Lining Out Sub-Contractors (Or Keeping Them In Line)

My property management company hires a lot of sub-contractors.  If there is a job that needs to be done outside of general maintenance such as electrical, roofing or HVAC work, then I have to sub-contract it out.  Our in-house maintenance crew is awesome, but sometimes the job is just out of their scope.

However, there are sometimes that the work just doesn’t come out right when using subs.  There is a way to keep your frustrations at bay and that is set forth a policy now.  Our office policy states that paychecks are only available on Fridays after 2:00 pm.  In order to receive the paycheck, the work must be completed and the the invoice turned into the office no later than 5pm on the Wednesday before.  We check/validate the work on Thursdays and then checks are cut.  There are no exceptions and we have this all written out in our guidelines sheet that we give to the sub-contractors when they sign on to work with us.

There is a reason why we check work on Thursdays… is this.  A light switch was installed by the electrician and they cut the drywall hole way too big.  They just left it wide open, didn’t even bother to try to fix it or put the faceplate on it. This kind of stuff frustrates me to no end.  You might be thinking, just cover it up with an oversize switch plate.  Um… hole is still too big.

So… needless to say, this electrical sub-contractor didn’t get a paycheck this week.  He was ticked.  But seriously, why should we pay you when the work isn’t done and it isn’t done right? You’ll have to wait until next week, so sorry, I told you we run a tight ship around here.

Tagged as: dizmang, for rent, getpaul, jessica hickok, landlord, maintenance, mo, rental property, springfield, sub-contractors