What is RPM's policy regarding property owners conducting their own repairs?
RPM has a high level of legal exposure when coordinating repairs and maintaining the warranty of habitability for each unit. We have high standards with our vendors to protect the Residents, our Company, and, most importantly, our Clients. The Property Owner is welcome to give us a list of their preferred vendors, including themselves. We'll run them through our vetting process, and if they meet our requirements we'll be pleased to use them.
As long as all Vendors are willing to go through the same vetting process, and work to our standards, we'll consider Owners performing their own work, but we're hard to please! We will send over a copy of the Vendor Manual so that the standards we expect are clear and everyone understands the vetting process.
Generally, we do not want Property Owners performing their own repairs because when they're at the property, it is often going to come out eventually that they own the place. And then what typically happens is that the tenant tells RPM that 'the owner said xyz', and now we have extra complexity managing the property because we have 'too many cooks in the kitchen.' It almost always leads to disaster.
We have a standard policy not to let Owners manage their own maintenance or perform repairs, but will consider exemptions if the work is performed to our standards and the Owner and/or Owner's Vendors agree to avoid discussing management topics with the resident.
LESSON LEARNED - An example from a Property Manager
Subject: A Lesson Learned
We learned from a serious mistake this week at our office, and I figured I'd share the story with the group so that others can learn from my stupidity and a near tragedy.
Up until a few months ago, I had always allowed owners to use their own vendors or even do repairs themselves. After having plenty of issues with this, I put a stop to it a few months ago, but I made the mistake of grandfathering in a few investor clients who were really adamant about doing their own repairs. This almost ended very tragically this week.
A tenant sent in a service request earlier this week for their gas oven not working. The owner was grandfathered in under the old policy, so we referred it to him, and he went out to the property to fix it. He found that the oven needed replaced, and he opted to do the replacement himself. The day after he did so, we got a phone call from the tenant complaining that she and her family were feeling ill, and they thought they might smell natural gas. That's an emergency, so we referred it to our vendor instead of the owner, and he tried to explain to them over the phone how to shut off the gas while he started heading over there. They didn't understand how to do it, so they left the property and our vendor went out. When our vendor walked into the house, they said they were almost immediately nauseated because of how strong the gas smell was. It was intense. They went to the oven and found that the owner had incorrectly attached the gas line to the oven, and once the gas pressure built it up, the connection had completely come loose. For nearly a full day, natural gas was pouring into the house while the tenant was there. The vendor said that if anyone had lit a match or caused a spark, the entire house likely would have been destroyed and everyone inside killed.
That was a huge wake up call for me. I was trying to make these investor clients happy by letting them continue to do their own work, and as a result, I could have gotten a family killed.
Please remember that sometimes it's not just about protecting from liability from an uninsured vendor falling and hurting himself, or making sure that repairs are done quickly, etc. Sometimes it can actually be life or death. If you're allowing owners to do their own repairs, I would urge you to stop ASAP. As for me, I'm sending a letter out to all clients next week letting them know of a change in policy, with NO ONE being exempt. If I lose a few clients, so be it. It will be worth the peace of mind, because I know I felt pretty sick thinking about what could have happened this week.
Sincerely,
Property Manager (Name redacted)