Hunter’s Hints

HUNTERS HINTS By Hunter Boucher, Director of Operations, LandlordBC

Listening to Your Tenants: Building Maintenance

I love reading online reviews on sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor; it’s a guilty pleasure of mine to see the mundane complaints people have about random businesses I will likely never patronize, in cities I will likely never visit. It may be odd to some, but I think this not so bragworthy pastime has given me some insight into what really drives customer frustration and it can be directly applied to your rental housing business.

What drives a customer to leave a negative review? Most often it is a sense that their concerns were not heard or taken seriously by a representative. The risk of not listening to your customers (and tenants are our customers) can be a costly mistake both to your reputation and your bottom line.

You will have heard from LandlordBC countless times that communication is critical in your success as a rental housing provider and over the next two issues of The Key I will be digging into this further with a look into how to ensure that your tenants feel heard and why it is a valuable endeavour for any landlord or property manager. In this issue I will focus on building maintenance and repairs, both as an exercise in customer service and to safeguard your asset.

In the age of social media, reputation is critical even for rental housing providers, and having a robust tenant communication strategy can assist in protecting your asset in a very real and practical way. Knowing about a leak under a sink or about new crack in the drywall early on can save thousands in remediation costs. Sometimes the costliest repairs stem from longstanding issues that simply went un-reported. If your goal is to have a building that stands the test of time, you need tenants that are willing to communicate with you about building issues.

To start, let us look at how to establish a system that allows and encourages constructive tenant communication. The mission here is to provide your tenants with an easy way to let you know about issues in the rental unit or property, occasionally remind them that you want to hear from them when there is an issue, and less frequently directly solicit information. It is also important to note that even if you have implemented what appears to be the most intuitive and easy to use reporting system, there will AD card:q7 12/9/11 9:52 AM Page 1

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Hunters Hints (Cont’d)

be tenants that choose to report issues in their own way. Where possible it is good to be flexible and not overly limit your tenants to only reporting issues in your preferred method.

So where do you start? Begin with establishing clear lines of communication that are easy to use. This could mean having something as sophisticated as an online tenant portal or as simple as placing a few service request forms in your building lobby. Its important that the system you set up for receiving service requests is made clear to your tenants and is something that you can regularly check. For example, having paper forms that tenants are to put in a building mail slot is great if you are checking it daily but significantly less effective if only checked once a week.

Once you have set up your system for receiving service requests, you need to communicate this to your tenants. For incoming tenants simply include this in your tenant orientation package, and for existing tenants a combination of email and posting notice in a common area is generally sufficient to ensure no tenants fall through the cracks. You may also need to occasionally remind tenants of your service request protocol which can be done with a semi-annual check-in email and posting notice in common areas. Sporadically, you may want to conduct a tenant satisfaction survey and directly solicit information. I will go more into this in the next issue.

Being heard is much more than just providing opportunity to give feedback, it’s also how we respond to that feedback. As part of

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your communications strategy,you should set timelines for responding to service requests and it should be consistent no matter how trivial the issue may be. It’s important to note that your initial response does not need to provide a solution, but simply acknowledge the issue and set an expectation as to when you will be able to investigate further.

This initial response should be prompt and positive and if possible, set an expectation as to when you may be able to provide more details on a solution. For example, if your tenant has informed you that they have a slow leak under their sink, let them know you have received their request and that you will contact the plumber on the next business day. Once you have determined the best course of action to repair the issue, this should be communicated to your tenant and not just with a notice of entry; let your tenant know what action you intend to take and if possible give a timeframe for completion.

Once the repairs or maintenance is completed, your job is not finished. Follow up within a week after the work is completed to make sure the repair has held and that the tenant is satisfied. This kind of attention to detail ensures your tenants will be willing to come to you with an issue next time.

In the next Hunter’s Hints, I will focus on noise and quiet enjoyment complaints and how these situations can, if not handled correctly, sour the atmosphere of a building.

ADVICE FOR LANDLORDS FROM THE GROUND UP

• Residential Tenancy Branch

• Evictions

• Landlord/Tenant Disputes

• Construction and Repair Claims

• Strata Disputes

• Judicial Reviews

• Lease Drafting and Reviews

• Property Management Issues

CALL ALEX J. CHANG LESPERANCE MENDES LAWYERS

550-900 Howe Street, Vancouver BC Phone: 604-685-3567 Email: AJC@LMLAW.CA