--- title: "How to Set Up Geni for Maintenance" description: "Turn Geni on, choose how much it does without asking, and add a backup contact for emergencies." url: https://support.payrent.com/en/articles/11132589-how-to-set-up-geni-for-maintenance collection: "Maintenance" updated: 2026-10-17 language: en --- # How to Set Up Geni for Maintenance Turn Geni on, choose how much it does without asking, and add a backup contact for emergencies. Turn Geni on, decide how much it can do without asking you, and add a backup contact for emergencies. ## Before you start - Sign in as a landlord. - Maintenance has to be on your plan. Open **Maintenance** from the landlord menu. If you see **This is a Premium Feature**, choose **UPGRADE**. ## Steps 1. Go to **Maintenance**. 2. Select the gear icon (**Maintenance settings**). 3. Turn on **Let Geni coordinate**. 4. If you haven't accepted the current Geni terms, read them and check **I have read and accept the Geni terms**. 5. Optional: enter a **Backup contact**, either a phone number or an email. During an emergency page, PayRent alternates between you and this contact. 6. Optional: set **How long Geni waits for your answer (hours)** to a whole number from 1 to 168. Leave it blank and Geni waits 30 minutes. 7. Choose **How Geni decides**. 8. Optional: set a **Spend limit** and an **Emergency spend limit**. A blank limit means no limit for that check. 9. Select **Save**. ## How Geni decides On every setting, Geni can triage a request and draft a reply. It never marks work verified on its own and never posts a charge to the resident. Those two always stay with you.

Setting	What Geni does without asking
Always ask first	Asks you before it sends a vendor, schedules a visit, handles a quote, pays, or messages the resident or vendor.
Assisted	Can schedule a routine visit when the amount is within the spend limit. Sending a vendor, and any visit that isn't routine, still waits for you.
Autonomous with limits	Can send a vendor, schedule, work a quote, pay, and message the resident or vendor when the amount is within the spend limit. An emergency dispatch uses the emergency spend limit instead.
Fully autonomous	Can take those same actions within the spend limit, emergency dispatch included.

If the amount is missing or the limit is blank, the spend check won't hold Geni back. Paying has its own rules on top of that: Geni can't pay until the work is verified, and it can't pay more than an accepted quote plus 10 percent. See How to Pay a Maintenance Invoice. Once you save, new requests start with Geni on. You can switch Geni off on a single new request, or pause it later on a request you're editing. ## Maintenance policy The **Maintenance policy** section shows the policy Geni is following. - Until you upload your own, Geni uses the PayRent default, and the tooltip says so. - Select **Upload policy** to use your own. PDF, Word, text, and Markdown files up to 4.5 MB are accepted. Once a file is stored, the button reads **Replace policy**. - Select **Remove policy** to go back to the PayRent default. - If you haven't uploaded a file yet, the sparkle button (**Write a policy with Geni**) opens Geni with a prompt to help you write one. Geni reads the policy you upload, but the app doesn't enforce the response-time targets or fee rules written in it. There's one exception. If your policy limits after-hours work to emergencies, Geni asks you before sending a vendor for a non-emergency after hours. The PayRent default includes that limit, and after hours is judged in Pacific time. ## Related - How to File a Maintenance Request - How to Answer a Maintenance Approval - How to Handle a Maintenance Emergency