Best Maintenance Practices Reduce Risk at Our Properties

By Jeffrey S. Lapin, CPM, ARM, DREI

Those of us who own or operate residential or commercial properties know that there is a direct correlation between proper maintenance procedures and the risk of physical injury. In other words, poor maintenance practices increase the likelihood that someone will be injured on our properties. Good maintenance reduces that risk.

Tenants/Residents, visitors and vendors who enter upon our properties are entitled to the presumption of reasonable safety when traversing our public spaces. They should and do expect that parking areas, lobbies, hallways, grounds, pools and the walkways that connect these elements are inspected regularly and that hazardous conditions will be prevented or discovered quickly and made safe for their intended purpose.

Performing Regular Inspections

I mention performing regular inspections first because that is job #1 for any responsible Property or Community Manager and his/her staff. The course I co-wrote and teach for the Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM®) is entitled Managing Maintenance Operations and Property Risk (MNT 402). The course stresses that the first responsibility of property or community management and maintenance professionals is to perform regular, comprehensive inspections of the property and to document these inspections with checklists as part of a written Property Risk Management and Maintenance program, customized for each property or community.

Such inspections are also the only reliable way to ensure that proper preventative and corrective maintenance is occurring as scheduled and as recommended by equipment manufacturers and other professionals. During these inspections, such items as a wet or slippery floor, tripping hazards such as potholes or broken bumper stops, items left in the path of travel like gardening tools and poorly lit walkways can and should be discovered in a reasonable period of time. These items should be noted on the inspection reports and action taken immediately to remove the hazard or warn pedestrians to avoid it until it can be made reasonably safe.

A lack of regular, documented inspections is a sure indicator of poor maintenance and risk management procedures. We simply cannot discover and effectively correct the myriad of possible hazards that can occur at our properties if someone who is knowledgeable does not perform regular, comprehensive and documented inspections. Regular, documented inspections are the mainstay of any good property maintenance and risk management program.

When a property is first purchased, it is standard (and prudent) practice to conduct or have performed, an initial audit or survey of the entire property, interior and exterior. This establishes a “Baseline” or initial condition report and is designed to document the existence of any conditions that are in need of short-term or long-term correction such as an unsafe balcony guardrail or parking lot condition. Lenders almost always require a PCA or Property Condition Assessment report by a qualified architect or engineer in order to identify such conditions for underwriting purposes. If the purchaser does not have “In-house” expertise about applicable codes and standards affecting the property, than it would be prudent and reasonable to hire an expert to produce such a report.

The standard of care would then mandate that, once the property is purchased, the buyer should act quickly to address any health and safety issues in order to make the property reasonably safe. Remember that ignorance of a dangerous condition is no excuse – we have to know and correct these conditions.

Lastly, contact your liability insurance carrier and ask about Risk Management inspections by the carrier. Most large insurance companies that offer property liability policies offer this service, often for free. The “Suggestions” that result from such an inspection are usually common sense measures such as testing fire life safety systems annually.

Regularly Scheduled Maintenance

Another cornerstone of sound maintenance and risk management procedures is the existence of regularly scheduled, preventative maintenance of a property’s common areas. It is not sufficient to do regular inspections, note deficiencies and then file the inspection paperwork (not documenting inspections is even worse).

The knowledge of the existence of a dangerous or improperly maintained property element, and the subsequent failure by the Property or Community Manager to take appropriate and reasonable action to mitigate or eliminate the hazard and warn the public, can often result in a finding of negligence or even gross negligence by the court.

Whether the property owner, board of directors or Property/Community Manager have chosen to hire “in-house” maintenance personnel to perform regular cleaning and maintenance of the common areas of a property, or these services have been “out-sourced” to a qualified third party contractor, there is a reasonable expectation by the visiting public and tenants, residents and/or association members that such maintenance is occurring regularly and that public areas are reasonably safe.

A proper maintenance and risk management program must include specific, detailed policies and procedures for each area of the property and each element within those areas. For instance, the policies for maintenance of a stone floor in the public lobby of an office building might state that the floor will be inspected at the beginning of each shift and then again each hour. For each element of a property that requires maintenance, a detailed and proper procedure for preventative and corrective maintenance should be included in the Property Maintenance and Risk Management program.

Such inspections should be documented, including conditions found and corrective actions taken. Any spills discovered should be immediately made safe using proper barricade materials, and then cleaned up in a reasonable time using proper tools and leaving a dry, non-slippery surface. .

The policies and procedures for each property should state that the janitorial provider or in-house cleaner must prevent items from being left on the floor that might present a slip-and-fall or trip-and-fall hazard. If a floor is being mopped and will be slippery and therefore not reasonably safe until clean and dry, then the written policies and procedures should dictate that proper warnings and barricades be employed to prevent injuries. 

