# Submitting a Maintenance Request

This guide walks through reporting a maintenance issue with your unit or a
common area, checking on a request you've already submitted, and what
happens after you submit one.

> **A note on this guide:** written by actually submitting a real request
> through the live site and checking the result, not just reading the code.
> Screenshots aren't included — screen-capture wasn't available when this
> was written, so screens are described in detail in text instead.

🎥 **See this in the walkthrough video:** [Resident Walkthrough, starting at 0:30](https://myaccount.joantool.com/demo.php?video=resident&t=30)

## Two ways to submit a request

There are normally two ways to get a maintenance issue into the system:

1. **The web form** (covered in full below) — the main way, and the only
   one currently available.
2. **Emailing `maintenance@joantool.com`** directly — this exists in the
   system but **is currently turned off** (a resident's access token was
   accidentally exposed, so this feature was paused as a precaution while
   it's reviewed). If you try emailing a request in right now, it won't be
   picked up. Use the web form until this is turned back on.

## 1. Go to Maintenance

From your dashboard sidebar, click **🔧 Maintenance**. You'll land on a page
titled **"Maintenance"** with the subtitle "Submit and track maintenance
requests for your property."

At the top are two large action cards:
- **Submit New Request** — report a new issue (this is what you'll use).
- **View Schedule** — see upcoming scheduled maintenance/inspections for
  your property (a separate page, not covered here).

Below that is **"My Maintenance Tickets"** — a list of everything you've
submitted before, newest first. If you haven't submitted anything yet,
you'll see *"No maintenance requests yet"* with a **Submit Your First
Request →** button.

Further down, **"Maintenance Documentation"** has links to the
Preventative Maintenance Plan, the Maintenance Schedule, and a Budget
Overview — reference material, not part of submitting a request.

## 2. Submit a request

Click **Submit New Request** (from either the action card or the empty-state
button). You'll land on **"Submit Maintenance Request."**

The form has these fields:

- **Property** — if you only have one property on your account, this shows
  as a plain read-only box with your address already filled in. If you have
  more than one, you'll get a dropdown to pick which one the issue is at.
- **Issue Summary** \* — a short one-line title (e.g. "Leaking faucet in
  master bathroom"). Required.
- **Detailed Description** \* — a full description: when it started, how
  severe it is, any safety concerns. Required.
- **Priority** \* — four click-to-select buttons: **Low**, **Medium**
  (selected by default), **High**, **Urgent**. Each has its own color when
  selected (green/blue/orange/red) so your choice is easy to see at a
  glance.
- **Category** — a dropdown: General, Plumbing, Electrical, HVAC / Heating
  & Cooling, Appliance, Structural, Landscaping / Grounds, Pest Control,
  Other. Defaults to "General."

There is currently **no way to attach a photo or file** to a request — if
your issue would be easier to explain with a picture, describe what you'd
show in the Detailed Description instead.

Click **Submit Request** when you're done, or **Cancel** to go back to the
Maintenance page without submitting.

## 3. Confirmation

If your request goes through, the same page redisplays with a green success
banner: **"Ticket #[number] submitted successfully"**, plus *"Our team has
been notified and will follow up shortly."* From there you can click **View
My Tickets** or **Submit Another**.

Behind the scenes, submitting a request also:
- Sends an email to JoanTool's support team so a real person is notified.
- Sends **you** a confirmation email at your account's registered address,
  with your ticket number and the details you entered.
- Notifies your association's board members in-app (and by email, unless
  they've turned that off) that a new request came in.

**One thing to know:** if you refresh the page right after submitting
(or your browser prompts to "resend" the page), it's possible to
accidentally submit the same request a second time, since there's no
special protection against that yet. If you're not sure whether your
request went through, check **My Maintenance Tickets** instead of
resubmitting.

## 4. Checking on a request

From **Maintenance**, click any ticket in **My Maintenance Tickets** (or
go there from your confirmation screen via **View My Tickets**) to open its
detail page. You'll see:

- The ticket title and its **ticket number** (`#45`, etc.) at the top.
- **Status** — a colored badge: Open (yellow), In Progress (blue),
  Completed (green), or Cancelled (red).
- **Priority** — the same color-coded badge style as the submission form.
- **Category**.
- **Submitted** — how long ago you filed it (e.g. "5 hours ago"). **Note:**
  this figure can currently run several hours ahead of the real time due to
  a known display issue — don't rely on it if the exact timing matters;
  the ticket's actual submission date/time is recorded correctly, just not
  always displayed correctly yet.
- **Last Updated** (only shown if the ticket has been changed since it was
  submitted).
- The full **Description** you entered.
- **Property Information** — your association name and full address.
- **Contact Information** — your name, email, and phone number (if you've
  added one to your profile; otherwise it shows "Not provided").

From here you can also click **🗑 Delete Ticket** if you need to remove a
request — you'll get a browser confirmation popup first ("Are you sure...
this action cannot be undone"). **Be aware:** after confirming, the page
you land on can come back blank or incomplete even though the deletion
itself does go through correctly in the background — if that happens,
just navigate back to **Maintenance** from the sidebar and you'll see the
ticket is gone.

---

That's the full flow: submit a request with a summary, description,
priority, and category; get an email confirmation; track it from your
ticket list; and check back on its detail page for status updates.