Hemlane never wants any surprises in the coordination of maintenance and repair requests. Our goal is to respond to these tenant requests as quickly as possible with very little interaction or direction from you. With that said, we need a bit of help from you at the beginning to make sure you are set up for success and we know how to handle your requests.
What is required to get started?
There are a couple of fields that must be completed in Hemlane. They will be listed under your "Tasks" tab. Here are the required fields, and a bit more detail into why they are required:
#1: Thresholds and notes
Hemlane wants to know how involved you want to be with the approval of estimates and work being done on your rental property. A threshold provides our team with authorization to initiate and approve work from 3rd party service professionals. Our average customer has a maintenance threshold of $350 and an emergency threshold of $750.
Here is our policy on thresholds to initiate a service professional:
- Standard thresholds: $150 minimum, $350 recommended
- Emergency thresholds: $500 minimum, $750 recommended
For non-emergencies, if a service costs more than the threshold, then the maintenance coordinators will contact you to request additional approval. If it is an urgent matter, or if threshold is under recommended amount, Hemlane will have the Service Professional contact you directly for additional approval.
Learn more about repair thresholds here.
Maintenance notes are also important as we need to know more about your property. Here are some examples of what you should include in your notes:
- Management lockbox location and code -- in the event of an emergency
- Lockout services -- will you be paying for a lockout or is that the responsibility of the tenant
- Tenant maintenance responsibilities -- for example, anything under $75 is their responsibility
- Location of the breaker box, HVAC system, main water shut off, crawlspace, etc.
- Appliance inventory -- year, make, and model
#2: A verified bank account on file
Hemlane has rolled out the capability to pay for maintenance and repair services online for select service professionals (a feature only available to those on our maintenance coordination package). Once you approve the amount, we will send the payment direct to the service professional. For this reason, we need to know which bank account should be used to transfer the funds.
#3: You are a paying customer or on a free trial
While you are on a free trial, we want you to be able to experience our maintenance coordination. During this time period, we will coordinate a maximum of three maintenance issues until you subscribe to the services.
If you are not paying for our services, then we have the right to close any outstanding maintenance requests. Please make sure that you have started your Hemlane subscription (or you have enough time remaining on your free trial) to experience our maintenance coordination package.
What is recommended to get started?
There are a lot of other ways that you can make maintenance a success! Here are some other recommendations on what to make sure is setup:
#1: A registered tenant on Hemlane
Your tenant should have an account with Hemlane. You can add the tenant under "Tenants & Leases" on the left navigation. When your tenant has not accepted your request to register on Hemlane, then we cannot reach out to them for maintenance as we don't have authorization to email and text them.
#2: An updated list of service professionals
If you do not want to utilize our third party service professionals, then please make sure to add your preferred professionals to Hemlane. This list should be updated with accurate phone numbers (preferably to text) and email addresses. We will always go off your list before using the third party service professional network. Therefore, it is very important to keep this list updated.
For more information on this topic, please visit these articles:
- What types of maintenance does Hemlane coordinate?
- What is the Third Party Network for Repair Coordination?
- Do the repair coordinators work with Home Warranty Companies?
- Can the repair coordinator help with recurring requests (landscaping, snow removal, etc.)?
- Can coordinators help with turnover repairs and maintenance between tenants?
- Can I upgrade to the Essentials or Complete package when I'm on vacation?
- What types of maintenance does Hemlane coordinate?
key words: maintenance, repairs, appliances, coordination, service professionals, service providers,