IP Insight: It's 2am and Your Building's Underwater - Now What?
Posted by [email protected] on May. 4, 2020 / Subscribe 0
Insight from an Industry Partner
by Larry Borgen
Many years ago, local business entrepreneur and 7 time “New York Times” best-selling author Harvey Mackay had this to say about networking and looking for a job: “Don’t wait until your thirsty before you dig your well.” In other words, when you’re desperate for a job, you’ll be much better off when you can tap into a wide network of accessible business relationships.
Property managers may wish to view disaster planning the same way, although thirst won’t be your problem when water in your building is cascading down a stairwell to the level below. Some of you veterans out there have no doubt received “that call,” and usually it comes at 2 AM. At that point, you can either do one of two things: Contact your trusted vendor to execute your well thought out plan, or scramble through google on the fly.
We professionals in the restoration business have seen both scenarios play out and the results won’t surprise you. Almost always, in situations where it takes time to coordinate response and vendors, the claim cost skyrockets and worse, the space is not turned nearly as fast, resulting in tenant dissatisfaction. No one’s happy afterwards.
It happens all the time. We arrive on scene with water flowing and no one knows where the shut-off valve is or can’t get access to it until, “So & So gets here”. Chaos abounds with vendors needing contractual work authorizations signed ASAP. No relationships or agreements were worked out prior. Sometimes vendor relationships are new. Uncertainties exist as to capabilities, performance, and expectations. Usually, these problems lead to billing issues later with resulting delays. It can be a cluster mess.
Things go so much smoother when a disaster plan is in place, and a detailed vendor agreement is operational. Mutual expectations and stipulations have been agreed on. Vendors know who your other partners (elevator, electrician, plumber, etc.) are in the process and better teamwork can be coordinated. Most importantly, vendors can jump into action immediately with no delays and do their jobs.
Want to take disaster planning a step further? Have a back-up plan for your plan. Consider the following scenario which has some very real implications for us right now during COVID-19. You’ve had a major storm loss, fire or water damage. You notify your vendor to find out they have quarantined half their staff because someone came down with the coronavirus. Or perhaps your vendor is busy with another major loss and cannot respond. Then what? It’s good to have multiple vendor relationships and have plans in place. Your favorite vendor may not like it, but should understand your need for redundancy and contingency planning.
All this takes a lot of time to prepare, time you undoubtedly don’t have normally. But there is nothing normal about right now. Your buildings are empty and you have the opportunity to get some projects done that are usually hard to schedule. Heck, you might even have some time to think about how to make your job easier, your owner happier and be a better property manager. Now’s a great time to do some additional planning, so be safe, but don’t be too socially distant from your vendors.
Larry Borgen is Sales Manager at Lindstrom Restoration.
The “Insight from an IREM Industry Partner” blog series is a series of short articles from IREM Minnesota Industry Partners sharing their expert insight on issues of interest to property managers. All IREM Minnesota Industry Partners are invited to participate. The opinions expressed are those of the author.
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