Rental Property Maintenance in Tacoma, on Washington’s Legal Repair Clock
Washington law gives a landlord 24 hours, 72 hours or 10 days to fix a problem, depending on what broke. We manage to that clock on every home we handle in Tacoma and Pierce County.
Maintenance is where owners lose money quietly
Most owners do not lose money on one big repair. They lose it on the slow ones. A drip becomes a subfloor. A furnace nursed through one more winter fails in January, when every HVAC company in Pierce County is booked. A tenant stops calling because nothing ever happens, then leaves at the end of the lease and takes twelve months of rent with them.
The Washington repair clock, RCW 59.18.070
This is the part almost nobody publishes. Under RCW 59.18.070, once a tenant gives written notice of a defect, the landlord has a set time to begin remedial action. The clock depends on what failed. It is not a suggestion and the lease cannot change it.
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24 hours
No hot water. No cold water. No heat. No electricity. Or any defect that is imminently hazardous to life.
02
72 hours
Refrigerator. Range and oven. Or a major plumbing fixture supplied by the landlord.
03
10 days
Everything else covered by the landlord’s duties.
The clock starts on written notice, so the notice has to reach someone who can act. That is the failure point for self-managing owners and for managers who route everything to a voicemail box. A text to an owner who is on a plane is still written notice, and the clock is already running.
We log every request in AppFolio with a time stamp, so there is a record of when notice came in, when a vendor was assigned and when the work was done. If a repair is ever disputed, that record is the defense.
What happens if the clock is missed
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A tenant who gives proper written notice and gets no response has remedies under RCW 59.18, including repair and deduct, and a defense if the tenancy later goes sideways. Meeting the deadline is cheaper than every alternative.
A 24/7 emergency line, answered by a person
Our office hours are Monday through Friday, 9:00am to 4:00pm, with weekends by appointment. Emergencies do not keep office hours, so maintenance emergencies route to a 24/7 emergency line.
We define an emergency the way the statute does, and we tell tenants at move-in exactly what counts. Everything else is logged and scheduled the next business day.
Inspections, and what each one is for
Move-in inspection A written condition checklist, signed by us and the tenant, with date stamped photos of every room. Washington requires this. Under RCW 59.18.260, a landlord may not collect a security deposit without a written rental agreement and a signed written checklist describing the condition of the unit, with a copy given to the tenant. Skip it and you can be liable for the full deposit at move-out, no matter what the home looks like.
Periodic inspection An visual inspection is completed on a set schedule with written notice to the tenant. We look for water, detector status, unauthorized occupants or pets, filter changes, and anything the tenant stopped reporting.
Move-out inspection Condition compared against the signed move-in checklist, photographed the same way, and used to build the itemized deposit statement. Washington gives you 30 days from the end of the tenancy, with estimates or paid invoices, under RCW 59.18.280. Not 21 days. That changed in 2023 and much of the published guidance is still wrong.
Full detail is on our page covering how our rental inspections work.
Who approves what, and when we just fix it
You should never be woken up to approve a water heater. You should also never find out about a $3,000 bill after the fact.
We use a standing approval threshold. At or below it, we handle the repair and it appears on your monthly statement with the invoice attached. Above it, we call or email you first with the diagnosis, the quote and our recommendation. The only exception is a true emergency, where waiting would cause more damage or leave the home unsafe. Then we stop the damage first and reach you immediately after.
What we do not mark up
This is the section most management companies leave out, so read it closely.
We charge no fee for any of these: account setup, move-in inspection, exterior drive-by inspection, annual walk-through, move-out inspection, security deposit disposition, or the 1099 and end of year statement.
Home maintenance support, rent collection, tenant screening, owner portal access, your monthly owner statement, ACH owner payment, utility management and eviction assistance are all included in our management fee. They are not add-ons.
On third-party vendor invoices, we add a maintenance coordination fee of $35 or 5% of the total maintenance bill. We disclose that because you deserve to know it before you sign. Not after the first invoice.
