A copy-and-paste form that gets you the photo, the location and the urgency up front, plus what to do with it once it arrives.
A good maintenance request form asks for the tenant's contact details, the location and description of the problem, when it started, whether anything is at risk, photos or video, and permission to enter. Add an emergency check at the top. The template below does all of that and can be pasted into an email, a Google Form or a printed page.
Most bad maintenance days start with a vague text: "the sink is broken." You then spend the next hour asking which sink, how broken, and whether water is on the floor. A short form fixes that by collecting the answers once, in the same order, every time. If you're still deciding how requests should reach you at all, start with how to set up a request process tenants will actually follow.
Copy this and adjust it for your property. Keep it to one page; a long form gets skipped.
MAINTENANCE REQUEST Your name: Property address / unit: Today's date: Best phone or email to reach you: 1. EMERGENCY CHECK If you smell gas, see smoke or fire, have flooding you can't stop, or see sparking or exposed wiring, leave the home and call 911 or your local emergency number first. Then contact me. [ ] This is an emergency and I have already called the right emergency service. 2. WHAT IS WRONG? Please describe the problem (what is happening, what you see or hear): Where in the home is it (room, fixture, appliance)? When did it start? Has it happened before? Is it getting worse? [ ] Yes [ ] No [ ] Not sure 3. IS ANYTHING AT RISK? [ ] Water is leaking or spreading [ ] No heat / no cooling / no hot water [ ] A door or window won't lock [ ] Nothing urgent, but it needs fixing 4. PHOTOS OR VIDEO Please attach at least one photo or short video (a wide shot plus a close-up helps). Include any model number or label you can see. 5. ACCESS [ ] You may enter to make the repair if I'm not home [ ] Please give me notice first Pets in the home (type / name): Best days and times for a visit: Anything else I should know (alarm code, gate, parking)?
| Section | What it saves you |
|---|---|
| Emergency check | Sends gas, fire, flooding and electrical hazards to emergency services first, not to your inbox. See Is This a Maintenance Emergency? for how to triage. |
| What, where, when | Lets you tell a loose handle from a failing valve before you pick up the phone. "Has it happened before?" feeds the repeat-failure question in the repair or replace framework. |
| Is anything at risk | A quick urgency read: spreading water or no heat is same-day; a sticky drawer is not. |
| Photos or video | Often enough for a vendor to quote or for you to spot a simple self-fix. Also useful later as a record. |
| Access and pets | Avoids a wasted trip and a surprised dog. Entry rules depend on your lease and local law, so confirm yours. |
A Google Form, a shared email address or a printed copy on the move-in packet all work. One channel is better than three. Tell tenants at move-in and put it in the lease packet.
Reply the same day, even if only to say "received, I'll update you by tomorrow." A quick acknowledgment cuts follow-up texts more than any other habit.
Sort into emergency, urgent (within a day or two) and routine. If it's a leak or no heat, act first and tidy the paperwork after.
Add the date, the problem and the outcome to a running log per property. A spreadsheet works, as does a request history.
Tell the tenant when it is scheduled and when it is done. Keep the form and the photos with the log.
The form is only the intake. The next step is deciding who handles it and what the tenant hears back. A written plan helps here, and What a Good Maintenance Action Plan Looks Like shows what to include. If scheduling is the hard part, read how to schedule repairs with tenants and contractors.
If you'd rather not run a form, a spreadsheet and a text thread, Guardian Landlord's tenant portal replaces the form: tenants submit a request with photos from a link, with no app download, and see their requests and scheduled visits. Guardian's AI action plan then gives you a first read on urgency, suggested self-fixes where safe, recommended vendors from your own list and a pre-drafted tenant message. You review and approve it, and a real person makes the final call. Every request stays in the property's history.
At minimum: tenant name and unit, contact method, a description of the problem and where it is, when it started, whether anything is leaking or unsafe, photos or video, and permission to enter. An emergency check at the top sends true emergencies to emergency services first.
It depends on your lease and local law. Many landlords require written requests, which can be email or a form, because they create a record. Some places have rules about how requests must be accepted, so check yours.
You can, but texts are easy to lose and hard to search. A common approach is to accept a text but ask the tenant to follow up with the form or email, or to log the text yourself so there is one record per request.
Guardian Landlord's tenant portal collects requests with photos, then gives you an AI-drafted action plan and a full request history. Try it free for 3 months, no credit card.
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