After hours maintenance line for property managers
An after hours maintenance line answers tenant repair calls from close of business until the office reopens, sorts each one into urgent or routine using your rules and the state’s urgent repair list, and calls out your approved tradesperson within the spending limit you set. Victoria lists 15 kinds of urgent repair; routine jobs wait for the morning.
The calls are answered by an AI voice agent, not an operator. It does the parts of an after hours roster that follow rules: asking the same questions every time, applying the same urgent list every time, working down the tradesperson list, and writing it all down. A person stays on call for the decisions the rules do not cover.
Why an unanswered maintenance line costs landlords money
Each state lets a tenant act when an urgent repair is reported and the agent cannot be reached. In Victoria, the rental provider must make urgent repairs immediately, and Consumer Affairs Victoria says a renter who gets no response may arrange the work up to a capped amount and must be repaid within 7 days. Queensland’s RTA says either party may arrange emergency repairs up to 4 weeks’ rent when the nominated contact cannot be reached.
When the tenant books their own plumber at 1am, the landlord pays that plumber’s after hours rate and your agency loses control of the job. An answered line keeps the work with your approved trades at your agreed rates. The urgent repairs checklist by state sets out each state’s rule in full.
How an after hours repair call is handled
- Safety check first. The agent asks whether anyone is hurt or in danger and whether there is a smell of gas, smoke, sparking or water near electrics. If so, it tells the caller to ring 000 or the gas distributor’s emergency line and leave the property before anything else is discussed.
- Property and caller. It confirms the tenant’s name and the address and checks the address against your managed property list.
- Fault details. It asks what has failed, where, since when, whether the water, power or gas supply is affected, and whether the tenant can isolate it safely (for example, by turning off the water at the meter tap).
- Classification. It compares the answers with the urgent list for that property’s state plus your own additions, and labels the job urgent or routine.
- Dispatch inside the limit. For an urgent job it phones the first approved tradesperson for that trade and area. If they decline or do not answer, it tries the next one in your order.
- Spend check. If the likely cost is above the landlord’s limit in the management agreement, or the property has no limit recorded, it calls your on-call property manager for approval before any trade is booked.
- Tenant update. The tenant gets an SMS saying which trade has been called and that the trade will contact them directly, or that the job is logged for the morning.
- If nobody can be reached. The tenant hears the script your property manager approved for that state: what has been recorded, when the agency will be in touch, and a link to the regulator’s page on urgent repairs.
- Morning handover. Every after hours call is in the property managers’ inbox or CRM before the office opens, with times, classification, who was called and what they said.
Urgent or routine: a sample rule set for Victoria
This is how a Victorian agency might set the agent’s rules using the Consumer Affairs Victoria list. Other states use similar categories with different wording.
| Tenant reports | Category | After hours action |
|---|---|---|
| Water spraying from a pipe or hose | Burst water service | Ask tenant to turn off the water if safe, call plumber |
| Only toilet blocked or broken | Blocked or broken toilet system | Call plumber |
| No hot water, or the only heater has failed | Essential service not working | Call plumber, gasfitter or electrician by appliance type |
| Smell of gas | Gas leak | Tenant leaves and calls the gas distributor’s emergency line, then gasfitter |
| Front door lock broken, cannot secure the property | Unsafe or insecure | Call locksmith |
| Provided air conditioner not working | Cooling appliance not working | Call technician; if none is free overnight, book the first morning slot and tell the tenant |
| Smoke alarm chirping | Safety device | Ask whether it sounds when tested; electrician if not working |
| Dripping tap, sticking door, broken dishwasher | Not on the urgent list | Log for business hours |
Victoria’s list also covers serious roof leaks, flooding, storm or fire damage, appliances that waste a lot of water, structural mould and damp, lift or staircase faults, and properties that fall below minimum standards.
What you configure
- Approved trades. Name, after hours number, trade, suburbs covered and the order to call them.
- Spending limits. The limit for each landlord from the management agreement, or a default with a rule that anything above it needs a person.
- On-call roster. Who is rung for approvals and for distressed callers, how long the phone rings, and who is next.
- Your additions to the urgent list. For example, a tenant who has told you they depend on medical equipment that needs power.
- Strata buildings. Which addresses sit in an owners corporation, so a common property fault goes to the strata manager’s contractor and not yours. The strata enquiry agent handles that side.
- State scripts. The “nobody available” wording for each state you manage in, approved by your head of property management.
What it will not do
- Approve spend above the limit. It never books work above a landlord’s limit or on a property with no limit recorded without a person’s approval.
- Diagnose faults. It asks questions and records answers. It does not tell a tenant what is wrong with an appliance or how to repair it.
- Promise arrival times. It passes on only what the tradesperson has confirmed.
- Decide who pays. Whether damage is fair wear and tear or the tenant’s responsibility is the property manager’s call, made later.
- Replace emergency services. Fire, injury and gas leaks go to 000 or the gas distributor first.
- Comfort a distressed caller. A frightened or angry caller is transferred to your on-call person where you allow it, because a person handles that better.
Coverage, plans and cost
Business-hours-only plans do not cover this service. The Professional plan answers after hours and on weekends for $599 per month per month ex GST, with 1,500 minutes. Answering through every hour of the night needs a Custom plan with 24 hour coverage, which brings call recordings and transcripts too, and your quote states the hours each plan answers. Storm nights draw on the same minute allowance, and any minutes beyond it are billed at the plan’s per-minute rate. The cost guide shows how to size minutes from your phone records.
The AI receptionist answers the same number during business hours, and the comparison with a property management call centre explains when a human operator is the better choice. To ring a test burst pipe call into a demo line set up with your trade list, use the quote form.