At BMore Management, our goal is to help residents easily navigate every step of housing process. From leasing and moving in to managing systems once you’re within your home, we strive to provide valuable information that will be useful to you. Below, you’ll find resources that help trouble shoot different maintenance issues.
Troubleshoot simple maintenance issues within your unit to help prevent problems from growing, and protect your health and belongings.
Maintenance requests must be made in writing with one exception: Emergencies.
If calling during or after business hours, please follow the prompts for emergency maintenance. Otherwise, please report any non-emergency maintenance using your Resident/Tenant portal. Doing so helps us track your issue and follow up. We receive many, many emails and calls. Using the portal for non-emergencies will help you receive better service.
During the course of living in the property you may have contact with our maintenance employees and contractors and may receive their contact information. They may also communicate with you directly for the purposes of delivering service for a maintenance concern. You may be tempted to contact one of these individuals at a later date for an unrelated maintenance issue. While this is normal and understandable, it may lead to a delay in service. People get sick, take vacation, or may not be on-call at any given time. For that reason it is important that you use your portal access to report non-emergency maintenance issues and use our main number for all emergencies. If you call an individual, we may not receive the message that you are having difficulty and that will be especially troublesome for you if you are having an emergency. Help us deliver good service by centralizing your maintenance communication. We have a call center whose job is to take your call 24/7 and deliver it to the on-call technician as well as filtering the message through our hierarchy so that even if the on-call tech does not get the message, someone who can help you does.
For the convenience of our residents and to ensure service can be performed quickly and efficiently we may ask residents to be present during a service call and/or residents may choose to be present. During these situations it is important to note that a Missed Service Appointment Charge may occur for residents who agree to meet a vendor, whether through the vendor, through our coordination team, or otherwise, and then are not present and/or do not provide access to the vendor for service.
The Missed Appointment Service Call/Trip Charge varies by lease but is at least $80.00 per occurrence or whatever service charge the vendor charges, whichever is greater.
Examples include:
To avoid a Missed Appointment Service Call/Trip Charge always ensure you provide adequate and definite access to any service vendor or employee authorized by Management or Owner. You have preauthorized service calls in general when you signed your lease. The scheduling of those calls is not preauthorized, but if we notify you in advance of a service call or inspection, it is preauthorized.
Call the Emergency Line at least 2 hours in advance of any service call, inspection, or other scheduled visit if you are unable to grant access. If your service call is scheduled for all-day or a time is not provided, you must call by 6am on the day of service to avoid the Missed Appointment Service Call/Trip Charge. Email, text message, nor voicemail are accepted as adequate advance notice of cancelation for same-day or next day service calls. However, you may consider your service call adequately canceled in advance if you receive a text message or email from us indicating the appointment has been successfully canceled in advance.
We understand that sometimes it may seem a little easier to contact one of our handymen or vendors directly for service. This may be especially tempting when you’ve received good service and have a good rapport with someone on our team. We strive to make that the norm. However, it can cause problems. Not the least of which is when a resident initiates service that is not approved and then has to pay for that service themselves. It is very important for our ability to serve you and your property needs that we centralize communications, approvals, and service to ensure the right vendor with the right insurance and experience is dispatched to assist you.
Going outside of our service protocols also presents the very real possibility that you may engage services that are not owner or manager approved whether in scope or vendor or otherwise. It is a challenging part of what we do on a daily basis to ensure warranties are properly used, vendor guarantees are honored, budgets are adhered to and so we generally know what is going on. In the instances where you initiate service outside of contacting BMore Management you will be asked to pay for the services rendered if we determine that the service could not be approved as-rendered. You may need the service, and it may be something that the owner wants to assist you with, but if the wrong vendor is used, the owner does not have the chance to approve it, or the procedures are not followed properly to have it be approved, you will be stuck with the bill.
We’re more than happy to send your favorite handyman if appropriate, and we’ll even give them kudos for providing good service to the point ot being requested. But please contact us through normal channels for any service you need.
