The EPA puts the average household’s leaks at more than 9,300 gallons a year, and finds that nine percent of homes have a leak wasting 50 gallons or more every day. Fixing the easy ones saves roughly 10 percent on a water bill. That is real money leaving through a toilet flapper you have never seen, in a unit you do not walk through.
So start there. Text your tenant this weekend: “Any drips, running toilets, or damp spots I should know about?” It costs nothing and it catches the most expensive slow failure in a rental before it becomes a floor.
Why the usual checklist does not fit
Seasonal maintenance advice is written for owner-occupiers. Clean your gutters, check your furnace, drain your water heater. Fine, except somebody else lives there, you need notice to enter, and you are not going to drive across town four times a year to look at a filter.
So this list splits every task three ways: what you inspect on a scheduled visit, what a vendor does, and what the tenant handles between visits. Two of those three do not require you to be present.
Winter into spring, January through March
| Task | Who | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Water leak sweep, every fixture and under every sink | you | Pair with the annual walkthrough |
| Water heater inspection and flush | vendor | Note the manufacture date while they are there |
| Roof and gutter check after the wet months | vendor | Photos from the ground count |
| Test smoke and carbon monoxide alarms | tenant, verified by you | Ask for a photo of the test button being pressed |
| Replace air filters | tenant, supplied by you | Mail them a box, it is cheaper than a service call |
Spring is the right time for the annual interior walkthrough in most climates, because winter has already shown you where the water gets in. Give proper written notice, take photos of everything, and treat it as a condition record rather than an inspection of the tenant. LeaseRooster’s inspections keeps those photos attached to the unit so next year’s set has something to compare against.
Spring into summer, April through June
Cooling gets tested before it is needed, not during the first heat wave when every HVAC tech in the county is booked three weeks out.
- Service the air conditioning or the swamp cooler, whichever you have
- Clear the condenser of the year’s leaves and yard debris
- Check exterior caulk and paint on the weather side of the building
- Clean the dryer vent duct, not just the lint trap
- Trim vegetation back from the siding and the roofline
- Test the irrigation timer if you supply landscaping
The dryer vent is the one landlords skip. Lint packs the duct where nobody can see it, airflow drops, the dryer runs hot, and the failure mode is not a repair bill.
Summer into fall, July through September
This is the quarter for heating, before demand spikes.
- Service the furnace or heat pump
- Replace batteries in every alarm, whether or not they have chirped
- Check window and door seals before the weather turns
- Clean gutters after the first leaf drop
- Test the sump pump if there is one
- Shut off and drain exterior hose bibs in any climate that freezes
Book the heating service in August. In November you will pay a premium and wait, and your tenant will be cold while you do.
Fall into winter, October through December
| Task | Who | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Insulate exposed pipes in crawl spaces and garages | vendor | Cheap, and a burst pipe is not |
| Confirm the heat actually works, at temperature | tenant | Ask them to run it for an hour and report |
| Clear roof drains and downspout extensions | vendor | Water needs somewhere to go |
| Photograph the exterior before storm season | you | This is your before picture for an insurance claim |
| Review the year’s repair spend by unit | you | Feeds next year’s budget |
That last row is the one that changes decisions. Pull the year’s invoices per property and you will usually find one unit carrying most of the spend, which is either a building problem or a vendor problem and is worth knowing which. Tracking vendor invoices and repair costs covers how to keep that number available without a spreadsheet archaeology session in December.
What to hand the tenant, and how
Tenants will do preventive tasks when the task is small, specific, and supplied. They will not do it when it is a paragraph in the lease.
Send filters to the door with a one-line note. Ask for a photo when they swap it. Same with alarm tests: a photo of a finger on the button, twice a year, takes them fifteen seconds and gives you a dated record. If the request needs a reply you can find later, send it through a channel that keeps the thread on the unit rather than in your personal texts. Messaging does that.
Two things are worth putting in writing at move-in: replace the air filter every quarter, and report any leak within 24 hours. Both are reasonable, both are cheap for the tenant, and both are the ones that cost the most when they go unreported.
Book it, do not remember it
A checklist you have to remember is a checklist you will do in year one and forget in year two. Put four calendar entries in now, one per quarter, each with the tasks for that quarter and the vendor you would call. Fifteen minutes today.
If you would rather the reminders sit next to the property record than in a calendar, maintenance in LeaseRooster holds the recurring work alongside the job history for the unit.