Proof and guarantees
Our four guarantees back the work, including the Leasing Guarantee: if a tenant does not fulfill at least 9 months of the lease term, we find a new tenant for free. Read our four guarantees for the full terms.
Compare the whole fee structure on what we charge, see our full property management services, or request a free rental analysis. If a tenancy ever goes wrong, eviction protection is included. Tacoma owners should also read the Tacoma rental housing code.
Need help with maintenance?
Small repairs turn into big bills when nobody is watching. Our team handles maintenance requests, works with trusted local vendors, and inspects your home on a regular schedule to catch problems early.
- Regular inspections. We check on your home and share what we find, so you always know its condition.
- A real person reads every message. No bots, just our local team.
- Quick replies. Most messages get a response within one business day.
- No pressure. Property owners can ask questions with no obligation.
TESTIMONIALSThe Trusted Choice for
Property Maintenance
Cassidy and Celina have been absolutely amazing through the whole rental/move in processes. I’ve been renting from Red Roof Rentals for almost a year now and am extremely happy with the team. Definitely check them out! You won’t regret it!
Awesome and amazing service along with great personal experience with staff especially Cassidy who was such a great free spirited person!!
I appreciate this property management on their great customer service and for helping us throughout the process when we had the ok that we were approved, Cassidy is such a great worker and helped me throughout the process she is very professional and just an awesome worker making everything easygoing.
Cassidy was very helpful! She made everything very stress free and she was very thorough with everything! :)
Cassidy was a great help!
They made setting everything up very easy, and Cassidy was a super great help!
I have had a great experience moving into my new place with Red Roof Rentals. The team is friendly, communicative, and so helpful! I am happy to be renting from them and appreciate their great service!
Great people all around! Helped us get into our home pretty fast.
I have never worked with a more pleasant property management company. Cassidy and Celina are incredibly responsive, knowledgeable, informative, and very friendly. They made the rental process go so smoothly and relieved a lot of the stress of a very stressful process. I can’t say enough great things about this team.
Thank you guys!
Everyone was super nice and friendly, I've never worked with a management company that's so hassle free. They got our move-in set up quickly and they made the process smooth and enjoyable.
My family and I recently moved into one of their apartment complex and Cassidy from the office was absolutely wonderful throughout the whole process. Her team was incredibly accommodating with our move in situation and got us in exactly when we wanted to be. I am so happy with the whole experience.
Red Roof has always been pleasant to work with! Highly recommend!
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FAQ
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It depends on what broke. Under RCW 59.18.070, after written notice from the tenant a landlord has 24 hours for no hot or cold water, no heat, no electricity or an imminently hazardous defect. It is 72 hours for a refrigerator, range and oven, or a major plumbing fixture. It is 10 days for everything else.
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No. We use a standing approval threshold set in your management agreement. Repairs at or below it are handled and shown on your monthly statement with the invoice attached. Anything above it, we contact you with a diagnosis and a quote first. True emergencies are stabilized, then reported right away.
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We run four types: a signed move-in condition inspection, periodic interior inspections with written notice, exterior drive-by checks, and a move-out inspection photographed against the move-in checklist. There is no fee for any of them, and the move-in checklist is legally required before a deposit can be collected.
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What we can say today is that inspections carry no fee, there is no setup fee, no deposit disposition fee and no end of year statement fee.
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No heat, no hot or cold water, no electricity, an active leak, a sewage backup, a gas odor, a door or lock that will not secure the home, or any imminently hazardous condition. Those routes to our emergency line at any hour. Everything else is scheduled the next business day.
Let’s look at your property
Tell us the address and we will tell you what it should rent for, what we would want addressed first, and what management would cost. We respond within 24 hours.
Call 253.222.3387 or email support@redroofrentals.com. We are at 14208 Pacific Ave., Unit #2, Tacoma, WA 98444.