Each Property Manager will rotate through the afterhours calls on a fortnightly basis. This means that you will be required to be on after hours for two weeks out of every 16 weeks or approximately 3 times per year.

You can check when you are scheduled to be on after hours in Microsoft Teams shifts. You will also receive an email in the morning of the first day of your afterhours fortnight confirming that you are now on after hours.

When on after hours, any calls that come into the office and select emergency maintenance via the phone system, outside of our core hours (9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Monday to Friday) will be transferred through to the employee on the afterhours calls. It is a requirement that you have your work phone on you at all times during this time and that it is checked on a regular basis for any calls that may come through.

We understand that you have a life outside of work, so we don't expect you to answer calls in the middle of the night and while you are eating dinner, as an example, however we do expect that you check your phone on a regular basis to ensure that no calls are missed and that they are followed up with a return phone call. Obviously common sense should also be used where if you have repeat calls come in from the same number over a short period of time, this would indicate that someone is experiencing an emergency and therefore the call should be answered immediately.

What to do when you receive a call.

If/When you receive a call when on after hours, your first step is to determine if the call is an emergency maintenance issue. If they are just calling about an application or an arrears message or anything else that is not an emergency, politely advise the caller that this is not an emergency and ask them to email their property manager or to call back during normal business hours,

What constitutes an emergency maintenance issue.

An after-hours emergency issue is an unexpected event or circumstance which may cause damage to the property or an injury to someone, such as a burst water pipe, serious electrical fault or roof leak.

Below is the what the caller is advised when they ring the afterhours line.

Any of the below issues are not considered an emergency, unless they are likely to cause damage to the property or an injury to someone.

• Minor leaking tap (Plumbing)

• No hot water (Plumbing)

• Lights now working (Electrical)

• Single or limited power outlets not working (Electrical)

• Blocked toilet, if the property has multiple toilets (Plumbing)

• TV or Internet outages (Electrical)

• Stove or oven not working (Appliance)

• Air-conditioner not working (Appliance)

• Garage Door not working

• Loose fittings or fixtures (General Maintenance)

• *Lost keys (Locksmith)

*if someone has locked themself out of their property or is unable to access the property, they will need to either call a locksmith themselves and or find alternate accommodation for the night. Once our office is open, they can collect the owner set of keys and arrange to have a replacement set cut.

Below is what the caller can elect to listen to, to determine if they have an emergency issue or not.

Strata & Community Corporations

Strata is responsible for all common areas including external building walls and roofing, gutters, common driveways and grounds

If you are unsure who should make a repair, check with the strata manager.  This info will be found under the Strata tab on the Property page on Property Tree (in progress being updated)

The owner's corporation plans and pays for major repairs to common property (this includes fixing defects).

Community corporations

Owners are responsible for their own properties as a whole, externally & internally

In respect of common property, a community corporation has an obligation to keep common property in good and serviceable repair.

The community corporation must also properly maintain and renew and replace common property (including its fixtures and fittings) as necessary because of damage or deterioration arising from fair wear and tear, inherent defects, or any other cause.

How to deal with an emergency maintenance issue.

If you have determined that the caller has an emergency issue, please follow the below steps.

1. Try and troubleshot with them to try and isolate the issue until a tradesman can be arranged, preferably during business hours. A few examples of this are below. Tell the tenant you will contact the landlord to get the problem solved.

2. If the issue cannot be isolated, you will need to try and contact the owner via phone to let them know of the issue and gain approval to send a tradesman out. If you are unable to reach the owner via phone, send them a brief SMS message outlining the issue and advise them that if you do not hear back within 10-15 minutes you will need to send a trade out there.

3. Once you have approval or if you do not hear back from the owner, contact the relevant trade via phone and arrange for them to attend as soon as possible. Please note Duke properties have different trades.  If you try to contact their trade and they don’t answer, then send a Magain City Realty preferred trade.

4. You will need to log into Property Treet Maintenance Bricks and Agents either on your phone or your laptop and enter in the work order and send the work order to the trade. List the job as urgent, assign the PM and note in the comments tenant reported via emergency after hours call. You will also need to leave a note on the job card assigned to the Property Manager outlining what action you took.

5. Lastly contact the tenant to advise a work order has been sent and the trade will be in contact with them shortly.

   Before sending a trade out it is a good idea to check Bricks and Agents or Property Tree to see if there are any notes against the property specifying that the owner likes to use a certain trade, or if the property is DUKE and require specific trades.

Which trade should I send out.

Magain City Realty has preferred trades for afterhours maintenance as below. These trades should always be used in the first instance however if they are not available or are unable to attend in a timely manner, please use an alternate trade which can be found in Bricks and Agents or Property Tree.

Under no circumstances should a tenant arrange their own trade to attend to an issue. If they have advised you that they have already arranged a trade, you will need to advise them that they may not be able to recover the cost of the call out/repairs from the landlord.

Troubleshooting

Burst water pipe or bad water leak – tell the tenant to turn off the mains water meter out the front of the property, or place a bucket under leak

No water – check on SA Water website for outages

No power – check on SA Power networks website for outages

No power – check electricity meter box to reset circuit breakers or turning off circuit breakers to isolate an issue. If one appliance is tripping the power out, isolate and go through each appliance

Major flood, storm, or if a tree has fallen onto the property – tell tenant to call SES 132 500

Break in/ smashed door or window – tell tenant to report to the police and provide us with a police report number. We may need to send a handyman to make the property secure.

No hot water – emergency is no hot water for 48 hours or more.

Door won’t lock – ask the tenant if there is another door they can use for access