Maintenance: work orders, vendors, preventive plans, and inspections

From the 2 a.m. no-heat call to the spring gutter run — tracked, assigned, costed, and tied to the unit's history.

Work orders

A work order carries property, unit, priority, status, cost, and an assignee — your staff or an outside vendor. Tenant-submitted requests flow straight from the portal into the queue with full history, so the status question answers itself instead of ringing your phone.

Preventive maintenance Standard

Create plans with a frequency and next-due date, optionally bound to a vendor; work orders generate on schedule and the plan rolls forward — boiler service, gutter cleaning, smoke-detector checks, on rails. Part of the Standard automation pack; on Core you create work orders by hand.

Inspections

Move-in, move-out, and periodic inspections record the inspector, notes, and photo uploads — the evidence layer for deposit deductions and condition disputes.

Tasks and the asset registry

Staff tasks with due dates cover the to-do items that aren't work orders, and the appliance/asset registry (make, model, serial, warranty) keeps each unit's equipment history attached to the unit.

Why inspection photos are worth the five minutes

Move-in and move-out inspections, with the inspector, the date, the notes, and the photographs attached to the unit, are the evidence layer for every deposit deduction you will ever make. Ordinary wear and tear is the landlord's cost in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts; damage beyond it is deductible. The only thing that reliably separates the two months later is a dated photo set taken before the tenant moved in. In Massachusetts, where deposit mistakes carry treble damages, that photo set is the cheapest insurance in the building.

Common questions

How do tenants report a problem?

From the tenant portal. The request arrives in your work-order queue with its full history attached, and the tenant can check the status themselves instead of calling you to ask.

Can I assign work to an outside vendor?

Yes. An assignee can be your own staff or a vendor, and the cost is tracked on the order, so the unit's spend history builds itself as you go.

Does maintenance history follow the unit?

Yes. Work orders, inspections, and the asset registry all tie to a property and unit, so the boiler's service history is one click away when you refinance, sell, or answer a habitability complaint.

What is the difference between a work order and a task?

A work order is physical work on a property or unit, with a priority, an assignee, and a cost. A task is a staff to-do with a due date — call the insurer, file the certificate. Keeping them apart keeps the maintenance spend figures honest.