What the policy has to decide
Four questions, answered in writing: what counts as an emergency, who is on call and how they are reached, what the first person does with each kind of call, and what residents are told. Everything else in the policy supports one of those.
The policy is also your firm's answer to "why did nobody come?" A written threshold, applied the same way each time, is a much better answer than whoever was on call that night.
The template
[Firm name] after-hours maintenance policy
Effective [date]. Owner of this policy: [role]. Reviewed every [period].
1. After-hours means [times on weekdays], all day on [weekend days] and on [listed holidays].
2. Call 911 first for fire, smoke, a gas smell, carbon monoxide alarm, or anyone hurt or in danger. Then call us.
3. Emergencies we respond to tonight: [your list. Typical entries: water you cannot stop, no heat in [conditions], no water to the unit, sewage backing up, a door or window that will not lock, power out to the unit only, [others].]
4. Urgent, handled next business morning: [your list.]
5. Routine, handled in normal hours: everything else, through [portal or email].
6. On call: [role] is on call [rota]. Backup if no answer in [minutes]: [role]. Owner escalation: [when, and who].
7. First response: the on-call person [replies within (time) / calls back within (time)], decides the category using section 3, and dispatches from the approved after-hours vendor list.
8. Spending: on-call may approve up to [amount] tonight under [the management agreement emergency terms]. Above that, contact [role].
9. Records: every after-hours call gets a work order the same night, with the time, the category and what was done.
This is a working template, not legal advice. Notice periods, fee limits and required wording depend on your lease and on state and local law. Check yours with your own counsel before using it.
The parts only your firm can fill in
| Blank | What decides it |
|---|---|
| The emergency list | Your properties, your climate, and local habitability rules |
| The heat threshold | Local code often sets minimum indoor temperatures. Check yours |
| Response times | What you can actually staff, not what sounds good |
| The spending limit | Each owner's management agreement |
| The vendor list | Who will actually answer at 2am, confirmed this quarter |
Write response times you will meet on your worst week. A promise of fifteen minutes that turns into an hour does more damage than a promise of an hour that turns into forty minutes.
Some calls are borderline on purpose. No hot water, a fridge that stopped, a leak that a towel is holding: the answer depends on details. Our guide to whether no hot water is an emergency shows how to write a rule for a borderline call, and the after-hours triage guide covers the questions to ask.
How a call moves through the policy
One after-hours call
The morning handover is where most overnight work gets lost. Make it a fixed step, not a habit.
The resident version
Residents will not read the policy. Send them this, in the welcome pack and once a year, and put it on the portal.
Maintenance after hours
Fire, smoke, gas smell, CO alarm, or anyone hurt: call 911 first, then us.
Call [number] any time for: [the emergency list, short].
Everything else: report it at [portal] and we will pick it up [next business morning / in normal hours].
Not sure? Call. We would rather hear about it.
That last line matters. A resident who is unsure and does not call is how a slow leak becomes a ceiling.
Use AI on the overnight messages
Once the policy is written, the sorting in step two is a good AI job, because the rule is fixed and the input is a resident's message. Put the policy in a ChatGPT or Claude Project and paste in a message:
Using the after-hours policy in this Project, sort this resident message as EMERGENCY, URGENT or ROUTINE, and quote the line of the policy you used. If the message mentions fire, smoke, gas, carbon monoxide or anyone hurt, write CALL 911 FIRST at the top. If the policy does not cover it or a detail is missing, write NEEDS A HUMAN and say which question to ask the resident. Do not promise any arrival time.A person still makes the call on anything flagged. If you want this running on every message, the After-Hours Maintenance Agent is built for it.
Before the policy goes live
- The emergency list and heat threshold are checked against local rules.
- Response times are ones you can meet on your worst week.
- Every after-hours vendor on the list has confirmed this quarter.
- The spending limit matches each owner's agreement.
- The resident version is in the welcome pack and on the portal.
Questions
What should an after-hours maintenance policy include?
The hours it covers, a 911-first rule for danger, the list of emergencies you respond to tonight, what waits until morning, who is on call with a backup, the spending limit, and how calls are recorded.
What counts as a maintenance emergency?
Your policy decides, within local rules. Common entries are water you cannot stop, no heat in cold weather, sewage backing up, no water to the unit, and a door that will not lock.
How fast should after-hours maintenance respond?
Set a time you can meet on your worst week and write it in the policy. Missing a short promise does more harm than meeting a longer one.
Can AI handle after-hours maintenance calls?
It can sort a resident message against your written policy and draft the reply and work order. A person should still decide anything flagged as an emergency or not covered.