Emergency Work Order Procedures

Below is a general workflow that will allow us to address emergency work orders promptly. It's very important to be actionable on emergencies, and the sooner we act to resolve them, the fewer problems we'll have later.


1. Check if this meets the definition of “Emergency”

A work order is an emergency if it threatens tenant safety, major property damage, or compromises habitability. Examples include:

  • Fire, smoke, or suspected gas leak
  • Active flooding, burst plumbing lines, major leaks.
  • Property has a single bathroom and toilet is not functioning.
  • Electrical sparking, exposed wiring, power outage impacting safety
  • Break-in, compromised locks, building envelope damage that creates security risk

If it doesn’t fall into those kinds of critical categories, it is not an emergency and should be handled under normal work-order procedures.


Another good test is to just ask yourself: if this happened in your home, would you expect it to be resolved immediately? If yes, then please consider it an emergency.


If you're unclear whether it's an emergency, please call/text the APM for guidance.


2. First Response Timeline

  • Upon receipt of an emergency work order, please telephone the tenant via OpenPhone within 30 minutes, confirm we received the request, acknowledge the issue, and inform the tenant that we are acting immediately.
  • Then, please CC the APM/PM on the email or ticket when the emergency is logged. APM/PM can provide further support/insight if needed.
  • Then, immediately dispatch or arrange vendor/repair action, per our vendor network, and keep the tenant informed of next steps (ETA, safety instructions, interim measures).

3. Roles & On-Call Assignment

  • Monday through Friday: Maintenance Coordinator is the primary emergency-responsible coordinator.
  • Saturday & Sunday: Operations Coordinator is the primary emergency-responsible coordinator.

4. Escalation & Owner/Tenant Communication

  • At no time should a tenant feel the need to call the owner to get resolution. Calling immediately and overcommunicating will prevent this from occurring.
  • If the MC cannot reach a vendor, or the issue is not resolved within a reasonable timeframe, please immediately escalate to the APM/PM
  • Provide updates to the tenant at defined intervals: upon first contact (within 30 minutes), after vendor is dispatched (ETA provided), and once work is completed.
  • In general, please slightly overcommunicate with the tenant. The worst that can happen when you overcommunicate is that the tenant is slightly annoyed. It's far better for a tenant to be annoyed with getting too many updates than to be annoyed about being ignored.

5. Documentation & Closure

  • Work order is marked as “Emergency – Closed” only when: vendor has completed repair, property restored, tenant notified, and owner (if applicable) informed.

6. Accountability + KPIs

  • Tenant must be called within 30 minutes of receipt of emergency work order
  • Zero owner calls from tenants regarding emergencies
  • Tenant should never have to follow up; we should always proactively provide updates.
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