because he would rather only do the front yard and not deal with the back. She paid a neighbor kid to come by on Saturdays to mow the back for her. That was her choice not to use my service, but she also needed to mow it herself.