The 11pm maintenance call: an after-hours policy a property manager can write in an afternoon

Every property manager has a story about the 11pm call: a burst pipe that waited until morning, or a dripping tap that woke the on-call tech. The fix is a written policy, and an answering service that follows it exactly. Here is a policy you can adapt, and how Workup Agent applies it.

Define urgent in writing

Urgent usually means active water, no water, no heat in winter, no power to the unit, a lockout, a security door that will not lock, or a gas smell. Everything else (a slow drain, a broken blind, a noisy neighbour) waits for the morning with a promised callback. Write the list per property if the buildings differ.

Decide who gets the transfer

Each property has an on-call phone, and it can change by night. The agent transfers calls that match your urgent list live to that phone. A caller who describes danger to a person is told to call 911 first.

Script what the tenant hears

The agent greets the caller with your company name, asks for the unit and the problem, whether anyone is in danger, how long it has been going on, access instructions and the best number, and reads the number back. Non-urgent callers are told when to expect a callback. Nobody is told to "leave a message".

Make the record automatic

Every call is logged as it runs, with the transcript. Your team gets an alert within seconds and a daily log by property every evening, so the morning starts with a list rather than a voicemail queue. Where your property management system is connected, the request lands there as well.