The Importance of Winter Maintenance

Welcome to Canada's Property Management podcast, your number one resource for investing, managing, and maximizing the value of your real estate assets. And now here's your hosts, Carla Brown and Adrian Schultz, Canada's rental property experts.

Adrian Schulz:

Before every episode, it's very important to do face and mouth stretching so that our listeners can understand, and Carla, that's what I was just doing. I was doing a face and mouth stretch.

Carla Browne:

Well, I've seen singers do this kind of thing, I'm thinking like at the opera, but I've never actually seen a done pre-podcast, that is podcast preparation.

Adrian Schulz:

Yeah, and talking about preparation, today we're going to talk about winter maintenance, and are you prepared? Now, I thought this was a really interesting episode today because I think many property owners who have been property owners for a long time have a certain list of things that they do to their own property, but it's just as important to make those same, if not more preparations, to proactively deal with the things that our harsh winters bring.

Carla, what brought you to this very clear and concise list of things and can you go through some of those things with us?

Carla Browne:

Yeah. Probably the biggest headache for a property management company is dealing with all of the little maintenance things that could have been proactively prevented. When we have a lot of little things happen, that's usually where our investors are like, "Why are you Nick and diming me to death? Why do I always have something on my statement?" It's because we have to be reactive and then they're seeing this $100 charge and this $100 charge, and where we could have for one charge done a whole bunch of things to get this rectified. The other part, so we can talk about some of those little things, but the other part is that without doing winter maintenance, you can really, really be putting your property at risk for some severe damages and insurance claims. Water in winter is never fun and that's usually where we're going to see some major issues, if pipes are bursting and all those kinds of things.

Adrian Schulz:

By the way, hold on one second. Negligence is not always covered by insurance policies.

Carla Browne:

No.

Adrian Schulz:

Right?

Carla Browne:

No. Nobody wants a new water feature in their property, as one of my offices sent me pictures one day and showed me that-

Adrian Schulz:

A water feature.

Carla Browne:

... a water feature inside the living room of a property they just took over, no word of a lie. They take over a brand new property that's immediately going into an insurance claim, not really the property management that they wanted. Let's be proactive.

The first thing I would say, simple, simple, simple. Make sure that your tenants are changing that furnace filter regularly. 90% of the time when a furnace goes down, it is because, and I think we've talked about this in the summer in an episode too dealing with air conditioners, it is because the furnace filter is dirty. If you're a property investor and your tenant calls you and the furnace isn't working, please get them to walk down with their phone and pull out the furnace filter, save yourself the trip over there. We certainly do that for our investors. We first find out what's happening with the filters. That would be the number one thing.

Regular maintenance on the furnace is another big one. It's never fun if you have to replace the furnace, especially in today's times when the costs have gone up significantly for furnaces and they're in high demand, so getting one here quickly is usually not easy to do and getting parts. That would be the first one that I would lay out there.

The second one is smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors. Protect your tenants. Make sure, most municipalities have bylaws in place where you're supposed to be checking these things on a regular basis, but if you have a property that just had a smoke detector, I don't know about you, Adrian, but if you're changing it out, you just put one in that has carbon monoxide as well? We do.

Adrian Schulz:

Yeah, totally.

Carla Browne:

We don't even buy regular smoke detectors anymore. Why would you do that?

Adrian Schulz:

Yeah, right, no, I agree.

Carla Browne:

I guess the thing to also remember is a lot of the tenants that are coming into properties may never have lived in a property before. Lots of new to Canada, immigrants, have landed in Canada, and they're not going anywhere. We're getting a whole bunch more, and they're usually starting off as renters. They've never seen a furnace.

Adrian Schulz:

Yeah.

Carla Browne:

They have no idea that there's a light switch going down to the furnace room that turns a furnace on and off. They have no idea what a pilot light is. Create some good documentation, some videos, walk them through the property, all of these things are going to definitely help prevent problems later on. But I want to know, and for all of our listeners today, Adrian has a sore throat, so if he's sounding especially hoarse or if I feel like I'm doing most of the talking, that's why. We're trying to relieve him. But Adrian, you always have some kind of story that goes along with these things. Have you had any winter maintenance nightmare stories in your properties?

Adrian Schulz:

No, but the most interesting one, and this is actually speaking to new Canadians who I, by the way, love having new Canadians as tenants for a multitude of reasons, but the funny part of having new Canadians as tenants, we literally had someone create a barbecue fire pit using a tire, what is it called? A tire wheel well?

Carla Browne:

Oh yeah.

Adrian Schulz:

Is what it's called?

Carla Browne:

Yeah.

Adrian Schulz:

They literally had a barbecue pit going in the living room and in the living room.

Carla Browne:

In the living room? Oh.

Adrian Schulz:

Yeah, yeah. In the living room.

Carla Browne:

I didn't catch that when you started this story. I'm envisioning like this backyard bonfire. Okay.

Adrian Schulz:

No, no. But the reason is it was meant to be a barbecue pit, but when we did the property inspection, it was noted that they were also using it for additional heat because the unit was just not heating to their satisfaction. There's all sorts of bells that should be going off, smoke detectors, windows open, smoke coming out windows on a regular basis. I don't think it was there very long, but it reminded me of the importance of educating all tenants about basic suite rules, what you can and cannot do. Whilst it is by default, you may or may not say that barbecuing is allowed on the balcony, it may also be noteworthy to point out that barbecuing is not permitted within the suite.

Carla Browne:

Okay. Honestly, never ran into that.

Adrian Schulz:

It's happened. Yeah. Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, where we barbecue inside in our living rooms.

Carla Browne:

Yeah, yeah. Interesting, interesting.

