Every hour a leak waits, the building pays for it.
Water comes through a ceiling at 2:14 a.m. Choose when someone answers, and watch where the leak ends up against the 24 to 48 hours the US Environmental Protection Agency gives a commercial building to dry out before mold.5
When does someone answer the call?
6 h 16 m
The water runs until someone reads the message at 8:30 a.m. Only then is a plumber called, and the drying clock has been running all night.
Rushproof's 10 minutes is how a night runs on the desk, from the call to the moment a plumber presses 1 twice to accept. The other two are the hours from 2:14 a.m. to a message read at 8:30 a.m.
What a slow call costs, in numbers.
Four figures from Canadian insurers, a tenant survey and a leasing study. Each one is linked at the bottom of this page.
- $120,000
One Canadian insurer's average commercial water damage claim, as reported by Aon.1
Reported in 2019Your plumbers are rung while the caller is still on the line.
- 50%
Of Gallagher Canada's commercial property claims are water. Its large high-rise water claims have tripled in cost since 2013.2
Reported in 2020Water calls go straight to your plumbers, in your order, until one accepts.
- 1 in 5
Office, retail, industrial and medical office maintenance requests take more than 24 hours to resolve, in Kingsley tenant survey data.3
Reported in 2025Every call is answered when it comes in, and anything that can wait is in your inbox by 7:02.
- Up to 3times
What losing and replacing a tenant can cost an owner, compared with renewing the lease, according to JLL.4
Published in 2012The caller gets a text when a trade accepts, so a tenant is never left wondering.
A record that answers for the night.
Ontario's Occupiers' Liability Act puts a duty on whoever controls a building to take reasonable care that the people in it, and their property, are reasonably safe.6 Ontario courts have stressed how central an occupier's systems of maintenance and inspection are when a claim is decided.7
Rushproof writes that system down as it happens. Every call is logged with the time of each step: who called, what was wrong, who was rung, who did not answer, and the minute a trade accepted. When an insurer, an owner or a lawyer asks what happened that night, the answer is already in writing.
Cedar Row Exchange, suite 210Water
- 2:14:06Call answered. Night security on the line.
- 2:15:12Everyone safe. No one hurt.
- 2:18:40Plumber 1 rung.
- 2:21:03Plumber 1, no answer. Plumber 2 rung.
- 2:24:19Plumber 2 accepted. Text sent to security.
- 7:02:00Report sent to the property manager.
What tenants call about after hours.
The desk sorts every call by what is wrong, never by the hour, then follows the plan you approve for that building.
Water
A leak from a roof drain, a riser or the suite above. Your plumbers are rung first, while the caller is still on the line.
Power
A floor, a corridor or the parkade gone dark. Your on-call manager is rung.
Heat
No heat in an occupied building in winter. Your on-call manager is rung, and how cold it is inside is written down.
Doors and security
A main door or a parkade gate that won't lock. Your on-call manager is rung.
Fire panel
A panel showing trouble or beeping through the night. Your on-call manager is rung.
Gas, fire or someone trapped
9-1-1 first, before a single question. Then it is written down and flagged at the top of your report.
The tenant's equipment goes to the tenant.
A restaurant's walk-in cooler or a tenant's own server room belongs to the tenant. When a call is about equipment a tenant owns, Rushproof sends it to that tenant's own contacts, and your trades are left for the building.
Set up building by building.
Each building set as commercial.
Commercial buildings get their own emergency plan, separate from your residential buildings, on the same desk and the same Switchboard.
Suites and tenants on record.
Each suite is kept with its tenant and their contacts, so the desk knows who is calling and who to ring.
Your approved trades, in your order.
It keeps ringing until someone picks up and presses 1 twice to accept, then moves down your list if they don't.
One report by 7:02.
Every call, who was rung, and the minute someone said yes. Forward it to owners or tenants as it is.
Every building on one screen.
The Rushproof Switchboard is where your team sees every call the desk took, who was rung, and what still needs a person. Commercial and residential buildings sit side by side. It works on a computer and installs on a phone like an app.
