Seasonal Maintenance Checklist

Pull the unit's preventive-maintenance history from AppFolio, Buildium, or Rent Manager. Note the last filter change, water-heater flush, and any open work orders. Repeat issues at the same unit are a leading indicator of a capex item the owner should hear about, not another patch.

Verify each vendor on this run (HVAC, roofer, plumber, irrigation, tree service) has a current general-liability and workers-comp certificate naming the property as additional insured. A lapsed COI on a vendor working on premises leaves the firm personally exposed if there's an accident.

Most states require 24-48 hours written notice before entering an occupied unit for non-emergency maintenance. Send via the same channel listed in the lease (email, portal message, or posted notice) and log the timestamp. Skipping this is a warranty-of-habitability landmine if the tenant later disputes entry.

The season drives which sections of the checklist actually run. Winterization (pipe insulation, irrigation blow-out) only applies in fall; AC service only applies in spring. Capture this once so downstream steps branch correctly.

Pull leaves and debris from gutters; flush downspouts and confirm they discharge at least four feet from the foundation. Clogged gutters drive ice-dam claims in winter and basement-water claims year-round.

Look for lifted shingles, exposed nails, cracked flashing at the chimney and plumbing vents, and any sagging. Photograph anything questionable. Roofs flagged here usually become a capex conversation with the owner, not a same-day repair.

Open a work order to a roofer with a current COI. For minor repairs, get a fixed bid; for capex candidates, get a written scope and two comparison bids before sending to the owner.

Look for cracks in stucco or siding, separation at trim, and grade slope toward the foundation. Photograph any horizontal foundation crack wider than a credit-card edge — that's a structural conversation, not a caulk fix.

Check window perimeters, door thresholds, and trim. For pre-1978 buildings, peeling paint triggers EPA RRP requirements before any disturbance — flag for a certified contractor rather than touching it up in-house.

Use the size and MERV rating logged in the property file. Photograph the old filter and the install date written on the new one — this is the cheapest piece of evidence that filters were actually changed if a tenant later raises a habitability claim.

Licensed HVAC tech runs the season-appropriate service: heat exchanger and ignition in fall, condenser coil cleaning and refrigerant check in spring. Capture the service ticket — it's the document an insurer asks for after any HVAC-related incident.

Cycle through heat, cool, and fan-only. For smart thermostats, confirm the tenant still has portal access and that any owner-set minimum/maximum hold ranges are intact.

Lint-clogged dryer vents are a top-five cause of residential fires. Pull the vent at the wall and at the exterior cap; vacuum the run if accessible. Schedule a duct-cleaning vendor if the run is longer than ten feet or has more than two elbows.

Drain a few gallons until the water runs clear; sediment buildup shortens tank life and trips the high-temperature limit. Note the install date on the tank — anything past 10 years should be flagged for owner replacement budgeting before it fails on a Saturday.

Pull the cabinet under each sink and look for active drip, mineral staining, or swollen MDF — staining without active drip still means the supply line failed at some point. Replace braided supply lines older than five years preemptively; they're $8 each and the slab-leak claim isn't.

Foam-sleeve any pipes in unheated crawl spaces, garages, or exterior walls. Disconnect garden hoses and install hose-bib covers. A burst pipe claim averages $10K-15K and is one of the few preventive-maintenance items that pays for itself the first time it works.

Cycle the main shutoff at least once during the visit. Old gate valves seize open and only fail when an emergency requires them to close — exactly the wrong moment to discover it. Replace any valve that won't fully close.

Branches touching siding, roof, or service-drop wires cause storm damage and pest entry. Hold a three-foot clearance from the structure and ten feet from the chimney. Use an insured tree service for anything requiring a saw above shoulder height.

Run each zone manually and walk the heads. Look for geysers, misaimed heads soaking the building, and dry zones. Adjust the controller seasonally — leaving spring run-times on through fall is the most common driver of inflated owner water bills.

Fall: blow out the lines with compressed air before the first hard freeze — frozen backflow assemblies are a $400-800 replacement and are not covered as a maintenance item by most owners. Spring: pressurize slowly and check each backflow.

Press-and-hold each detector until it sounds; replace batteries on any non-sealed unit; replace any detector older than ten years (manufacture date is on the back). State law in most jurisdictions requires working detectors as a habitability condition — a failed detector at an incident is also a failed defense.

Install replacements with a 10-year sealed lithium battery where code permits. Write the install date on the unit face with a Sharpie and log the model, serial, and install date in the property file — this is the audit trail that survives a tenant turnover.

Confirm gauges read in the green, pins and tamper seals are intact, and the annual inspection tag is current (NFPA 10 requires annual third-party service). Out-of-date tags fail municipal inspections and most insurance audits.

Update the after-hours dispatch number (Latchel, Lessen, or in-house on-call) on tenant-facing materials and in the portal. Confirm the posted notice in common areas matches what the lease says — mismatched numbers are a Friday-night problem.

Pull photos, vendor tickets, and any flagged capex items into a single owner-facing report. Distinguish completed repairs (deductible expense) from capital improvements (depreciated) — misclassifying these creates owner-tax-return headaches at year-end.

For any capex candidate (roof, HVAC replacement, water heater past 10 years), send written scope plus two comparison bids and a recommended timing. Owners want optionality; surfacing the decision before failure is the difference between a planned project and a 2 a.m. emergency.

Save the report, vendor invoices, and detector log to AppFolio, Buildium, or the equivalent property file. Update the next-service-due dates so the next quarter's run inherits the right baseline.