Dealing with condo emergencies
It’s Friday and I’m miserable because my leg is in pain and gimped up, its damn cold and now, my condo is leaking. Yep. Of course it’s leaking, what else would it do on a Friday afternoon? I received the email shortly after 1pm. My helpful tenant remarked that “several litres” of water came out of the ceiling. All sorts of horror scenarios ran through my head – water damage, broken pipes, crazy neighbours… ANYTHING could be wrong!
Brian and I didn’t panic though. As part of being a landlord, you need to be prepared for emergencies like these. Even if you bought a brand new unit, there are always things that could go wrong. For example, your neighbour upstairs may have left the water running in a clogged up sink – new unit or not, that’s going to cost you time and money. Sometimes, appliances just stop working – you’ll need to repair or replace it.
So how do you prepare for unexpected little emergencies?
Photo Credit: Off beat Mum (http://www.flickr.com/photos/8007281@N08/3410850020/)
Have an emergency fund
The most obvious answer is often the easiest! Don’t wait until an emergency happens. Brian and I both have general purpose emergency funds of several thousand dollars. Everyone should consider building an emergency fund, and this is just one reason why they are handy. Several thousand dollars safely stashed away is more than enough to pay for a replacement appliance or plumber. We also contribute a small amount each month to a condo-specific maintenance fund. We use this amount for smaller issues, like fixing broken hinges or buying a new fan. Since we add to it every month, this condo-maintenance fund will hopefully one day be large enough to cover condo-related emergencies as well. We knew that if we needed to bring a plumber in ASAP, we’d be okay. We didn’t have to worry about whose “fault” it was or whether we would get reimbursed by strata.
Have adequate insurance
We have a basic homeowners insurance policy on our unit. This covers things like (certain) natural disasters or building-wide fire damage. Our building as a whole also has insurance on communal property. We also ensured that our tenants had adequate tenant insurance. It was a requirement prior to signing a lease. This covers the contents of the condo, such as their personal belongings and furniture, and it also covers emergency accommodation in the event that the unit was damaged beyond immediate repair. For example, if there was a catastrophic pipe leak which ruined the apartment, we would be covered for the structural repair and the tenants would be covered in terms of belongings and accommodation.
Have emergency contacts on hand
Our tenants know that in an emergency, they can contact the property management company. They also have our phone numbers and emails. If anything goes wrong, they know who they can contact for help and we hear about it very quickly. This ensures that small problems stay small. My parents had a tenant who never reported needed repairs for example. Instead of having to fix a small issue once every few months, they were stuck with fixing a mountain of issues after she moved out.
Brian headed over to the condo after dinner to investigate. So far, it doesn’t seem nearly as bad as it could have been. Thankfully, the leak was situated directly above the toilet so there was no floor damage at all. (It didn’t occur to the tenants to mention that??? *sigh* ) We’re not sure why there is a leak in the ceiling yet but we have a plumber coming in next week. Updates to follow!
I am a big fan of ER funds. They really are a good safety net to have in place. I think of the people who have lost their homes in natural disasters and have insurance companies screwing them, and how stressful it is to have nothing to fall back on. We should all have a cushion we an use in case disaster strikes.
Oh I know… it’s definitely one of the best financial tools to have in place. My parents don’t have one and it was a mess when their washing machine broke… and their tax bill came due… and the dentist bill came… All at once.
Renter insurance is huge. It’s not very expensive (I think we pay $10/month) and if we didn’t have it we’d be screwed in the case of a fire or other catastrophe.
Yeah, we have renter insurance now and it costs us about the same. It’s not a lot of money for the safety net that it provides.
This happened at our place two falls ago. The roofers had done a bad job…landlord had to have it repaired again. Sucked for him financially, I’m sure, but once it was fixed I felt MUCH better about our living situation lol.
Ugh, that does suck. We’ve had another problems with roofs too – at a rental, the roofers once started a fire on the roof while tarring… that was a giant mess. :/