Emergency Maintenance After Hours: A Sane Policy | RentAdminly

What counts as a real emergency, what doesn't, and how to write a policy that protects your tenants without burning you out at 2am.

By Sarah Chen | April 28, 2026

What counts as a real emergency, what doesn't, and how to write a policy that protects your tenants without burning you out at 2am.

The 2am phone call

Every landlord eventually gets a panicked midnight call. Sometimes it is a flooded bathroom. Sometimes it is a clogged sink. The difference is whether you stay up all night and whether you should have.

A clear, written emergency policy makes this decision before the call comes.

!Tenant making an emergency call to landlord

What is actually an emergency

An emergency is a situation that:

  • **Threatens life or safety** (gas leak, fire, electrical sparking, carbon monoxide)
  • **Causes active property damage** that will worsen materially within hours (active water leak, sewage backup, no heat in winter)
  • **Locks the tenant out of basic habitability** (no power, no running water, no heat below a state-specific temperature, broken exterior door or lock)

    • Everything else can wait until the next business day.

    What is not an emergency (no matter how it feels at midnight)

  • A clogged drain or running toilet (annoying, not damaging if shut off)
  • A broken appliance other than HVAC in extreme weather
  • A pest sighting (urgent for treatment scheduling, not for response)
  • A noise complaint about a neighbor
  • A non-leaking ceiling stain
  • WiFi or cable issues
  • A tenant locked out of their own unit (charge a callout fee, do not cover this)

    • Putting these in writing — in your lease addendum and in the welcome email — sets the expectation before the late-night call.

    The policy template

    A w

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