Access, Keys And Getting Into An Occupied Unit

A trade arriving at a property they cannot get into is the most wasteful thing that happens in maintenance.

The job does not get done, the day is spent, the tenant is annoyed, and the whole thing is rebooked a week later. And it is almost never caused by the repair itself.

The legal starting point

Entry to an occupied residential property requires notice, and the notice period depends on the reason.

Repairs and maintenance carry a notice requirement measured in days. An urgent repair, where there is a risk to safety or significant damage, allows immediate entry. A routine inspection has its own frequency limits and its own notice.

Which means the first question on any job is not when the trade is free. It is what notice is required and when it was served. A job booked for tomorrow on a repair that needs several days of notice is a job that cannot proceed, and that is on the manager rather than the tenant.

The distinction between urgent and routine is the same one in [emergency or scheduled, what warrants a callout](/blog/emergency-or-scheduled-what-warrants-a-callout), and it decides the notice as well as the response time.

Getting the notice right

In writing, by the method the tenancy agreement specifies, with the date and the window stated.

A window rather than a time, honestly. A three hour window that is met beats a precise time that is missed by an hour.

What the work is, because a tenant who knows a plumber is coming to replace a mixer cartridge plans differently from one who received a generic maintenance notice.

Whether water or power will be off, and for how long. This is the single most useful line in any notice and it is almost always missing. A tenant who works from home needs to know the power is going off for two hours.

Who is coming, and a contact if the tenant needs to speak to somebody.

Whether they need to be home, which is the question tenants most want answered.

Keys, and the arrangements that work

Tenant present, which is the simplest and the hardest to schedule.

Keys held by the manager, collected and returned the same day, with a record of who had them.

A key safe at the property, with a code changed between contractors. Far better than a key under a mat and far better than a key left with a neighbour.

Building access held separately, which is the part that catches people out. A trade with the unit key and no fob for the lobby, the lift or the carpark cannot reach the door. On a strata building, the access list is three items rather than one.

Restricted keys, which cannot be cut at a hardware store and need to be ordered through the system. Worth knowing before the job rather than on the morning, and the detail is in [key systems and restricted keys](/blog/key-systems-and-restricted-keys).

Whatever the arrangement, it is confirmed before the trade leaves the yard rather than assumed from the last time.

The building manager is the second gate

On a strata building, getting into the unit is only half of it.

The building manager may require a signed induction, proof of insurance, a booking for the lift, use of a specific entrance, a loading dock slot, and work inside set hours. None of that is unreasonable and all of it takes a day or two to arrange.

Which is why the booking sequence on a strata job is building first, tenant second. A tenant given notice for a day the building will not release the lift is a notice that has to be withdrawn.

Those requirements sit with the timing constraints in [after hours work and noise restrictions](/blog/after-hours-work-and-noise-restrictions) and the logistics in [bathroom work in an occupied apartment](/blog/bathroom-work-in-an-occupied-apartment).

Pets, and the conversation nobody has

A dog in the yard stops a plumber reaching a hot water unit, and a cat that gets out through an open door is a genuine problem for everybody.

So the notice asks about pets, and the arrangement is agreed rather than discovered. A tenant who knows the trade needs the back yard will secure the dog. A tenant who was not asked will not.

What makes a second visit necessary anyway

Sometimes the trade gets in and the job still cannot finish, and the reasons are predictable.

A part nobody could identify without seeing it, which is why the first visit on an unknown item is a scoping visit with a camera rather than a repair attempt. The thinking behind that is in [quoting a job nobody can see yet](/blog/quoting-a-job-nobody-can-see-yet).

A second trade required, discovered once the wall was opened. Which is the normal case rather than the exception, and it is the whole argument in [the job you think is one trade is almost always three](/blog/the-job-you-think-is-one-trade-is-almost-always-three).

An isolation needed that affects other units and has its own notice requirement, as in [isolation valves and why a building needs them](/blog/isolation-valves-and-why-a-building-needs-them).

Asbestos or lead suspected, which stops the work until it is identified, per [asbestos in older buildings and what stops a job](/blog/asbestos-in-older-buildings-and-what-stops-a-job).

The way to cut second visits is to scope properly on the first attendance and to send one team who can carry the whole job rather than one trade who can carry part of it.

For managers, the three lines that remove most of it

The notice served and the date it was served. The access arrangement, confirmed, including building access. And one name at the property or in the building who can be called on the day.

With those three on the job before it is booked, the attendance rate changes immediately.

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