After-hours maintenance triage: the 2 AM tenant photo

• EMERGENCY — yes, now

  Fire or smoke, a gas smell, a carbon monoxide alarm, sparking or exposed wiring, water running from a pipe or through a ceiling, water near anything electrical, a sagging ceiling, no heat in freezing weather. Make it safe and send your on-call trade.

• TODAY — no; first thing in the morning

  No heat in a mild week, no hot water, a toilet that will not stop running, a slow leak a bucket can hold, a door that will not lock. Reply tonight with what to do until morning; schedule it for the morning.

• THIS WEEK or WHENEVER — no

  A slow drain, one light out, a cosmetic stain, something that turns out not to be broken. Reply in the morning, or tonight with a short acknowledgement.

1. Fire, smoke, a gas smell, a carbon monoxide alarm or someone hurt: the tenant leaves and calls 911 from outside. Nothing else first.

2. Water: the tenant closes the nearest shut-off valve (under the sink, behind the toilet, on top of the water heater, or the main), and keeps away from outlets that are wet.

3. Electrical: the breaker off only if the tenant can reach the panel without standing in water.

4. No heat in freezing weather: agree a temporary heat plan, and remind them never to heat the home with a gas oven or stovetop ^[1].

5. Ask for one more photo if the first does not show enough: the whole fixture, the floor, and the label if they can reach it.

6. Call your on-call trade only for an EMERGENCY. Everything else goes on the morning list.

• EMERGENCY

  “I’ve seen your photo and I’m getting someone out to you now. Please keep clear of it. If you see fire or smoke, smell gas, or anyone is hurt, leave and call 911.”

• TODAY

  “Thanks for the photo. This needs a visit but it’s safe to wait until morning. Until then, please [keep the water off at the valve / keep a bucket under it]. I’ll message you with a time first thing.”

• THIS WEEK or WHENEVER

  “Thanks — I’ve got this on the list and I’ll be in touch to arrange a time.”

Every Triage Profile carries a line for the tenant, matched to its urgency word.

• The time the photo arrived and the time you replied.
• The urgency word and why, and what you told the tenant to do in the meantime.
• Who you sent and when they arrived — or why it waited for morning.
• Water: when it was stopped and when drying started. Wet materials dried within 24–48 hours usually do not grow mold ^[2].

• You can drop the tenant’s photo on fixragent.com, with no sign-up, and read the Triage Profile: what it is, whether a fault is visible, the urgency word, the trade, and a line for the tenant.
• If your tenants report through fixRAgent’s QR stickers, the photo is read right after the tenant sends it, without waiting for anyone to open the queue. An EMERGENCY or TODAY request is emailed to every owner and manager on the account as soon as it is read, and it also goes as an alert to any phone or computer where one of them has turned alerts on in their queue. For an EMERGENCY, the tenant is told their property manager has been alerted and to call 911 for fire, smoke, gas or an injury. THIS WEEK and WHENEVER requests are not mailed one by one: they wait in your queue, already read, and come together in one morning summary email.
• fixRAgent does not make phone calls, does not dispatch vendors and does not book visits. Who goes, and when, stays your call.

Set it up for your buildings at fixragent.com/pm-onboard, or use fixRAgent inside Claude or ChatGPT from fixragent.com/connect-ai.html.