Managing a successful multi-family property requires some serious multitasking. Whether you’re a landlord or a property manager, you’ve got plenty of duties that need your attention every day, and there will always be a never-ending stream of maintenance HVAC requests. Some maintenance, like landscaping and cleaning common areas, is pretty routine and easy to plan, but other requests seem to come out of nowhere. No matter how organized you try to remain, you’ll never be able to completely foresee everything that might break down or wear out at any given time.

However, through a regular HVAC preventative maintenance plan, multi-family property operators can help prevent – or at least limit – the need for sudden repairs and replacements, boosting resident confidence and satisfaction while making the property manager’s job a lot less hectic.

Not only will regular preventative maintenance HVAC add needed organization to the management of a multi-family property, but maintaining its facilities will save money otherwise spent on last-minute repairs while protecting the overall investment. For example, consider how much it might cost to repair some pipes when the leaking water is but a trickle. Then, imagine the cost if that leak is neglected, and instead, floors, carpets, drywall, and paint all have to be replaced.

Multi-Family Properties & HVAC Maintenance

How often you need to work on HVAC maintenance depends partially on the size of your multi-family property. For example, a building housing eight families might be able to schedule all its annual HVAC preventative maintenance plan tasks a couple of days a month. However, a property with 20 or more family units might need to dedicate time each week to get everything completed. An effective HVAC preventative maintenance plan isn’t something that can be planned for one day a year. Careful scheduling is required. Rather than performing all annual jobs on a single apartment during the same day, some multi-family property managers will stagger the dates to take a look at the property during each season. When it comes to HVAC maintenance, there are four types of tune-ups that include the following:

• Corrective maintenance.
• Preventive maintenance.
• Risk-based maintenance.
• Condition-based maintenance.

Creating an HVAC Preventative Maintenance Plan

Of course, to create an efficient schedule, you’ll need to organize a checklist of all the preventative maintenance tasks, with details on how long they typically take and how often they should be completed. The entire list should be completed at least once a year for every property, but a few tasks will need to be done more frequently. As every multi-family property is different, there is no one-size-fits-all checklist. There are specific maintenance categories. However, that will almost always need to be included:

• Water Leaks and Damage

Water can be a multi-family property manager’s worst nightmare. Leaks can start small and very quickly do a lot of damage to buildings. When walking through a property, pay attention to all water sources and watch for any leaks, drips, puddles, or other water collection areas. Be sure faucets and toilets are functioning correctly and have no leaks. Also, examine ceilings and walls for any signs of water damage.

• Roof and Gutters

It’s essential to check on the condition of every building’s roof, checking for water or storm damage that could become a costly issue. Be sure there is no damage to shingles and other roofing materials. Ensure the gutters are always fine and clean so that water flows away from the property.

• Ceiling and Drywall

Look for cracks or damages on all ceilings and drywall, making minor touch-ups, so they don’t expand.

• Shower Caulk and Grout

Look over the caulk and grout in the property’s showers, watching for signs of wear and age. Adding caulk as needed will keep water contained and help prevent stray leaks and drips that might cause a more significant issue if allowed to fester.

• Pest Control

Every building should be examined entirely for possible pest issues at least once a year. These problems can quickly escalate when neglected, and no landlord ever wants to get calls from tenants that insects or rodents are invading their personal space.

• Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detectors

One of the most practical tasks associated with preventative maintenance involves keeping every building’s smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors functioning. At least once a year, when you or your team are in an apartment, test all of these devices and check their batteries to make sure they are working correctly.

• HVAC and Water Heaters

Preventative maintenance can limit or prevent potential HVAC and water heater malfunctions, boosting system performance, improving energy efficiency, and extending a system’s overall lifetime. The most basic maintenance HVAC is simply changing the air filters between two and four times each year. Water heaters should also be flushed twice a year to eliminate sediment that can create dirty water.

Motili’s Multi-Family Maintenance HVAC Services

A skilled contractor must complete most HVAC maintenance. Motili offers multi-family property operators a nationwide network of more than 2,000 contractors. Its asset and data management technology tracks all of a multi-family property company’s HVAC and hot water properties. The technology analyzes the data generated by every HVAC system and uses it to plan for preventative maintenance and schedule future needs.

Motili’s Multi-Family Asset Management product suite features site inspections, asset tagging, planned and unplanned repairs and replacements, and strategic insights and analytics.

Motili enabled communities have seen their resident satisfaction improve by 20 percent after implementing the Asset Management solution. Plus, since projects are completed by Motili staff and a national professional network of contractors, property managers’ lives are made easier by a single point of contact for all their HVAC and water heater needs.

Benefits of the HVAC Preventive Maintenance Program

It can be tempting for a multi-family property manager to conduct all preventative maintenance when transitioning units between tenants. But, at the same time, they clean carpets and repair more significant damages. With any luck, however, tenants will stay in their apartments longer than a year so this practice can be inefficient for practical preventative maintenance. Instead, it’s essential to share the preventative maintenance schedule with tenants while living on the property. This maintains the overall preventive maintenance schedule, but it gives the property manager a chance to observe any other issues that might be happening in the unit. It also shows tenants that their home is of value to the multi-family company. Just be sure to schedule these maintenance times with tenants well in advance and communicate realistic expectations of what will be occurring.