Emergency Commercial Property Maintenance in Los Angeles – Who’s Responsible?

Emergencies happen, and at Los Angeles Property Management Group, we usually find that we’re dealing with a maintenance issue at a commercial property a few times every year. Property managers or landlords need to make an assessment at the time of the emergency to determine whether it’s the tenant or the owner who is responsible for fixing the problem.

Commercial Property Maintenance Responsibilities

Most commercial leases will put the tenant in charge of taking care of maintenance and repairs to the specific unit they occupy. Anything that involves the building as a whole will be the owner’s responsibility. If a toilet backs up and overflows, the tenant is expected to take care of that on their own. They can call us to fix it, but we will bill them back for it once the work is completed. In emergency situations, the important thing is to mitigate any further damage and then decide who should fix it. Recently we had a toilet overflowing at one of our properties, but it was the owner’s responsibility, not the tenant’s, because water was coming up from the ground and flooding into two different units.

Maintenance and Your Lease Agreement

Emergency maintenance underscores the importance of having a strong lease that clearly identifies the roles and responsibilities of tenants and owners when it comes to commercial property maintenance. Your professional property management company can take care of educating the tenant on these responsibilities, and can step in during emergencies to take care of the problem and decide who will be financially responsible for making repairs.

Commercial Property Insurance

In some cases, your insurance policy will take care of the problem. For example, we recently had a tree fall on a car at one of the commercial plazas we manage. This occurred during a heavy rain storm, and we got the insurance company involved immediately.

Tenants will often call with emergencies, and while we are happy to take the lead on solving the problem, we will always make sure that the tenants are billed for any work or repairs that are their responsibility. If you have any questions about this or anything pertaining to commercial property management in Los Angeles, CA, please contact us by emailing dcrown@lapmg.com.