Please be sure to call us with your emergency maintenance issue(s). Email, chat, text/SMS and voicemail may not be monitored after hours or on weekends or holidays. However, our maintenance emergency line is monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
If you have lost your keys, please contact us so we can arrange for keys to be made available to you or to be picked up at our locksmith. Please note that key replacement after hours, weekends or holidays is an emergency after hours request and incurs an $80 fee for one of our team members to have the key made for you and meet you. If your account is in arrears, you must pay in cash before the keys are provided. In the event your account is in arrears and you cannot pay cash, you may hire your own locksmith to assist you. During business hours you may be able to pick up keys at our locksmith and pay only for the key(s) to be made (pick up before 4PM M-F, 2 hours minimum advance lead time is required in order to assist you during business hours), $2-10 for normal keys, specialty keys are priced by the locksmith.
If you are locked out, please contact us for emergency lock-out service. There is a fee for this service varying from $40 to $100 depending on whether you are calling during business hours or after. The fee is incurred the moment you agree to engage the lock-out service. Canceling the lock-out service enroute does not cancel the fee. Residents may also contact a locksmith of their choice and pay that locksmith directly instead for emergency service.
As a reminder residents are not permitted to change locks on their residence without owner/manager approval in writing.
In the event you are locked out or unable to secure your lock due to a defective or broken lock, the lock can be changed for you and emergency lockout fees do not apply if you save the defective or broken lock for inspection. Locks changed without providing the broken or defective lock(s) are subject to a lock change fee $100-200 depending on time of day and type of locks. Please contact us for emergency service in the event of a broken or defective lock so we can respond as quickly as possible. If you contact a locksmith, be sure to save the defective/broken lock for inspection to avoid a lock change fee.
Fire safety is everyone’s responsibility and we all need to do our bit to keep each other safe. Here are some general tips and advice that should be followed to ensure everyone’s safety in the event of a fire.
At some point you may encounter chirping smoke detectors or carbon monoxide detectors. This can be very annoying, and it’s intended to be so by the manufacturers. This is a sign that a detector needs its batteries changed, or that the detector itself needs to be changed.
If your detector has an accessible battery compartment on it (front, back, or side), change the battery with a brand new battery of the correct type for the detector. The device may chirp one or two more time once the new battery is installed. If the detector no longer chirps after the battery is changed, you’re good to go. If it continues to chirp, this is a good sign the detector may be ready to retire.
Remember that it is your responsibility to change smoke and CO detector batteries (in addition to light bulbs, as well as HVAC filters if your home has a central heating/AC system). If you have changed the batteries in the detector and it continues to chirp, please put in a maintenance request so we can assist you with a new detector.
Over the years we have found that one of the primary causes of “no-heat” or “insufficient heat” calls and also burst water pipes is double-hung windows that are not secured properly. Double hung windows are the most common residential and small commercial window application by far. Over time windows need adjustment so that the top sash stays in place while the lower sash is used for the normal opening and closing for ventilation.
What can happen is that the top sash can sag ever so slightly (or a lot!) causing the lock(s) to not line up properly for closure. A resident may engage the lock thinking that all is well, but later find that an unwanted guest made an appearance without any signs of forced entry, or a room or apartment can feel very cold and drafty.
Please view the video below. It is a very straightforward instruction on how this can happen and how to properly secure double-hung windows. Remember to always do this before calling us about no-heat, or a drafty room.
Please put in a maintenance request if you have reasonably tried to secure a window and it is not cooperating. Adjustment may be necessary.
Some of our homes have central heat and or air conditioning. Please see this as a friendly reminder that per your lease, you are required to change the filter on your Heating/Air Conditioning system regularly if your home does have such a system. No special tools or knowledge is required to perform a filter change, and doing so helps keep your system running efficiently, reduces the incidence of system failures, and prevents us from having to inconvenience you as often by entering your home.
Filters should be changed at least every 3 months, and at least every 2 months if you have any pets.
Please note that failing to change filters is the top preventable cause of system failures and damages the system over time. The landlord may hold you responsible for repair charges if changing filters could have prevented a particular failure.
