With only a few months left until classes are officially dismissed for summer break, student housing properties are in the midst of preparing for one of the lengthiest high-vacancy periods of the year. And while you may think that these periods present lower risks for maintenance issues (because with no residents there to make adjustments to the thermostat, how can hazardous conditions be created?), but many maintenance issues are a result of conditions set by the tenant right before leaving for an extended period of time.

Students typically don’t attend a ‘How to avoid maintenance issues 101’ course before fleeing the nest, so oftentimes they aren’t even aware of how a seemingly innocent action can create conditions likely to lead to maintenance equipment malfunctions. More simply put, costly repairs can surface as a result of the simplest, most inconspicuous of tenant mishaps.

For example, an open window in combination with the heating or cooling being left running is a common occurrence that can very quickly lead to frozen pipes or even mold growth – which are two of the most expensive maintenance disasters to rectify. Being that tenants can be gone for weeks, even months at a time means that these kind of maintenance issues are often left to persist, undetected – allowing them to gradually worsen and therefore resulting in significantly more resources, more time and more money being required to fix the problem. Closing the window and adjusting the temperature in the residence would have been a very quick, inexpensive fix for the above situation – it’s property managers not knowing that the window needs to be closed in the first place that’s the problem.

In a perfect world, tenants would take special care to close all windows and set the thermostat to ensure optimal unit efficiency before leaving town for the summer. In reality, though, it doesn’t happen that way. One way to tackle this would be for the maintenance manager to go door to door to routinely check there are no conditions present that could pose a threat for potential maintenance malfunctions. Needless to say that would be an incredibly inefficient use of time, especially when property staff have enough on their plate as it is during periods like turn.

So in the event that an issue does begin to brew in a particular vacant residence, it’s difficult for property staff to know – being that no tenant is present to report the issue. After all, tenants are notorious for not reporting issues even when they are around, so image when they’re not.

Investing in a Facilities IoT Solution like TrustHab alleviates the need for a resident to be present in order for a potential maintenance problem to be identified, an invaluable feature for property staff of student housing buildings in particular being that there are so many periods of high-vacancy throughout each year. Real-time equipment monitoring provides peace of mind in ensuring that if abnormal conditions ARE detected, property staff will be made aware immediately. The proactive approach of dispatching maintenance staff to tend to issues the minute they’re detected, as opposed to having them go in and rectify an issue that’s been persisting for days, can save hundreds of dollars worth of maintenance repair costs – resulting in increased NOI and a significant reduction in the amount of man-hours needed.

TrustHab is the first Facilities IoT Solution purpose-built for the Student Housing industry, and is designed to help property managers detect and address maintenance issues, whether a tenant is present or not. Reach out to us today to learn more.

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