Communicating with Your Property Manager: How to Do It Right
July 12, 2012 — Eric Ackerman, board president of a 192-unit co-op in Mamaroneck in Westchester County, recalls the incident clearly. A tenant-shareholder approached him in the elevator and asked: "Where was all that smoke coming from the day before yesterday?"
"Smoke?" Ackerman replied. It was the first he had heard about it.
Puzzled, he called the property manager.
"Oh, yes," said the longtime agent at the complex. "There was a minor incident with one of the boilers. It let off smoke, so we got the fire department in here — but it turned out to be nothing." The agent was going to mention it at the monthly board meeting.
Ackerman was not pleased. "When anything — and I mean anything — goes on here, I should be notified," he told the manager. "There should be nothing that I, as the president, do not know about. Even if no action is required, I should have been sent a note. And then a notice should have been posted in the lobby explaining what went on. I shouldn't be out of the loop — and the owners have a right to be informed."
E-malaise
Andrea Bunis, president of Andrea Bunis Management, recalls a conversation she had at another co-op. The board president was complaining about tardiness in her response to the board's e-mails. She felt the complaint, though common, was based on a misunderstanding of how the communication process should work.
"We get close to 300 e-mails a week," she explained to him. "Most boards will copy us on their internal discussions, so we may get 10 e-mails on one day from one board. We try and respond quickly, but some of these e-mails need research — so we can't give you a quick answer on those." What she usually does in such cases, is send an e-mail saying, "We're working on it." But, she adds ruefully, "although they want an instant answer from us, sometimes they don't get back to us with a decision for weeks."
Survey Says...
An exclusive Habitat co-op/condo board survey has found that, unsurprisingly, the main method of board-manager communication is e-mail. Some 94.9 percent use it as the primary means of communicating, as opposed to 38.8 percent who primarily use the telephone.
"E-mail is great," says Jay Silverberg, president of Zenith Properties. "It's way easier to coordinate projects, getting in touch with vendors and board members in one communication instead of trying to coordinate conference calls. It's concise and to the point."
There is a great potential for abuse here, however. Nearly a third (31.3 percent) communicate with their manager every day, which seems like a lot (unless they're involved in a project), while a slightly smaller number, 28.1 percent, communicate (perhaps more reasonably) once a week; a solid 50 percent do so only as needed.
Managers have mostly positive things to say about e-mail, but offer caveats.
"Because of technology, the expectations are for immediate replies, immediate answers," says Robert Freedman, a principal in the management firm Maxwell-Kates. Adds Neil Davidowitz, president of Orsid Realty,"You have an obligation to get back to them [within 24 hours] and say, ‘We received it. This is what I can answer right now; these additional questions are requiring further analysis, further review. We need more time.'"
What can boards do to smooth out the lines of communication? "Boards don't often speak with one voice," complains Davidowitz. "They're split on decisions. We need one voice and one decision."
The solution is to set up a single person as the liaison with the manager, which should cut down on confusion and save time. But even while you're doing that, adds David Goodman, director of business development at Tudor Realty, "You should copy all the other members of the board so no one says they weren't informed."
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