Please help us keep you comfortable and avoid those charges altogether. We are happy to walk you through a filter-change and provide you with the correct filter size information.
Filters are available online, and at local retailers including Ace Hardware, some grocery stores, most department stores, and some convenience stores.
A handy video walk-thru on how to change these filters can be found here:
If you live in one of our Single Family Homes or Single Occupant Row-Homes through your lease you are responsible for the proper care of your lawn/yard. Please take care of the following or arrange for these to be done for you at your expense. Remember that your yard responsibility extends to all adjacent tree wells and right of ways, even those at the street.
If you have any dead trees on your property or large dead limbs on any trees on your property (greater than 3 inches in diameter), please contact us so we can evaluate their safe removal/pruning.
Report any dead trees or dead tree limbs overhanging your property or in tree wells by calling 311.
If you live in one of our Single Family Homes or Single Occupant Row-Homes through your lease you are responsible for the proper care of your lawn/yard. Please take care of the following or arrange for these to be done for you at your expense. Remember that your yard responsibility extends to all adjacent tree wells and right of ways, even those at the street.
If you have any dead trees on your property or large dead limbs on any trees on your property (greater than 3 inches in diameter), please contact us so we can evaluate their safe removal/pruning.
Report any dead trees or dead tree limbs overhanging your property or in tree wells by calling 311.
We treat for pests in our apartment buildings regularly. However, those residents in our Single Family or Single Occupancy Row-Homes may be responsible for pest control. Please review your lease to see if pest control is provided or your responsibility.
If you have scheduled a pest control visit through us or we have notified you of an upcoming visit please do the following to prepare for the visit.
Please be aware of the following before and after your treatment:
Report bed bugs immediately. Review your Lease for specific terms regarding bedbugs.
Generally:
We treat aggressively for bedbugs when reported to us by a resident. Reporting bedbugs quickly will help mitigate the cost of treatment and minimize the potential for a resident having to pay for the treatment of other units in an apartment building due to not reporting the issue before the infestation spreads to adjoining units.
When you report bedbugs we will:
Bedbugs are a traveling pest that is not endemic to our rental homes.
If you would like to control the cost of professional pest control treatment for bedbugs, you may order your own full treatment from a licensed PCC. Provide documentation from the PCC that you have successfully completed the full pest control treatment for bedbugs and provide an inspection report from the PCC showing no further infestation we can cancel our PCC treatment and you can pay your PCC directly.
This depends on your home/property type and other factors.
Apartments: Resident pays for bedbug treatment or other pest treatment made necessary by poor home hygiene and/or poor resident trash management. The Landlord pays for regular preventive pest control treatments and outdoor treatments such as rat control.
Single Family Homes/Rowhomes: Resident pays for bedbug treatment or pest treatment made necessary by poor home hygiene and resident trash management, and any routine or regular pest control. The Landlord pays for outdoor treatments such as rat control. Generally a treatment during the first 30 days of residence is provided free of charge. Residents will need to arrange for their own pest control thereafter, or contact us to engage our vendor for pest control services.
Commercial: Tenant generally pays for all routine pest control. Landlord may pay for preventive outdoor pest control depending on the building type. Please contact us if your lease is unclear on this matter.
While we understand the convenience of “flushable” wipes, these modern conveniences can have a heavy impact on the operation of waste pipes, especially those in older buildings or older neighborhoods. Older plumbing waste pipes can be constructed of cast iron or terra cotta. These older construction materials are prone to imperfections that grab onto or catch on many materials as they pass through. “Flushable” wipes are notorious for becoming caught and entangled in older plumbing infrastructure. For this reason we ask that you refrain from using or flushing “flushable” wipes.
In addition to their impact on your home’s plumbing, these products often contribute in a major way to grease and fat deposits that build up in the municipal system, leading to backups and other maintenance needs.
