The Property Access and Entry SOP

Purpose

To govern how this shop obtains, holds, uses, and returns access to managed properties, and how a technician decides whether entering a specific space right now is authorized. Two failures drive this document. The first is the access failure: a tech arrives, cannot get in, and the visit is a total loss including travel. The second is worse and rarer: a tech enters a space they were not authorized to enter that day, and the account, the tenant, and the shop all end up in a dispute where the only record is somebody's memory.

Scope

Applies to every visit to a property under third-party management, including multifamily buildings, single-family rentals, HOA and condo common areas, and vacant or between-tenant units. Applies to keys, fobs, keypad codes, lockbox codes, app-based credentials, and gate or garage remotes.

Does not cover retail residential work where the homeowner is the customer and lets you in. Does not cover a general contractor's site, where site access runs through the GC's own procedure.

Roles and responsibilities

Procedure

1. Establish the access method at account setup, not at the first call

Before the first work order, record for each property in the access register: the access method, who holds the credential, whether tenant contact is permitted directly, the after-hours method, and the name and number of the person to call when access fails.

Push for a per-vendor or per-visit credential rather than a master. A code assigned to your shop can be rotated by the manager when your work ends, which protects them, and it also proves which vendor entered on a given day, which protects you. A shared master code that half the trades in town know is a liability you inherit the moment something goes missing from a unit you visited.

2. Confirm entry authorization on the work order before dispatch

The work order must carry three things before the tech leaves: the property and unit, the access method, and an explicit statement that entry is authorized for this date. A work order that says only "no heat, unit 12B" is not an entry authorization.

For an occupied residential unit, non-emergency entry generally requires the landlord or manager to have served whatever advance notice their state's landlord-tenant law requires, and that duty is theirs, not yours. Your gate is narrow and specific: dispatch does not release the order until the work order or an email from the manager states that notice was served or that the tenant has agreed to the appointment. If neither is present, dispatch asks for it before the truck rolls.

3. Verify at the door before you use a credential

On arrival, confirm three things in this order: the address and unit match the work order, the date matches the authorization, and the access method is the one on the order. Mismatches are common on multi-building sites where unit numbering repeats across buildings, and entering the wrong unit with a working master is the incident this whole document exists to prevent.

Knock and announce, then wait, then knock and announce a second time, even when the unit is recorded as vacant. Records go stale. If an occupant answers, you are now in an occupied-unit visit regardless of what the order said.

4. Handle the hazard at the threshold before anything else

Do not diagnose past a hazard you meet at the door. Named conditions, named actions:

• Gas odor or a hissing sound at the entry. Everyone leaves the unit and the surrounding units immediately. Do not switch anything on or off, do not use light switches, do not use a phone inside the building. From outside, call the gas utility emergency number, then the property manager. Do not re-enter until the utility clears it.
• Standing water in a space with energized equipment or outlets. Do not enter the water. If the panel serving that space is dry, reachable without standing in water, and yours to operate under the work order, de-energize the affected circuits, lock and tag the disconnect, and verify the circuit is dead with a meter tested on a known live source before and after. If the panel is not dry or not reachable on those terms, call the utility for a disconnect and the manager, and keep people out of the space.
• An unattended running appliance or equipment you did not expect to find running. Do not simply switch it off if it serves a life-safety, freeze-protection, or sump function for the building. Photograph it, call the manager, and get an instruction.
• A person in the unit who is impaired, hostile, or asks you to leave. Leave. Do not argue authorization at the door. Call dispatch from the truck and let the manager resolve it. A tenant's refusal is theirs to have; it is not yours to overrule.

5. Log the entry

Every entry gets a record, made at the time, not reconstructed later. The required fields are in step 9. For an unattended entry, meaning no adult occupant is present at any point during the visit, add a photograph of the access point on arrival and a second on departure showing it secured. Unattended entries are where later disputes concentrate, and two photographs settle nearly all of them.

6. Work the scope on the order, and nothing else

Entry is granted for the work described. It is not general permission to inspect the unit, open unrelated cabinets, or address something else you notice. If you find a second issue, photograph it if it is in plain view, report it to the manager, and let them open a second work order.

The exception is a condition that is actively causing damage or endangering an occupant, such as an active leak or an obvious gas or electrical hazard. Stabilize that, using the actions in step 4 where they apply, then report it immediately. See related guidance on stabilization authority in the after-hours article.

7. Secure and depart

Return every space to its found state: interior doors, closet and mechanical room doors, gates, and the unit entry itself. Test the lock after you set it rather than assuming. Leave the required leave-behind notice per the account's rule (some managers require a door hanger on every entry, occupied or not).

If you moved a tenant's belongings to reach equipment, put them back and photograph the area before you leave. If you could not put something back, say so on the record and tell the manager the same day.

8. Return the credential the same shift

Any physical key or fob issued from the board returns to the board by end of shift. A credential not returned by end of shift is reported to the property manager before their office closes that day, not the next morning. That is a per-key, per-day standard, and the reason for the same-day rule is that a manager who learns of a missing key at 4:30pm can decide about a lock change on their own timeline; one who learns at 9am the next day has already had an unaccounted night.

Report a credential that does not work the same day too, even when you got in another way. A failing code is the leading indicator of a wasted trip next week.

9. The access record: required fields and a filled example

Fields: property and unit, date, arrival and departure times, technician, access method used, occupancy at entry, authorization reference, access point condition on arrival, access point condition on departure, leave-behind, credential returned, exceptions.

A completed record for a real-shaped visit:

Read what that record does. It fixes the entry to a date and a work order, it proves the notice question was asked and answered before entry, it establishes the door was secure when the tech left, and it puts a pre-existing crack on the record on the day of the visit rather than in a dispute three weeks later. The exceptions row is the field that most shops leave blank and the one that most often ends an argument.

10. Escalate a lost credential immediately, on a fixed path

A lost key or fob is a same-hour call to the property manager, from the field, by the technician or the account owner. Not an email, not the next business day. State what is missing, which properties it opens, when it was last confirmed in hand, and where it was likely lost.

The manager decides whether to re-key. That is their call and their client's, not yours. Your obligation is speed and completeness of the report, and your record of the call is what protects the relationship if the decision is expensive.

11. Audit the register annually and after any staff change

Once a year, and within one week of any technician leaving the shop, reconcile the access register against what is physically on the key board and against the codes and app credentials in use. Ask each manager to confirm which credentials they still show as issued to you.

Return anything you no longer need. Holding credentials for properties you no longer serve carries all of the risk and none of the work, and a manager who finds a stale credential during their own audit will draw conclusions about your controls generally.

References

• See related: Customer No-Access Protocol: Locked-Out Scenario; The Tenant Notification SOP
• See related: The Three-Party Problem in Property Management Work; Making a Property Safe Before You Leave
• Gas utility standard emergency guidance: evacuate, avoid ignition sources and electrical switching, call from outside the building
• OSHA 29 CFR 1910.147 (general industry, lockout/tagout during servicing and maintenance); construction work falls under 29 CFR Part 1926 instead