Shown with demonstration data. On a phone, swipe each screen sideways to see all of it.
What lands in your inbox at 7:02.
One email covering the night. Forward it to the owner or the tenant as it is.
Overnight report
Cedar & Tide Property Management, commercial buildings
Jobs
Cedar Row Exchange, suite 210. Water through the ceiling from the floor above. Night security called at 2:14 a.m. Plumber 1 rung at 2:18, no answer. Plumber 2 accepted at 2:24 a.m. Security texted.
Response time
0 min to pick up10 min from the call to a yes
Flagged for you
The tenant in suite 210 asked who pays for the ceiling tiles.
Written by the Rushproof desk from the night's calls. Demonstration report.
What you have now, next to Rushproof.
Three common ways commercial buildings cover the night today.
| What happens | Voicemail | Manager's phone on rotation | Answering service | Rushproof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Picks up at 2 a.m. | No. A recording. | Only if the person on call wakes up. | On most lines we timed, 2 to 4 minutes or more before a person. One never answered. | Yes. The desk answers at any hour. |
| Rings your approved trades while the caller is still on the line | No. | After the manager calls back. | Varies by service. | Yes. |
| Keeps ringing until a person presses 1 twice | No. | Up to the manager. | Varies by service. | Yes, in your order, then an alarm. |
| Sends a tenant's own equipment to the tenant | No. | If the manager knows who owns it. | Varies by service. | Yes, to that tenant's own contacts. |
| A timestamped written record by morning | No. | Whatever the manager writes down. | Varies by service. | Yes, every call, by 7:02. |
Answering services differ. Where we have not tested what a service does, the table says so. Hold times are from nine published after-hours lines we timed by hand in September 2026.
What the desk won't do.
- Guess an arrival time.It tells the caller who has been rung and that a text follows when someone accepts.
- Decide who pays.Questions about cost, insurance or the lease are written down and passed to your team.
- Make up answers.When it does not know, it takes the details and tells the caller what happens next.
What commercial managers ask first.
What if nobody on our list answers?
Rushproof keeps going down your list: your plumbers, then your on-call manager, your backup and your office line. If the whole list has been tried and nobody has accepted, an alarm goes off. Every step is in the report.
What about a tenant's own equipment?
A restaurant's walk-in cooler or a tenant's own server room belongs to the tenant. Rushproof sends those calls to that tenant's own contacts, and your trades are left for the building.
What happens with a fire, a gas smell or someone trapped?
The caller is told to call 9-1-1 first, before a single question. Then the call is written down and flagged at the top of your report. Rushproof does not replace emergency services or your fire alarm monitoring.
Can our residential and commercial buildings share one desk?
Yes. Each building is set as commercial or residential with its own emergency plan, on the same desk and the same Switchboard.
Where is our callers' information kept?
With the technology providers we name in our data processing agreement, which process it in the United States. We do not claim Canadian data residency.
How do we try it?
We load one of your buildings, its suites and your trades into a live desk, then run a test overnight leak through it. No charge for the test.
Test it on a commercial building.
We load one of your buildings, its suites and your trades into a live desk, then run a test overnight leak through it. No charge for the test.
Built in Vancouver for property managers across Canada.
- Aon report on the Canadian real estate insurance market, as reported by Insurance Business Canada, "Aon: Canadian real estate industry continues to be severely affected by claims," March 2019, insurancebusinessmag.com.
- Canadian Underwriter, "Why water damage claims cost the industry more each year than severe weather claims," September 2020, quoting Gallagher Canada, canadianunderwriter.ca.
- Grace Hill, KingsleySurveys commercial tenant data, July 2025, gracehill.com.
- JLL, "The Economic Cost of Losing a Tenant," 2012, as reported by FMLink.
- US Environmental Protection Agency, "Mold Remediation in Schools and Commercial Buildings," Chapter 4, Table 1, epa.gov.
- Occupiers' Liability Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. O.2, section 3, ontario.ca. Summarized in Mondaq, "Slip and fall essentials".
- Mondaq, "Court emphasizes systems of maintenance in occupiers' liability claims," mondaq.com.