Property maintenance is the overall upkeep of a facility and its surrounding property. This includes the upkeep of facilities that lease space, such as an apartment complex, rented house, or office building. If the owner of the facility is a company, they will often hire a property manager to maintain one or more of their properties. If the property owner is an individual, he or she may decide to personally handle the maintenance responsibilities.
In an apartment building, the individual responsible for maintaining the property is sometimes referred to as a landlord, superintendent, or caretaker, and may also live onsite. Property maintenance of an apartment building includes cleaning and repairing the building's shared spaces which receive a lot of traffic, such as the foyer, laundry room and elevators. Maintenance and repairs for individual suites are usually handled on an as-needed basis at the request of the tenants, and cleaning individual suites is the responsibility of the tenants. Apartment building maintenance also includes taking care of the building's surrounding property, which may include mowing grass, shoveling snow, salting walkways, and painting steps and outside facades. Most landlords require the assistance of tradespeople for repairs that require skilled labor, such as electrical wiring and plumbing.
Maintaining the property of an office building includes the cleaning and upkeep of the building's shared spaces, such as the main foyer, elevators, and bathrooms. Unlike that of an apartment building, property maintenance for an office building may include cleaning of the individual company suites, depending on the arrangement between the property manager and the tenant. Maintenance of an office building also includes taking care of its surrounding property, by shoveling snow and salting walkways, as well as painting and maintaining parking lots, outside steps, and facades.
In addition to cleaning and repairing a building and its surrounding property, property maintenance for both office spaces and living spaces may entail administrative duties. Some examples may include ensuring tenants sign copies of the lease, collecting security deposits, distributing memos from property management, and providing tenants with parking passes and keys. Drafting the official documents for distribution, such as leases, memos, and other agreements is not typically considered a part of general property maintenance, and is usually handled by the office of the property owner.