Summer Rental Property Maintenance

It’s important to keep up maintenance tasks on your rental property throughout the year. This ensures that your tenants are comfortable and well taken care of, your property remains at legal living standards, and you catch any issues or repair needs early on. What if your rental property is only or mostly used during the summer months? This tends to be true for those who own properties in popular summer vacation destinations. If you fall into this category, there are a few specific summer rental property maintenance tasks you should perform each year as you get ready to welcome tenants back to your property.

What Kind of Summer Rental Property Maintenance Do I Need to Do?

If you can, try to visit your summer property on a semi-regular basis throughout the year to make sure everything is in proper working order. This will reduce the likelihood that you have to deal with any major repairs or necessary updates in a hurry as the summer season approaches.

Let’s take a look at some of the most important summer rental property maintenance tasks that landlords should make sure to remember as the weather gets warmer.

Get HVAC System Service

Though some places will have hotter summers than others, it’s safe to say that the tenants living on your property during the summer will need a properly functioning AC system to stay comfortable and safe.

Call a professional HVAC company in your area to check your system and perform summer rental property maintenance to make sure your major appliances are working for the season. Not only will your tenants be happy to have some ice-cold AC, but your HVAC system will be less likely to have breakdowns or need repairs if it’s serviced regularly.

Check the Sprinkler System

Irrigation costs tend to rise during the summer months, so it’s important to make sure your sprinkler system is working properly and watering the lawn at the most optimal times to avoid overspending on water usage. Your irrigation system should have a setting that’s designed for use during the hotter months to make this process easy.

Maintain the Landscaping

Your property’s curb appeal is a big part of its value as well as the quality of your tenant’s experience, and landscaping plays a massive role in curb appeal. Certain features of your landscaping can affect the ability of your tenants to fully enjoy all that your property has to offer.

Prioritize the largest landscaping features first as you’re performing your summer upkeep. This means trimming down large trees and bushes — especially those that cover parts of your property or affect the use of outdoor areas. 

Then you can check that other landscaping features, such as lawns, pathways, and gardens, are looking tidy and ready for summer.

Brush Up on Fireworks Policies

Summer is a popular time for fireworks, especially around the Fourth of July. Every city and county has different ordinances around fireworks, including whether private citizens can buy them and if so, what types are available for purchase.

The details of these ordinances often depend on the fire danger in your rental property’s neighborhood. Even if you’ve owned your property for a long time, it doesn’t hurt to brush up on your area’s policies around fireworks to make sure your renters are well aware of the rules.

If fireworks are allowed in your rental property’s neighborhood, do your best to remove all fire hazards from your home whether your renters plan on using fireworks or not.

Schedule Pool Maintenance

If your property has a pool, your tenants will want to enjoy it during their stay this summer. A professional pool cleaning is a great idea as you’re leading up to the summer months, but it’s also important to keep up routine pool maintenance throughout the year to prevent too much buildup and stress on your pool’s cleaning system.

Check Communal Area Rules and Amenities

If your rental property is a part of a larger community or building, you have some specific summer rental property maintenance tasks to think about. Make sure that all of your summer tenants are briefed on the community rules and check that any communal amenities such as grills, pools, and outdoor furniture are ready for use.