A building caretaker is an advanced level of janitorial services; they are responsible for the day-to-day management of the building. They usually are appropriate for larger buildings with several hundred or more residents. They will act as the location’s onsite representative five days a week, and carry out the following functions.
- Coordinate access for trades.
- Monitor trades onsite.
- Arrange elevator bookings & install pads
- Update intercom system
- Programing fobs as necessary
- Burnt out light bulb changes
- Inform property manager of building deficiencies
- Minor repairs on site: drywall, painting, door handles etc.…
- Minor snow removal and salting of entry points
- Oversee the property lighting and doors to make sure timers are set correctly
- Manage inventory of supplies
- Monitor the parkade and call the towing company when needed
- Emergency call outs
For smaller buildings, a dedicated caretaker is likely excessive for their needs. They may only require a few of these tasks, such as coordinating access for trades and programming fobs, on an intermittent basis. Frequently buildings use residents to provide such services, however accountability and reliability issues often emerge. An economical alternative is to hire a light caretaker who provides some of these functions, as well as janitorial services. This way a building obtains those caretaker services as an incremental cost on top of its regular janitorial service, rather than hiring a dedicated individual for these tasks.