« July 2005 | Main | September 2005 »
August 29, 2005
Maintenance and Your "Action News Reporter"
A few weeks ago, in North Carolina, a woman who had a leak into her unit from the one above, got fed up with waiting for repairs and the lack of communication and called the "Action Reporter" at a local TV station. Guess what? The repairs were quickly made. Get used to this. Local media has discovered that they have a lot of readers/listeners/viewers who live in community associations and like it when the big, bad association/management company get their comeuppance. I've dealt with the PR aspects of this new media attention, but let's look at the cause of this particular one - maintenance.
One of the basic reasons management companies get contracts is because the board wants someone else to handle maintenance issues, especially in condos. As far as the board is concerned, its simple: Find or hear of a problem, determine responsibility, if its the associations - FIX IT (and do it yesterday if that wouldn't be too much trouble). Simple, right? What's the problem? The problem is that you probably don't have a clue as to what's really occurring.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- Do you have a system in place that alows you to log in maintenance requests, no matter how they come in?
- Is the system easy to access for any staff member who might need to?
- Can the owner who put in the maintenance request track its progress without the help of your staff?
- Do you know what it costs you to administer (process) a normal work order from notice to completion?
- Have you established benchmarks for completing routine maintenance requests, i.e. 24 hours for leaks, 2 days for loose shingles, 3 days for sprinkler head problems, etc.?
- Do you know what an average number of work orders is for your associations? Do you know which associations are above the norm? And why?
- Do you routinely include a work order status report in your management report? Is the report generated without a great deal of staff time?
- Do you follow-up maintenance requests with with a communication asking the owner if they were satisfied with the service? Do you share these with the board? Do you compile these to see how you're doing overall, or how specific staff members are doing?
If you can't answer "Yes" to all of these questions, its time to overhaul your process. First you need to know how you're doing with customer satisfaction and, second, you need to know what its costing you. Both have major contract implications.
Management companies lose contracts when things don't get done and when you don't know they're not getting done, so you need some way to make sure that everything gets logged, followed up and measured. You will want some sort of warning system when things aren't getting done according to the benchmarks you establish. You will want to be able to show the board the scope of work you do and how well you're doing it.
A couple of years ago, an owner of a local management company decided to figure out how the work order sytem operated and what it cost him. He set up most of the above items and was able to determine what it cost him to "process" a typical work order. He then applied that cost to the number of work orders for each association. He found that most of the associations (condos) averaged a little over one work order per unit per year, with most variations relating to the age of the buildings. However one association came out at over 13 work orders per unit per year. Forget all of the other management duties, financials, meetings, etc. He was losing money on the work orders alone. Needless to say, it became the major item at future board meetings and contract negotiations. You need this data to get a handle on your costs and performance.
You don't need the local "Action Reporter" calling on you because someone on your staff dropped the ball. Get ahead of the work order process, put checks in place to warn you when things aren't going well and make it transparent, or easy to access, for everyone who needs to know.
Posted by joewest at 11:48 PM
August 11, 2005
Coming Soon To a High-Rise Near You
For those of you who who don't follow the news in other states, there has been a battle going on in South Florida between the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) and The Continental Group, a subsidiary of FirstService Corporation. SEIU is trying to organize the service employees at Continental's condos. So far, Continental is taking all the shots to the head. SEIU has created its own web site, just for this effort, called CleanCondos which takes direct aim at Continental and in the latest PR blitz, has created another web site with a high tech Flash music video, called Screw this Condo.
I really don't know whether Continental has serious internal problems or whether they just can't get their side out, but I do know that the SEIU broke off from the AFL-CIO because they wanted to be more agressive in organizing. What this means is that if you have concentrations of hi-rise condos in your market, you can probably bet that they are scouting out your situation as you are reading this. This is an growing, untapped market that they are not going to pass by. That's the reason for the full-court press in Florida, a win there will make it all that much easier in other markets.
If you manage hi-rises, I would suggest you start brushing up on labor law and locate a good local attorney to advise you when the time comes. Remember, like everything else related to condos, what starts in Florida soon migrates to other states when the snow-birds return home.
Since the original posting of this note, another web site has been added to the battle. Created by SEIU "FirstService Mismanagement" targets the subsidary management companies.
Posted by joewest at 10:43 AM
August 1, 2005
Managers Giving Legal Advice
Beth Grimm, in her California Condo & HOA Law blog wrote "Managers can learn about the law, and freely quote statutes, articles written by lawyers, and even cases to the Boards. However, when a manager starts to analyze a problem with legal ramifications and interpret how the law or a case might apply in a certain situation, he or she is stepping over the line. And a board that expects this of a manager is asking too much."
The very first board meeting I ever soloed in as a new manager I had the board president ask me a question about the legality of a course of action they were proposing. When I suggested we talk to the association's attorney, he simply said "Fine, but it comes out of your fees, because you're supposed to know these things". Welcome to the real world of association management. Fortunately my boss straightened that out. But every manager eventually faces the questions, either formally or informally, regarding legal issues.
Managers become quite knowledgable about laws, covenants, and rules by working with them evey day, by reading about them in books, professional periodicals and in industry-related seminars and classes. This doesn't make them lawyers, but it does give them enough knowledge to be helpful, or dangerous.
Almost all of the questions I receive through my various web sites have to do with legal issues. This is one of the reasons I don't encourage people to write and is why I don't have a discussion forum. I have to start every response with "I'm not an attorney and can't give you legal advice." I then do what Beth says can be done, point out the various laws and articles available for research, and if the problem is thorny enough, or has a lot of gray area, I strongly suggest they talk to their attorney. More often than not, I get back more questions, letting me know that they probably haven't and won't consult with a lawyer.
One of the more problematic areas is when there is an attorney on the board, but one who knows little about community association law. Then the manager finds him or herself having to decide whether or not to contradict this person when their ego outruns their knowledge. Lawyers are easily elected to asociation boards in the forlorn hope that their presence will somehow reduce the legal portion of the budget.
What is needed is a definitive, or at least detailed, article about the practice of law without a license. How is it defined and enforced? It may not stop boards from asking for advice, but it would at least arm the managers with a good response. The one common denominator of all community association boards in all states is the neverending quest for free legal advice (just check out any conference that has multiple sessions and compare the attendance at the legal sessions vs. the non-legal ones). Until the legal profession provides better tools to fend off this quest, managers will continue to be stuck in the middle.
Posted by joewest at 11:36 PM