Protecting your Apartment: Reporting Maintenance Emergencies

It often feels like it is hard to tell when something is actually a problem or not; your car starts making a small noise that you haven’t heard before, or there is a weird pinch in your back that you just got as you woke up one morning. Likewise, it is very easy to miss when something going on in your apartment or living space is going to turn out to be a much bigger issue. In this, it is imperative that we are diligent in reporting problems, and knowing when something is not functioning as it should.

Now, it is always a good rule of thumb that when something feels off in your apartment, you call your friends at the leasing office as soon as you can. This is important for a couple of different reasons:

1. It allows your leasing office to compile documentation of problems occurring. Documentation is incredibly important for future understanding on what work is needed, as well as if something is a lingering dilemma down the line.
2. Notifying your leasing office immediately allows them to respond quickly at first sight of a problem. You may see a little bit of water dripping from your sink onto the sink base floor and think it is no big deal, but continued leaks can destroy wood, and lead to flooding and other less-than-ideal situations arising.

Even with the understanding that problems should always be reported sooner rather than later, it is important to note a couple of situations where special care and notice should be given. These listed items are emergencies, and should be treated with immediate response by you and your leasing office.

• Water leaking in the apartment, storage lockers, garages, etc. Also includes complete flooding of any space in the building.
• Electrical disturbances, shortages or complete loss of power.
• Total stoppage of all drains in the apartment (“total” meaning that no water drains at all).
• Smell of gas in the apartment or any shared space in the building/community.
• Fire in any building or shared space of the community.
• No heat in the apartment.

Please keep in mind that if you are needing to request help with an emergency after hours, we do have a number you can contact. You may reach the on call maintenance staff at (402)393-2210, then follow the voicemail prompts. Any emergency requests need to be made as soon as possible by calling your leasing office, on-call maintenance staff or fire/police department immediately.

Now, in the event that you do need to request a  Non-Emergency work order, there are a couple of convenient ways in order to do this. You can always call your leasing office and report it to them directly. If you do not have the time to call, or the office is closed, all Robert Hancock and Co. properties have the functionality for residents to request work orders on their resident accounts. You can do so by logging into your Rent Café account. Once you are logged in and on the main page, in the top left corner you will see a bar titled “Maintenance Request“. You can click on this, and be redirected to a screen where you can enter in the specifics of the work order. Please remember that you will need to click yes on the box for permission to enter so that maintenance staff can enter the apartment.

Please be quick in your response of maintenance issues and emergencies, and always do your best to take care of your apartment and building so that we can continue to provide a safe and comfortable living experience for you and your guests. Your leasing office loves your apartment as much as you do, and they want to ensure that it and yourself are protected.