February 9, 2025 • 7 min read
Writing an After-Hours Emergency Plan Tenants Actually Trust
By Rebecca Wilson
Tenants don't decide whether to renew based on your best day. They decide based on the night the chiller failed and how cleanly you handled it. A written after-hours emergency plan — three pages, tested — moves that decision in your favor.
Page one: the phone tree
One number for tenants. That number rings a real human between 7 AM and 6 PM and a tested answering service after hours. The service has, in writing, the criteria for paging the on-call manager versus dispatching the on-call contractor.
Trade-out the criteria with your contractor. We use a three-tier definition (life-safety, building-systems-down, comfort) and it eliminates 80% of the "should I have called?" awkwardness.
Page two: the response matrix
For each of your critical systems — HVAC, electrical, fire/life-safety, plumbing, vertical transport — list:
- Primary contractor
- Secondary contractor
- Expected response time
- What gets paid out of operating versus reserve
This page should be a printed sheet. Not a SharePoint link. Power goes out and so does your link.
Page three: tenant communication
Draft three short emails in advance: "we're aware," "we have an ETA," and "we're done." Pre-approval them through your asset manager. When the night happens, you're editing for facts, not writing under pressure.
Test it once a year
Pick a Wednesday in March, call the after-hours number, and time the response. Walk the phone tree end-to-end. Anything over six minutes from first dial to a contractor on the phone is worth fixing.
The plan isn't impressive. The fact that you tested it is.