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Missoula Housing Authority

Maintenance

Missoula Housing Authority’s Maintenance Technicians are skilled technicians able to perform the repairs necessary to maintain the dwelling unit as well as the complexes in decent, safe and sanitary conditions. For more information regarding the tenant/maintenance relationship, please review your Affordable Housing Tenant Handbook.

Have a maintenance concern? Please contact your property manager to submit a work order. You’ll need to provide a brief description of the problem, your address, name, phone number, and whether our maintenance technicians have permission to enter your unit if you’re not home. If you have a maintenance emergency, please call the emergency maintenance line. If your maintenance emergency is life threatening, your health/safety is at risk, or your personal property is being vandalized, please call 911 for emergency services.

Maintenance Tips



  1. When calling your Property Manager to submit a work order, indicate whether or not maintenance has permission to enter your unit if you’re not home. It is easier and quicker for maintenance to address your work order if they are able to enter if you’re not home.

  2. Call in work orders as things happens. The expectation of tenants is you report a maintenance concern within 48 hours.

  3. Review the Emergency Call list criteria before calling the emergency maintenance line.

  4. Give someone a spare key to your unit. Our maintenance staff does not do lock-outs and a lock smith is very expensive. Have an extra key with a trusted person in case you forget yours.

  5. In the Autumn season, remove hoses from outside faucets.

  6. Upon move-in, do a thorough move-in inspection taking notes and pictures about the condition of the unit. This will help you remember what condition it needs to be in when you move out.

  7. In the Spring and Summer seasons, keep your lawn picked up (toys, bikes, pet waste) to make it easier for our lawn crews to maintain the landscaping.

  8. Absolutely NO SMOKING any substance in the units.

  9. Have a plunger handy in case your toilet gets clogged.


Tips to reduce energy use (courtesy of Northwestern Energy):



  1. Compare your energy usage on your billing statement from month to month and from year to year to become aware of what impacts your energy use.

  2. Evaluate your insulation levels to determine if you have enough to keep you warm in the winter and cool in the summer. In the winter, cold floors and walls are a sign of a poorly insulated home.

  3. Check your hot water heater’s temperature to make sure it’s safe and efficient — 120 degrees is plenty!

  4. Check your refrigerator and freezer temperatures to make sure the refrigerator is set between 37 and 40 degrees F and your freezer temperature is between 0 and 5 degrees F.

  5. Check your heating equipment to make sure it is working properly and clean or replace the furnace filters.

  6. Inspect your windows and doors for air leaks. If you see daylight around a door or window frame, then the door or window leaks. Seal up the leaks by caulking, adding weather stripping, or installing a door sweep. Visit our How-To Videos page for videos on how to assist you with energy saving projects.

  7. Wrap your hot water tank and install pipe insulation on the first 10 feet of the hot water pipe.

  8. Install low-flow faucet aerators and showerheads. Visit our How-To Videos page for videos on how to assist you with energy saving projects.

  9. Replace incandescent light bulbs that are used more than three hours a day with energy-efficient CFLs or LEDs. Visit our How-To Videos page for videos on how to assist you with energy saving projects.

  10. See what rebates or tax credits may be available for qualifying insulation measures, programmable thermostats, and high efficiency natural gas equipment here.


Potential Fire Hazards



  1. Cooking and smoking cause most residential fires.

  2. In addition to keeping your stovetop clean, remember to keep flammable materials, such as potholders, towels, newspapers, and plastic bags, away from the stove.

  3. Do not leave the stove unattended when you are cooking. Never use water to put out a grease fire; instead, cover the pot with a lid to smother the fire.

  4. Never put metal objects in the microwave.

  5. To avoid electrical fires, replace all frayed, cracked, or broken electrical cords with new ones, and do not plug more than one large appliance into a single electrical outlet.


Bed Bug Education


Bed bugs are small insects with flat, wingless, oval-shaped bodies. They like to hide in small cracks and crevices close to a human environment. They hide in numerous places including mattresses, furniture, clothes, linens, cardboard, electrical boxes and outlets, and behind wallpaper, picture frames, and baseboards. An early warning indicator of bed bug presence is small reddish-brown fecal spots on bed linens and mattresses. Bed bugs also leave behind molted skins and white, sticky eggs. Another sign of bed bugs is red and itchy bites, usually on the arms or shoulders. Bed bugs do not transmit disease. To prevent bed bug infestations, we suggest the following:

  1. Keep your home clean and clutter free.

  2. Conduct regular inspections yourself.

  3. Never pick up discarded furniture from the street, ally, or near a dumpster.

  4. Do not purchase second-hand furniture.

  5. When staying at a hotel or friend’s house, perform an inspection of your sleeping area. Keep clothing confined to your suitcase, away from the bed and off the floor.


Mold


Mold is a fungus that grows on, and sometimes in, damp surfaces and objects. In nature, mold helps break down dead material and can be found growing on soil, foods, plant matter, and other items. Mold produces microscopic cells called “spores,” which are very tiny and spread easily through the air. Mold is most likely to grow where there is water or dampness, such as in bathrooms. Mold usually appears in its early stages as black circles or blotches. Most types of mold that are routinely encountered are not hazardous to healthy individuals. In order to reduce the incidence of mold and mildew, protect your own health and the condition of your unit, we suggest the following:

  1. Keep the humidity low and the temperature down.

  2. Use your stove only for cooking, never for heating.

  3. Cover pots when cooking and run your exhaust vent hood fan.

  4. Provide adequate ventilation and use fans.

  5. Make sure your bathroom fan is cleaned of any accumulated dust from the vent cover in order to improve circulation.

  6. Run the bathroom fan for 10–15 minutes after you shower or run a bath in order to remove excess moisture from the air.

  7. Clean your unit regularly and thoroughly.


Resources


Energy Winterization
Energy Bill Assistance Services
NorthWestern Energy Residential Services

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