I don't want to leave this episode without giving a few little quick tips. So this is going to sound like I'm just running off a checklist. I'm running off a checklist. I want our listeners to know that there's a few simple things that you can do. Ice melt. If you are in a multiplex, you need to make sure you've got some ice melt. Worst thing you'd want to see is one of the residents slipping and falling because that wasn't there. You don't have to go do it, put it by the door, they can sprinkle it out in the morning. Making sure you have shovels at the properties. Single family residences normally, tenants are responsible for their own, but a multi, you might want to just put one at the front door so they can use it before your snow removal people might get there on a regular basis.

Turning water off. Yes, we have to turn water off, outdoor water, we have to blow the sprinklers out. These are things also that new residents, never been a tenant before or new to Canada, these are not things that they know. You have to, have to, have to make sure you send out a lot of reminders or make sure that someone's going by and doing these things for them. Blowing out the sprinkler should be an owner's responsibility for sure. Cleaning gutters. Wow. When the snow melts, water needs to run somewhere so if those gutters are full, it ain't running anywhere.

Adrian Schulz:

Or you can be a rental property owner like me and just have removed most of the trees to avoid that hassle.

Carla Browne:

Well, that happens as well but most people like the big trees, they like all that shade, but they don't realize that all those leaves fall somewhere and it's usually ends up in a gutter. Fireplace, I'm wondering if you have any stories on this one, because we've seen a lot of decommissioned fireplaces, so it's really, really, really important, it might still be there to make tenants aware if they can't use it and if they can't use it, you might want to take some precautions so that they're not accidentally going to use it, or just maybe one day give it a try when it looks like it could be a nice snowy day and have a cozy fire going on.

Adrian Schulz:

I would actually recommend for those whose fireplaces are decommissioned already, a lot of hardware stores at certain times of the year will have great sales on what are amazing electric fireplaces. We've actually done that in some of ours, a $300 electric fireplace is now down to $100 and they look great. It adds value to the property and it is a precautionary to, "Don't use this, it's just electric."

Carla Browne:

Yep. That's a great point and we've done that a few times where we just said, "We're just going to do this for you and low cost, and then the tenant is happy and the owner's happy."

Adrian Schulz:

Yeah.

Carla Browne:

Wood stoves are really a huge insurance risk and I didn't know this, I ran into this a few years ago in a rental property where there was not a wood stove for cooking, but a decorative wood burning stove where it was nice looking, it was in the middle of the house, but they're vented very differently and they have very different insurance requirements. You're better off, I found, it was an eyesore, but we actually blocked it off.

Adrian Schulz:

Yeah.

Carla Browne:

We made it unusable because the insurance requirements for both the owner and the tenant we're not going to make it worthwhile.

Adrian Schulz:

Yeah, I'm just thinking ...

Carla Browne:

I don't usually do that.

Adrian Schulz:

Wood stoves, I think it's important to remind listeners that Carla's home base is Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. I think most of our listeners are not going to have wood stoves in their rental.

Carla Browne:

Well, yeah, this is true. But I think they're coming back though because they're so decorative. We had one in our cabin, that's how we heated our cabin.

Adrian Schulz:

Fair enough. In Saskatchewan, you're probably allowed to have pigs and horses and chickens indoors, so ...

Carla Browne:

Come on now. Adrian, you're from Winnipeg.

Adrian Schulz:

I know, I was going to say, how dare I?

Carla Browne:

This is so funny when we get into these conversations.

Adrian Schulz:

Yeah.

Carla Browne:

Okay. Then multiplexes, if you're a multiplex investor, getting those snow contracts in place really early on in the season is key. If you have to actually physically remove snow off the property instead of having a place where you can actually pile up a good amount up, that's super expensive, super expensive, a Bobcat. I didn't know this until I got into these smaller multiplexes, but a Bobcat operator charges from the moment they get to the property until they're completely done, that means scraping it, hauling it-

Adrian Schulz:

[inaudible 00:11:25].

Carla Browne:

... taking it to the snow dump and bringing it back and if there's a long lineup to get in that snow dump, which it can be in heavy falls, this is hours and hours of work. I couldn't believe how much that costs. It made me think I was in the wrong business and I needed to become a Bobcat driver, get my own Bobcat, and just take this on myself.

Adrian Schulz:

Well, given your height, those would actually be extremely comfortable for you.

Carla Browne:

Yeah, that's true.

Adrian Schulz:

Yep, yep.

Carla Browne:

That's true. I never thought about that.

Adrian Schulz:

Something to consider.

Carla Browne:

Okay, I'm putting it back on the list, putting it back on the list.

Windows and doors, simple caulking, weather stripping, things like that really go a long way. If you're not comfortable, your property management company can definitely help you out with that. We look at those things when we're doing some basic takeover inspections normally and rodents like warm air so if you want to keep the mice out, make sure you don't have any exterior gaps on the property because they're bound and determined to find a way to get in.

Adrian Schulz:

Voles, do you know what a vole is?

Carla Browne:

My neighbor had a vole problem.

Adrian Schulz:

My wife, she is, I guess risk adverse when it comes to having rodents in the house, and she's always telling me to keep the doors closed. I'll open the door and get ready with the door open, and she says to me, "Watch out, the voles are going to get in."

I said, "Babe, like mice or vols, whatever, they don't jump upstairs to come into a house." My punishment for such an ignorant comment was that evening she asked me to look up voles coming into homes on YouTube and let me tell you, there's a lot of videos that prove that mice and voles do jump up stairs to come into a warm house.

Carla Browne:

Mm-hmm.

Adrian Schulz:

Now that's real property management.

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