The specific maintenance procedures for this floor might include the periodic application of a non-slip floor finish to make it safer. A periodic test to indicate the slip resistance of a particular floor surface (known as the Coefficient of Friction or COF test) is a recommended best practice in our industry as a way to prevent accidents.

All such policies, procedures and maintenance should be properly documented in sufficient detail to allow a third party to easily verify that the Property Manager is taking reasonable and appropriate measures to prevent an injury. Evidence of proper and frequent training of maintenance personnel on these written procedures is also a part of the standard of care.

Another example of an item that is often the cause of successful liability injury claims is the residential complex swimming pool. Many communities have a swimming pool or spa as a valuable amenity which allows the Property Manager and marketing agent to keep the units rented or increases the resale value of condominiums. Such amenities require a whole host of precautionary measures by the owner, board or manager to ensure safety.

First, because such amenities are a magnet to young people, most areas of the country require a fence around the pool or spa with a self-closing gate to keep curious, unattended youngsters out of the water. Tragic consequences often occur when such simple precautions are not taken. But does the responsibility for the safety of such amenities end with the installation of such a fence and gate? The obvious answer is “No”.

The fence and gate latches (self-latching) must be regularly inspected and maintained as needed to ensure that these items work as intended. This too goes for the signage that should be posted in obvious places warning people that no lifeguard is on duty, advising of the depth of the pool, etc. What about life preservers? If required, these items must also be inspected and repaired/replaced as needed. And again, such inspections and maintenance must be properly documented, creating a paper trail that evidences the reasonable and industry standard procedures that are regularly occurring.

If your property has a swimming pool, be sure that you and all of your maintenance workers are thoroughly familiar with the local ordinances for pool safety.

Preventative Maintenance – The Gold Standard

Property management industry best practices go well beyond discovering and correcting poor maintenance or hazardous conditions. Students who take the IREM® Maintenance course learn that the best property management practices include a proactive attitude toward maintenance of the property. The course stresses that getting ahead of a potential or likely maintenance problem is superior in every way to reacting and performing corrective maintenance (or worse yet, deferring critical maintenance).

Proactive or preventative maintenance practices are the gold standard for property managers. Such practices include, of course, the regular documented, comprehensive inspection and urgent actions resulting therefrom. The aforementioned written Property Maintenance and Risk Management Manual, customized for each property, is the Property or Community Manager’s guide to the policies and procedures that spell out in great detail the standards and specifications for maintenance of each property element.

The key is the proactive nature of such policies and procedures. The best property managers do not wait for an accident to happen or a system to fail before taking action. Rather, they anticipate what can reasonably be expected to happen, based on experience and training, and they take action in advance to prevent an unfortunate outcome. That is the definition of “Proactive”.

For example, if a pool gate is starting to exhibit problems staying properly closed and locked, the proactive property or community manager will discover this during a regular inspection and take immediate action to have the gate repaired or the faulty mechanism replaced. They will not wait until the gate fails to close and lock and a child enters the pool area and falls into the pool, possibly resulting in injury or death.

If an inspection reveals a concrete walkway with a lifted edge (common when tree roots or ground settlement raises one edge of a concrete pad), the proactive manager will immediately cordon off that area with a highly visible barrier, warning pedestrians of the hazard. He or she will then document that hazard and the actions taken and then very shortly thereafter, get someone to fix the hazard before someone trips on it. He or she will also take steps to make sure that until the hazard is removed, the barrier is inspected often and someone verifies that it remains in place and protects against accidents.

These precautions will not prevent someone from missing the highly visible barrier and tripping on the raised edge. Stuff happens. But the reasonable and proactive steps taken by the property manager, coupled with his/her written inspection results and immediate action to erect a barrier to protect the public, will give the property owner and manager a viable defense should an injury occur and a claim be filed.

Conclusion

Poor or insufficient maintenance results in increased risk for the property owner or owners’ association. This includes the risk of injury or worse and often, such incidents are reasonably foreseeable and preventable.

Best property management practices, such as those taught by IREM®, stress a proactive, preventative approach to maintenance of the entire property. The written Property Maintenance and Risk Management Program, customized for each property, is the property manager’s roadmap to proper maintenance of the property and all its many elements.

The cornerstone of such a program is the regular, comprehensive inspection evidenced by a customized checklist and notes indicating what was found on the inspection. Immediate follow-up of any items found, especially those that present an obvious hazard to the public, is critical to mitigating risk and protecting persons and property.

If an accident occurs, the existence of a written program of regular inspections and documented follow-up can provide the property owner with a defense against injury claims, thereby reducing risk.

Jeffrey S. Lapin, CPM, ARM, DREI