As things deteriorate in our economy, management companies are being squeezed like all other businesses. There is more competition from new, small and inexperienced firms, lower fee income, and in some cases, rising overhead and expenses. One way that some management companies will combat this operating dilemma is to add more and more properties onto the property manager. This will overload the manager to the point where nothing gets done well and all parties to this become unhappy. The employer, the manager and of course, the clients are all unhappy at the performance level of everyone involved.
Here are the signs that indicate that your management company is understaffed and has overloaded their personnel with too much work, which in turn is creating more and serious problems for your association:
1. Their voice mail is turned on most of the time and you are unable to speak with someone directly.
2. As a follow-up to #1, your voice mail messages and other telephone calls are not returned in a timely manner.
3. Financial statements and other reports are late, incomplete, with errors, or with a lot of adjustments.
4. Association correspondence is late, sloppy, and in some cases, produced by the manager, as there are not enough administrative assistants for back-up.
5. There is no tracking or reports for Violations, ARB submissions and approvals, and for Work Orders.
6. The Manager and/or office staff is not showing up for appointments on time.
7. Property Manager being unprepared for Board of Director Meetings and other Association meetings.
8. Property Manager not getting complete bids and quotes in a timely manner.
9. Property Manager and staff complaining about their volume of work, or blaming each other when things go wrong and not working as a team.
10. There is a high turnover of personnel within the company.
All of these problems and events are symptoms that may indicate that there is trouble within the organization and that it may be time to look for a new management company. Now is not the time for a Board of Directors of a Community Association to ignore this situation.
The Association should not be managing their management company! Find an organization that has the experience, resources and wherewithal to get your association through this difficult period.
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