Condominium & HOA maintenance request process, from report to closure

A resident mentions a dripping pipe to the concierge in the hallway. Another sends the manager a photo of a broken light on a Sunday night. A third calls a board member about the gate. A week later, nobody can say which of these was fixed, who was supposed to fix them, or whether the gate is the same problem as last month. A maintenance request process fixes that. This guide sets one up for a condominium or HOA, from the first report to the closed request, and adds the preventive side that keeps the list short. It is general practice: your bylaws, your contracts and local law may set duties of their own, such as who pays for a repair inside a unit.

Why a process at all

Requests that arrive by message, by phone or in passing get lost, because they live in one person’s head or phone. When that person is away, the request waits. Nobody can answer the simplest questions: what is open right now, what has waited longest, what keeps coming back. A process gives every request a record, an owner and a status, so the answers are on a list instead of in someone’s memory.

One channel for reports

Pick one place where every request is filed, and send people there, kindly and every time, even when they stop you in the hallway. File the hallway report yourself if you have to, so it is still on the list.

A good report holds:

• What is wrong, in one line, and the details below it.
• Where: the unit, or the common area (the lobby, the pool, the second-floor hallway of Tower B).
• How urgent it looks to the person reporting.
• Photos, which save a visit more often than you would think.
• Who reported it, so the answer goes back to the right person.

Triage: agree on what each priority means

A priority only helps when everyone reads it the same way. Write down what each level means, with examples. The response times below are examples to adapt, not a standard.

A real emergency is a phone call first. A gas smell, a fire, someone trapped in an elevator: call the emergency services when people are at risk, then the on-call contact. The request is recorded afterward, for the history. No ticket system replaces the phone for that.

Assignment and statuses

Every request has one owner at a time, and a status that says where it stands. Four statuses are enough:

1. Open: reported, waiting. The manager triages it, sets the priority and assigns it.
2. In progress: someone is working on it. The assignee owns it and moves it forward, whether they fix it themselves or call a supplier.
3. Resolved: the assignee says it is fixed. The reporter gets a chance to confirm.
4. Closed: done, confirmed or settled after a reasonable wait. A repair that does not hold reopens the same request rather than starting a new one, so the history stays together.

Keeping residents informed

Most complaints about maintenance are really complaints about silence. Tell the reporter when the status changes and when someone adds a comment, with one line on what happens next: “The plumber comes Thursday morning.” A problem that affects everyone, such as a water shut-off, deserves one notice to the whole building rather than a dozen individual replies.

Preventive maintenance

The cheapest request is the one that never comes. Keep a schedule for each piece of equipment or area that needs regular care, each with its interval:

• the elevator’s inspection and servicing;
• the water pumps, the generator, the gate motors;
• the fire extinguishers and alarms;
• the roof drains and gutters, before the rainy season.

The intervals come from the manufacturer, the service contract, the insurer and local regulations, some of which require inspections by law; check which apply to you. Each time a job is done, record the day, what was done and the parts used, so the next person knows. Keep the contracts and suppliers behind each schedule in the same place: who does the job, what the contract covers, when it renews and how much notice it takes to cancel.

Reviewing the list weekly

Fifteen minutes a week keeps the list honest:

• What is open, and is each urgent or high request assigned?
• What is stuck: no change for two weeks, or waiting on a supplier who has gone quiet?
• What keeps coming back: the same unit, the same pump, the same gate? A repeat request is often a job for the preventive schedule, or a replacement.
• What was resolved but never closed?

How Leasdesk does it

Tickets come with Starter, the free plan; maintenances come with Pro. Tickets and maintenance shows each screen.

• Tickets have a title, a description, a priority (Low, Medium, High or Urgent) and, when it applies, the unit, the amenity or the maintenance they are about. They move through Open, In progress, Resolved and Closed.
• Residents open tickets from a phone or a computer, naming only a unit they live in, and see their own tickets only. They edit one while it is Open, close it, and reopen it within 7 days of staff settling it.
• Staff assign each ticket to a member who can work tickets, and can hand it on later. Comments stay on the ticket, and an edited comment keeps its earlier versions. Photos, PDF, Word, Excel, text and CSV files go on the ticket, up to 20 MB each.
• Recurring tickets open the next one, due after the interval, once the last is resolved or closed.
• Mails: the reporter when someone else changes the status, the new assignee, and the reporter and the assignee on each comment but their own.
• Maintenances (Pro) repeat on an interval in days and are tied to an asset, a building, a unit or an amenity. The next due day is the last done day plus the interval. Marking one done records notes and the stock items used, and the history is kept. A daily run mails whoever looks after maintenances when one is coming due or overdue. Contracts on Pro carry the supplier and the notice period, and can point at the maintenance they cover. Residents read the maintenance schedules.

What it does not do: nobody is mailed when a ticket is created (new tickets show on the list and on the property’s overview), nothing is assigned by itself, there are no categories and no SLAs, a maintenance has no cost, and a due maintenance does not open a ticket: staff open one if they want it.

Start with tickets on the free plan, and add the maintenance schedules when you move to Pro.