The following list of items should never be flushed down any toilet or plumbing fixture regardless of the building’s age:
We are ready to handle all of your maintenance concerns. It is a common misconception that the owner of the property must address any repair or maintenance problem that arises without compensation by the Resident(s). While very many maintenance and repair issues do fall under that concept, not all do. The following is a helpful list of repairs for which you as Resident will be responsible, should the repairs be necessary. Special circumstances are listed for some items to better explain those items especially where a Landlord may normally be responsible but the circumstance dictates otherwise. We will perform the necessary repairs and then bill you for them if charges apply. Please take care to avoid these issues to avoid the inconvenience and cost associated with them. If you need assistance properly caring for or using any item in your property we are happy to meet with you to help or to send you links to educational videos that may be helpful.
This list was created with our residential Tenants in mind. Commercial tenants are responsible for all repairs within their unit at all times. Commercial tenants must hire their own licensed contractors for repairs.
Residents of Single Family Homes (detached and single occupancy row homes) are fully responsible for removing snow and ice within 24 hours of a weather event from your front sidewalk, steps, and the public sidewalk in front of your home, plus that on the sides if you occupy an end-unit. You must also put down salt, gravel, sand, or other material to reduce ice slippage in all of these areas. This level of care is required by the City in addition to being the neighborly thing to do. Doing so allows emergency and city personnel and mail carriers, along with our repair vendors and others to move about safely as they continue to serve you. Although the City does not, we make reasonable exceptions for up to 72 hours during a blizzard or 12+ inch snowfall. Be mindful of thaw/re-freeze during cold weather. The longer you wait to clear the snow or ice, the worse it can become.
You occupy a single family home if the house is not broken into separate apartments with separate kitchens and entrances.
Residents in our multi-family properties or apartment buildings generally do not need to remove snow/ice. Please check your lease though as some landlords do require this of residents. If you have come to us from another property manager or your Landlord has recently engaged us, we must abide by their existing lease, which may or may not include snow removal.
Parking Areas:
We do not clear snow or ice from parking areas under any circumstances nor any alleys or city streets except for a few of our much larger complexes. Alleys and streets are cleared by the City and those contracted by the City to do so under all circumstances. Be mindful of parking in snow emergency routes. The city does and will tow vehicles to ensure emergency vehicles have ample clearance.
Being Prepared:
Please be prepared by acquiring a shovel and sand/salt/cat litter, etc ahead of time. We recommend you do not wait for an inclement event where these items will quickly sell out locally. You may also come to an agreement with a friend or neighbor ahead of time to ease the task. If you are hiring a service such as for driveway clearing, we recommend you do this well ahead of any snowfalls. These vendors will be overwhelmed during any heavy events.
If you are unable/choose not to clear your sidewalks etc:
If you are responsible for your own snow removal as described above, you must hire/request a snow removal company or person/family/neighbor etc to help you. We check for compliance regularly and will clear the snow/ice at your expense if more than 72 hours have passed since the inclement event for the safety of the public and our repair vendors. Cost ranges from $20 to $150+ per event depending on conditions and size of the area to be cleared. Our elderly or disabled residents may contact us to arrange for snow removal at little or no expense.
Some of our homes do not have central air conditioning or Central AC. Our policy on window air conditioners follows.
We do not provide window air conditioners
Except as a temporary courtesy to our central AC homes if the system is being repaired or replaced.
Residents will need to purchase and install their own window AC units. For apartments and homes with windows directly overlooking sidewalks (the sidewalk is directly below the window and the window is more than 6 feet off the ground, we would be happy to assist you in safely installing your AC unit. Please contact us for this service. Dropping an AC unit from 2nd or 3rd story onto a pedestrian walk-way is a very serious matter and we would prefer to do this for you.
Window AC units fall under small appliances in your lease
This means we do not repair or replace them.
Any window unit present in your home when you move in is free for you to use, but you will need to repair or replace it yourself.
Please do not screw window AC baffles to vinyl window sashes.
This is considered damage.
As a Baltimore-based business, we understand the needs of local property investors who don’t want to compromise on expert service and thoughtful management. We’re headed by investors, for investors, and apply our years of experience and inside knowledge to create a property management company tailored to you. Contact us today to get started.
