Maintenance request form and work order template

How do you use this form and work order?

The top half is for the tenant. Fill it in on screen, or print it blank and leave copies at the office. "Copy request as text" puts every answer on your clipboard so you can paste it into an email, a text or your maintenance log. The bottom half is for you or your technician. The linked request line fills itself from the tenant's date, unit and name, and the labor and materials rows total themselves, tax included.

Nothing is sent anywhere. There is no server behind the form, and if you close the tab, what you typed is gone, so print or save as PDF first. With JavaScript off, the buttons and totals go away, but your browser's print command still prints the sheet, blank for handwriting if you like. Printing puts the work order on its own page.

Compared with the common alternatives: Jotform's maintenance request template needs an account to customize and deploy, and it has no category, urgency, permission-to-enter, pets or emergency guidance. Jobber's work order generator lets you download a PDF without signing up, but asks you to accept terms first, and it has no time in and out, tenant sign-off or link back to a request. This page puts both halves on one sheet.

What makes a good maintenance request process?

• One intake channel. Requests scattered across texts, voicemail and hallway conversations get lost. Pick one place they all end up, even if tenants can reach it several ways.
• The same fields every time. Unit, contact, category, location and a description mean the technician arrives with the right part.
• Permission to enter and pets, asked up front. They decide whether a visit happens on the first trip. Entry notice rules vary by state, so the permission box does not replace any notice your law requires.
• Photos. A picture of the leak or the error code often settles urgency before anyone drives over.
• A confirmation to the tenant. Say you received it and when to expect contact. Many repeat calls are tenants checking that the first one landed.

Is it an emergency or not?

A gas smell, fire, smoke, a carbon monoxide alarm, flooding or sparking is not a form. The tenant should leave, call 911 or the utility, then call you. The form repeats that warning next to the urgency choice. For the full list, with what tenants should do and the state rules behind it, see the maintenance emergency list.

How fast should you respond to each urgency level?

The targets below are common practice, not law, except where a source is named. Your lease, your state and local code, and any program rules (such as HUD assistance) set the real deadlines. This is general information, not legal advice.

Some states and cities set specific standards. Texas requires a diligent effort to repair conditions that materially affect an ordinary tenant's health or safety, once the tenant gives notice and is not behind on rent (Tex. Prop. Code 92.052). New York City sets heat-season and year-round hot water minimums (NYC HPD), and Phoenix requires installed cooling to keep units at or below 82°F with air conditioning or 86°F with evaporative coolers (Phoenix City Code 39-5). Rules change and vary by city, so check your state and local code. More examples are on the emergencies page.

How does a request become a work order?

1. Triage. Read the request, confirm the urgency (tenants over- and under-rate it) and call back on anything marked emergency.
2. Open the work order. Give it a number and fill in the linked request line so the two papers stay together.
3. Assign. Pick a technician or vendor and note how to reach them.
4. Schedule and give notice. Agree a window with the tenant, then record the date and method of any entry notice you gave.
5. Do the work. The technician records time in and out, labor, materials and what was done.
6. Sign off. The tenant signs that the work was done, or notes what is still wrong. Mark follow-up if needed.
7. Close. Set the status to completed and file both pages with photos and receipts.

Should you use digital or paper forms?

For a few dozen units, paper and a folder per property still works, as long as everything lands in the same place. This page is a bridge: tenants and staff can fill it on a phone, and you get a clean printout or PDF without buying anything. Property management software adds tenant portals, history search and vendor assignment, at the cost of a subscription and getting every tenant to log in. If most requests still arrive by phone, the form only helps if someone transcribes the call into it.

What records should you keep?

Keep the request, the work order, photos before and after, and receipts for materials and vendor invoices. Together they show when you were told, what you did and how fast. That record matters in habitability disputes and when you deduct the cost of tenant-caused damage from a security deposit. How long to keep them depends on your state and your tax situation, so check your state's rules or ask your attorney or accountant.

What about calls after hours?

Many requests arrive by phone at night, and most are not emergencies. Our guide on stopping non-emergency calls after hours covers how to sort them. If you want the phone answered for you, Property Answering's AI answering line answers 24/7 from your written rules and emails you a summary with action items minutes after each call, marked urgent when it is. See what answering services cost.

Sources

• HUD, NSPIRE HCV checklist
• Texas Property Code 92.052
• NYC HPD, heat season
• Phoenix cooling ordinance
• Jotform maintenance request template
• Jobber work order template

Frequently asked questions