When a tap is leaking or a drain is blocked in an apartment, property maintenance services come to the rescue. For the employees of Alltime, TYS’s property maintenance partner, the days are filled with a wide range of tasks related to fault reports, as well as maintaining outdoor areas, seasonal work and preventive property maintenance, for example.
Alltime’s Maintenance Supervisor Antti Eklund and his team resolved more than 12,300 fault reports submitted by TYS tenants last year
Alltime is responsible for the maintenance of a total of sixteen TYS housing locations, comprising nearly 5,000 apartments. Maintenance Supervisor Antti Eklund says that property maintenance carries out hundreds of different repair tasks at TYS housing locations every year.
“Last year alone, we resolved more than 12,300 fault reports submitted by TYS tenants,” says Eklund.
Busy and varied days
According to Eklund, a typical working day in property maintenance is busy and filled with a variety of tasks. During the day, employees handle fault reports submitted by tenants and carry out various maintenance tasks, which are prioritized according to their urgency.
Maintenance staff, for example, collect rubbish and empty waste containers, keep waste collection points clean and wash them, open doors and forward work requests to the appropriate parties. The work also includes ordering and collecting spare parts.
Alltime’s maintenance team is responsible, for example, for emptying waste bins.
“Maintenance staff also do a lot of work that tenants may not notice at all. Preventive property maintenance includes, for example, monthly testing of fire alarm and smoke detector systems, inspections of civil defence shelter equipment, and inspections of HVAC systems in accordance with the maintenance plan,” Eklund explains.
Regular inspections ensure that the systems work when they are really needed.
The changing seasons are particularly visible in the maintenance´s everyday work on outdoor areas. In autumn, leaves are collected; in winter, snow is cleared and slippery conditions are prevented; and in spring, the gravel spread around the yards during the winter is removed.
“The days are never the same, and that variety is one of the best things about the job,” says Eklund.
From a fault report to a solution
TYS tenants can submit a fault report through the Tenant Pages when they notice a fault in their apartment or housing location. The reported fault is first inspected and assessed. After that, the property maintenance worker determines whether they can carry out the repair themselves straight away or whether a professional such as a plumber, electrician or construction specialist is needed.
“The most common reports submitted by tenants concern burnt-out light bulbs and leaking water fixtures. We also often receive reports about malfunctioning locks and problems with doors opening. In many cases, the problem is something as simple as, for example, a stone stuck between the door and the frame,” Eklund explains.
The maintenance aims to resolve fault reports as quickly as possible. A clearly written fault report helps with this.
“We think that reports that clearly describe the problem and include a photo are particularly helpful. As the saying goes, a picture can tell more than a thousand words. From a photo, we can often easily determine which spare parts we need to bring with us, making the visit to the apartment as smooth and quick as possible,” Eklund says.
The most common reports submitted by tenants concern burnt-out light bulbs and leaking water fixtures, such as taps. It is a good make a fault report about a leaking water fixture so that unnecessary water consumption can be kept under control
Tenants’ feedback motivates
According to Eklund, one of the best aspects of the job is seeing the direct impact of their work on tenants’ everyday lives.
“The best thing about my work is seeing that the customer and tenant is happy with the service they have received,” says Eklund.
The maintenance is particularly pleased to receive feedback about fast service and good customer care. One of the more challenging aspects of the job, on the other hand, is coordinating all the work so that it can be carried out at a time that suits the tenant. It is also not always possible to enter apartments using a master key, in which case the maintenance visit has to be agreed with the tenant. Sometimes, however, the tenant cannot be reached, which can delay the resolution of the issue.
At its best, maintenance work is therefore a team effort between the maintenance staff and the tenant. Fault reports help keep apartments and properties in good condition and pleasant for both current and future tenants.
Eklund has a clear tip for all TYS tenants:
“Let’s work together to make our own homes and those of others pleasant places to live. There are no unnecessary fault reports. Properties and tenants are better off when potential faults are reported as soon as they are noticed,” Eklund encourages.
