Maintance requests from Tenants

[Miller Josh]

How do you handle maintenance requests after hours?

I am starting out and will have 6 tenants soon. I am a self-employed contractor and receive many calls during the day but I shut my phone off after hours as people have no respect of time off and I have 4 young kids that I want to spend down time with. Does anyone use a pager? How do the rest of you handle this?

[Kenneth LaVoie]

1. We make it clear at move in that my wife and I are available from 8-5 and that our phones are shut off after that.

2. We then list "after hours emergency" numbers (heating, plumbing, electric)

3. We give a one page "difference between and emergency and an urgency" and let them know that if they call a workman after hours, and it isn't an emergency, they will be charged the diff between normal and time and a half. 

4. To be fair, we have a maintenance guy (sub contractor who also works for others) who is basically sorta kinda on call all the time. We tell people to call him first. We have 48 units and get an average of one call every two weeks. 

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