Preparing For New Tenants

One of the many duties of the maintenance staff in an apartment community is to make sure that the vacated apartments are ready for the new tenants. If you have the right staff on hand and have a routine available for that staff, you will find that everything runs smoothly. What are some of the considerations for getting apartments ready for the new tenants that should be considered, and how can you make sure that the entire maintenance staff is on board with the project?

One of the first things that I should mention is the fact that you must have a good work schedule in order to get everything done in an apartment community. It is likely that you are going to hire the fewest number of maintenance personnel that is necessary for the size of your community. There are always going to be routine tickets that need to be run as well as any type of preventative maintenance program that may be in place. Although it is important to make sure that the apartments are ready for the new tenants, you should not sacrifice the quality of the other duties of the maintenance staff in the process. How can you make sure that it is all done properly?

You should look into the possibility of hiring out some of the work to outside services. Some of the technical work that is hired out to subcontractors may include the cleaning of carpets, general cleaning of vacant apartments, and the painting of the apartments. If you find that your maintenance staff has plenty of free time after the tickets are run, you may want to have the equipment on hand to take care of some of those projects. Painting is an obvious choice, although with the right maintenance staff, they can take care of the cleaning as well.

There are times when the vacated apartment is going to be in such disrepair that it will need an entire makeover. Everything from repairing damaged walls down to replacing the flooring may be necessary. It may be possible for your maintenance staff to take care of these larger items, although you need to weigh the cost carefully. If it is less expensive to hire the work to an outside service, it would be to your benefit to do so. You will also likely find that there is a higher degree of professionalism among those outside services that take care of a specific task.

As a final step to preparing the apartment for the new move in, you will need to do a punch out list. This list can include anything from putting a fresh coat of paint on the inside of the fireplace and replacing the receptacle covers, down to replacing broken or damaged items within the unit. One person on your maintenance staff or a small company in your local area should be hired to take care of that punch list. It will help to give you a certain degree of uniformity so that everything within the apartment community is up to your standards.