Rental turnover plumbing checklist for Southwest Florida landlords and property managers

The tenant moved out Friday. The next one, or the next guest, arrives in a week. That window is the only time anyone looks at a unit’s plumbing without a problem forcing them to, and what you find in it decides whether the next call from the property is a request or an emergency. This is the walk-through we suggest: one page, a flashlight, a bottle of food coloring, and your phone.

The walk-through, fixture by fixture

1. Run every fixture. Hot and cold at every faucet for a full minute. Watch the flow, watch how fast the drain takes it, and watch the first draw for discoloration; water that has sat in a vacant unit’s lines comes out rusty or cloudy. Flush every toilet twice.
2. Dye test every toilet. A few drops of food coloring in the tank, then wait 15 minutes without flushing. Color in the bowl means the flapper is leaking, which is the most common source of a surprise water bill in a vacant unit.
3. Look under every sink. Water stains, a swollen cabinet floor, green or white crust on the angle stops, damp trap joints. Turn each angle stop off and back on; one that will not move, or drips when it does, goes on the list.
4. Washer hoses and valves. Rubber hoses get replaced with braided stainless, no exceptions. Look for bulges and cracks at the crimps on the ones you keep. Turn the box valves off and on; a valve that weeps at the stem needs attention.
5. Water heater. Read the age off the label. Confirm there is a drain pan, that it is dry, that the pan drain goes somewhere, and that the relief valve discharge line is not capped. Rust at the base, water in the pan, or a unit past ten years old becomes a budget line, not a surprise.
6. Hose bibs. On and off, check the vacuum breaker, look for a drip at the stem while it runs. Salt air on Fort Myers Beach and the islands eats them.
7. The main shutoff. Find it, turn it, and confirm it actually stops the water. Photograph it with a landmark in the frame. Put the location in the unit file and on a card inside the sink cabinet.
8. Disposal. Run it with water. A hum with no spin is a jam; silence is a tripped reset or a dead motor. Look under it for rust streaks at the body seam; housings rust through from the inside and leak out the bottom.
9. Showers and tubs. Temperature swings, a stiff handle, a drip after shutoff, a diverter that sends water both ways, and the caulk at the tub edge.
10. Slow drains. Fill each sink and tub, pull the stopper, and watch. Note anything sluggish, and note any gurgle from another fixture while it drains.
11. The meter. With everything off, watch the dial for a few minutes. Movement means a leak, and on a slab home that can be under the floor.

Seasonal rentals and vacancy shutoffs

A unit that sits empty through the summer is a unit where a small leak runs for months. Before a long vacancy, shut the main valve, turn the water heater off at the breaker or set a gas unit to vacation, and close the washer valves. Run water in every trap once a month so they do not dry out and let sewer gas into a closed unit; a guest arriving to that smell is the first bad review. Some owners and insurers now favor a leak-detection shutoff on the main. When the unit is reopened, run every fixture until the water runs clear, check the water heater pan, and run the ice maker line.

What to document with photos

Every fixture at turnover with the water running, dated. Every sink cabinet with the door open. The water heater label and pan. The main shutoff. The washer hoses with the date written on them. The meter reading. Any stain that was already there. These photos settle deposit disputes, support an insurance claim, and shorten a plumber’s visit because the history is in the file.

Keep a plumbing file per unit: hose dates, water heater age, last drain cleaning, the shower cartridge model, and the backflow test date.

Older buildings: put a camera on the calendar

Buildings from before 1975 have cast iron drains in the walls and under the slab, and a building you have just taken over usually comes with no history of what condition they are in. Schedule a camera inspection of the main lines and the ground-floor collectors: when you take the property on, before a lease to a restaurant or salon, before you buy, and on a repeating cycle after that. The recording lets you budget a lining or a replacement instead of paying for an emergency in the middle of season. Complexes from the 1980s and 1990s can have polybutylene supply lines, and a leak in one unit means the others have the same pipe and the same clock.

Backflow test dates for the property

A property with an irrigation meter, a fire line, a commercial meter, or a multi-family service has a backflow preventer the utility requires to be tested, generally every year. The utility mails a notice, and if the mailing address on file is the old owner or the wrong office, the notice goes astray and the next letter is a shutoff warning. Put the test date on the property calendar, keep the certificate in the unit file, and make sure the utility has the manager’s address.

One plumber who knows the property

This is where the checklist stops being a form and starts being a relationship. A plumber who has been through the building knows where the mains are, how old each water heater is, what the camera found last time, which units have the difficult angle stops, and when the backflow is due. A midnight call from a guest becomes a call to someone who already knows the building. Set it up once: a list of the properties, access instructions, who can authorize work and up to what limit, and who gets notified. A plumber answers our phone 24 hours a day, and that call goes better with a file already open.

If you manage units in Lee or Collier County and have the list from the last turnover, send it over. We will tell you what to fix now, what to budget, and what to leave alone.