Maintenance work orders
A repair from an owner's first report through triage, an insured contractor, the work itself, and the invoice — with a record at every stage.
Maintenance is where a strata corporation is judged. Owners forgive a slow decision far more readily than a repair nobody ever answered for.
Maintenance.
The stages
A work order moves through five states, and the current one is visible to everyone who can see it — including the owner who reported it.
| Stage | Means |
|---|---|
| Requested | Reported, not yet looked at |
| Triaged | Assessed, priority set, decided who does it |
| Assigned | A vendor has it |
| In progress | Work under way |
| Closed | Done, invoiced, finished |
The status is the communication
Most maintenance complaints are really complaints about silence. An owner who can see their request move from requested to triaged to assigned stops emailing the council, because the question they were asking has been answered.
How a work order starts
An owner reports it. From their portal: describe the issue, add a photo. It arrives as requested.
Council raises it. MaintenanceNew work order for anything found on inspection, arising from a directive, or scheduled from your component schedule.
Emergencies don't go in a form
Flood, fire, gas, no heat in winter — the emergency contact your corporation publishes, immediately. Raise the work order afterwards so there's a record of what happened and what it cost.
Triage
The judgement step, and worth doing properly.
Is it the corporation's responsibility?
Common property is the corporation's; inside a lot is usually the owner's — but your bylaws govern, and the boundary is exactly where disputes live. When it's genuinely unclear, decide it at council and minute it.
How urgent?
Safety and active water damage come first, whatever else is queued.
Which fund?
Routine repair is operating. A major planned replacement is the reserve. Decide before the invoice arrives, not after.
Who does it?
A vendor from your directory. On the Council plan, AI vendor match suggests one from your directory based on the trade and who's currently insured.
Assigning a vendor
Check the coverage first
Never assign a contractor whose insurance (COI) or WorkSafeBC coverage has lapsed. If they're injured or cause damage on your property while uncovered, the corporation is exposed. ManageStrata tracks both expiry dates on the vendor record and warns you before they lapse — which is the main reason to keep the directory current.
For anything substantial, get more than one quote and attach them to the work order. Owners ask, and "we got three quotes" carries far more weight when you can produce them.
While the work happens
Keep the record on the work order rather than in an inbox: quotes, scheduling, photographs before and after, complications, the decision to vary the scope. The work order is what a future council will read when the same component fails again.
For anything that disrupts the building — water shut off, scaffolding, parkade closed — post an announcement. A work order can be announced to owners directly.
Closing it out
Confirm the work is actually done
Ideally someone looks.
Record the expense
Against the right fund, linked to the work order. Payments and expenses →
Link it to the component
If it was a reserve item — a roof, a boiler, a membrane — record it against the component. That's what keeps the next reserve projection honest.
File the warranty
In the document library. A warranty nobody can find is a warranty nobody claims on.
Close it
The owner who reported it sees it close.
Maintenance Triage
CouncilThe Maintenance Triage agent is included on the Council plan and above.
It reviews incoming requests, proposes a priority, and suggests an insured vendor from your directory. Every suggestion is added or dismissed by a person, and anything added becomes a tracked action item in the audit trail. See AI agents.
Recurring work
Annual inspections and servicing are better handled as tracked duties on the compliance calendar, which reminds you before they're due. Raise the work order when the duty comes round, so you keep both the reminder and the record of who did it and what it cost.
Patterns worth noticing
Three separate leaks on the same stack is one problem, not three work orders. The history is there to be read: before approving a fourth repair to the same component, look at what the first three cost. That's usually the moment a repair becomes a reserve project.
Still stuck? Open Support in the top bar of the app, ask the Assistant, or contact us.