Colder Weather & Your Rental Home's Heating System
What's that burning smell?
Now that temperatures are falling, many of us are firing up our heating systems for the first time in months. For many of you, that first rush of warm air may come with a burning odor. That smell is most common when you turn on your heating unit for the first time of the season. After a long period of time without use, dust and other debris can settle on the heat exchanger, burners and other components. You may get a smoky odor as these particles burn off.
Not to worry! The odor should stop once all the dust and other particles in your ducts have burned away. If the smell lingers over time or gets worse, turn off your unit and contact Stone Oak's maintenance department - 512-617-6766 ext-5.
Stone Oak's Holiday Hours
As we approach the end of the year and the holiday season we wanted to remind our residents of our holiday hours. Please review the schedule below. Stone Oak employees will not be available on the following dates & times. Please note that if an emergency takes place or if you have an urgent request you can contact Stone Oak's emergency line.
Thanksgiving | In November, our offices will be closed all day on Wednesday the 24th & Thursday the 25th. We will have a limited crew on hand for Friday the 26th.
Christmas Eve | Our offices will be closed on Friday, December 24th.
New Year's Eve | Our offices will be closed on Friday, December 31st.
Please keep this in mind as we enter the holiday season here at the end of the year.
Resident Benefit Package
We’ve had many tenants ask us if we could report their rent payments to help improve their credit, supply A/C filters, offer rewards for on-time rent payments, and offer low-cost renter’s insurance.
Great news! We are very close to putting together a program that will offer all of this and more. Our goal is to have this in place to offer by January 1, 2022. The details will be available soon, so please make sure to check our next tenant statement blog post!
Important Move-Out Reminder
If you have provided a Notice to Vacate, please be sure to turn off AutoPay at the same time. We DO NOT have the ability to stop your payment on our end. If the payment goes through you can always contact your bank to try and have this charge reversed. This method will take a few days to see your funds returned to your account. If Stone Oak receives these funds they will be returned to you once we've processed your deposit disposition, which can take up to 30 days.
To avoid any hassle or confusion, please be sure to turn off auto-pay once you let us know you are moving out!
Equipment at Your Property
As the busy season has come to an end we are catching up on retrieving equipment that may still remain at any occupied units. In an effort to ensure nothing is missed, please contact your property manager if you need to have any equipment that needs to be retrieved.
Thank you for being a resident of a Stone Oak rental property! Please don't hesitate to contact our staff if we can help with anything.
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Routine Maintenance Reminders
- Maintenance Requests: We still receive a lot of maintenance requests that state something vague like "washer" or "AC" without any other info about the actual issue. We cannot act on requests like this and will require that you provide more info, so any request like this will only delay a resolution to the issue. Make sure you provide as much info as possible in your request including pics if possible.
- Maintenance Portal: Please make a list of any items you want to submit, and then list all issues together as one request including as much info as possible and attach photos if applicable. We will then evaluate whether they should be split up or not.
- Smoke and CO Alarms: As a reminder don't ever unplug and remove smoke detectors because they are beeping. Change the batteries and if that doesn't work please notify us. We find a lot of tenants unplug them and bury them in a closet or drawer instead of replacing batteries.
- A/C Filters: Make sure to check and change every month or as required by the type of filter. If any HVAC systems in your home have a reusable filter you are still required to clean them periodically, so please make sure they are kept clean.
- Toilets: "Flushable" Wipes CANNOT be flushed. Do not put anything down the drains except water, human waste, and regular toilet paper. Food, toys, feminine products, wipes, towels, wrappers, condoms, and other objects do not break apart and go down the drain. Clogs of the plumbing system may be charged back to you, so it is best to avoid this by not putting anything down any of the drains aside from water and human waste.
- Disposal Systems: This includes using the sink disposal as a garbage chute. These appliances are not meant to dispose of large quantities of food and should only be used as a last resort after all food items are scraped off dishes into a compost bin or trash can.
- Drainage: Shower, bath, and sink drains can get clogged up over time with hair and other organic matter. Do not use Draino-type products as they are extremely acidic and will do more harm than good by damaging the pipes while usually failing to fix the drainage issue. The best way to address this is to use a disposable drain snake that can be obtained from any hardware store for a couple of dollars. Please note that if we send out a vendor for this and it turns out to be this very issue you may be charged back for the cost. Here is a video on how to use those - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOb4MJ6widg
- Emergency Maintenance: this extension should not be called unless you have an issue involving Flood, Blood, or Fire. Do not call the emergency line to follow up on existing work orders or submit a new request that is not an emergency. In case of an emergency call 911 if needed and then contact us after everyone is safe. Remember that we do not monitor emails after hours, so if you submit something considered an emergency online and do not call we may not know until the next business day.
Other Maintenance Notes:
If you'd like to inquire about, or update an existing request, submit the form at stoneoakmgmt.com/maintenance or call 512-617-6766 ext-5.
Maintenance time frames continue to be extended due to the pandemic. Please allow at least 5 business days before requesting an update from our team unless it is an emergency.
For basic DIY tips and tricks to solve some issues quickly, visit our DIY rental property maintenance page.
Your Tenant Portal & Electronic Statements
The system will generate a statement even if you're moving out, so there is no need to contact us if you receive this and are moving. All charges, including any prorated rent, will be adjusted as needed when the deposit is processed.
If you are not using the portal app that keeps you logged in please take a look at the linked flyer for more info. This can eliminate forgotten passwords, and help with easy updates/access to maintenance requests and all other account details.
AppFolio Tenant Portal Information
