“Condominium Board Members face the world’s most demanding shareholders…their neighbours.”
I recently had to do one of the most difficult parts of my job. A board of directors had retained me to help them find new management, and I had to inform two out of three worthy management candidates that they did not get the contract.
This was particularly unpleasant because the leaders of both unsuccessful companies are aware of, and sympathetic to, the above quotation. They each understand what condominium directors routinely face, and both provide a good product. It’s not the fact that their companies “lost” the competition that I found so annoying. What bothered me was that there seem to be so few people in today’s management industry who get it the way these gentlemen do.
There are a number of talented, sincere on-site property managers who understand this premise, and conduct themselves accordingly. They are true professionals in every sense of that word and have my undying admiration.
But there are just as many, if not more, who don’t fit this pattern. In fact, I will go so far as to say that I don’t know of any other business that is as inept at client relations as the condominium management industry.
If the industry can’t understand their clients’ predicament, how can the industry’s product match the clients’ rightful expectations? These expectations are based on (a) the parameters set by condominium legislation, (b) programs such as the Canadian Condominium Institute’s instructional courses, and (c) advice from independent condominium consultants. Add (d) common sense, and (e) concern for one’s neighbours and community.
Learning processes
Throughout the years that condominiums have existed, managers and boards have had to work together to define this entity.
The Boards have learned a lot. They came to understand that there was more to management than what the on-site manager does and learned that refusing to increase maintenance fees when necessary was shortsighted and foolhardy.
The management industry has also learned. We worked hands-on with the Act, the declarations, and by-laws. We tutored and mentored the managers. We ran booths and made speeches at conferences. We created our own specifications for landscaping and maintenance. We established committees and lifestyle programs. So why do I say the industry and the client still don’t connect the way they should?
Unresponsive management
Today’s management industry has established a more than adequate routine of preventive maintenance. There is a decent understanding of the legislation and the lifestyle. But as often as not, there is a lack of what I’d consider an appropriate response to concerns and inquiries made at the Board level. It too frequently ranges from “leave us alone and let us manage” to outright hostility. I’m allowing, in this statement, for the fact that some Boards try to micro-manage, which is usually a big mistake.
The quotation with which this article begins reflects the most basic principle of the entire condominium environment. Part of my job is conducting interviews of management companies, in the presence of the Boards, based on questionnaires I’ve designed for the occasion (so we can compare apples to apples). Sadly, many of the companies I confront in these sessions, though they spout the same or similar sentiments, have not adopted the practice.
Remember Y2K? Were there concerns about accounting in your condominium? Was the communication process to your satisfaction while the problems were being sorted out?
Positions of Power
Today’s management fees are too low. It is difficult to find decent property managers who are willing to work nights, take heat from Boards and owner/residents, and be knowledgeable in eight or nine different areas ranging from finance to psychology, mechanical technology to legislation, for what the industry can currently pay them.
It’s management’s role to educate the Boards in this area, but the industry must do so from a position of strength. It can’t expect to successfully pursue clients for more money without effectively communicating with them first. The industry must first show its mettle, not just with competence in, for instance, preventive maintenance. They must also demonstrate, beyond any doubt, that they truly understand what it’s like for a Board Member to answer to a neighbour on an elevator, at 6:30 p.m. on a rainy night, when everyone’s tired from a long day facing problems that they’re paid to face.
If this can be accomplished, Board Members should be more receptive to hearing about the economic realities of the condominium management industry.
Notice I keep saying industry, not profession. Never mind governmental designations and standardized exams: when the industry adopts the above quotation as a sincere credo, it will take the first giant step toward becoming a profession.