winter preventative maintenance program

Proactive property maintenance for winter

Prior to the season, communication between service providers and property managers is key
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
By Rebecca Melnyk

Before rough winter weather hurls snowstorms and freezing rain onto properties across the country, Scott Bryk, president of Grounds Guys Canada, a national grounds care services company, suggests advanced planning and proper communication between property managers and service providers will help mitigate the challenges of the season.

Yet, over the 30 years his company has offered winter maintenance services—approximately 1,000 properties per year—Bryk says he’s become attune to the dilemmas property managers face.

“They’re being asked to do an absolute insane and unattainable amount of work with no staff and resources,” he says. “That reality is heard loud and clear from service providers in the industry.”

From Bryk’s experience, ten years ago, property managers had 50 people working in their offices and each person managed 10 buildings. “Now, they have three people working in their office and each person manages 100 buildings,” he says, “and their budget is a quarter what it used to be.”

As a result, with little time to balance calls from concerned tenants or deal with unwanted slip-and-falls, Bryk says it’s helpful to understand how on-site snow and ice management works and how a provider approaches and services a property.

For example, during a heavy snowfall, a service provider might get a call to dump ice melt on a large bank of snow. Bryk says a provider would first need to plough because the product doesn’t melt snow. “There’s a particular order in which things need to happen,” he says. “Just like baking with flour, there’s a recipe for how much and when to use it.”

But with crises after crises and the aforementioned budget constraints, Bryk says meeting with a reputable service provider and remaining open and flexible to creating an agreement or contract that is balanced and fair should happen prior to the season.

“Property managers should discuss communication mechanisms, frequency, record keeping and ensuring a site visit,” he suggests.

All property managers should expect and establish an on-site visit to address areas of concern and allow providers to familiarize themselves with the property. This communication becomes vital; when problems arise later, for example, knowing where to pile excess snow.

Once a provider sees the property, she or he may realize the snow will have to be placed in areas where no drifting will occur or close to a drainage culvert. If the snow drains across a parking lot, away from the drain, the return of cold weather will freeze water to ice—an unfavourable condition for tenants.

However, a common complaint among providers is some property managers want to retain the choice, but none of the responsibility or risk. “If I’m in control of when I deploy resources and when I put down material and how much, then I will happily accept the liability for my work and that all goes into the contract,” Bryk adds.

Time not spent on a site inspection is spent dealing with issues of litigation. “Property managers need to figure out what the budget is for non-compliance,” Bryk cautions. “The dollar amount spent on facility maintenance needs to be placed in the context of not taking care of the facility.”

To satisfy and keep high-quality tenants who won’t tolerate a poor and unsafe facility, an approach to building management needs to be similar to the way a manager would approach his or her home or fire insurance.

“The time and energy spent on managing, paying for and litigating a slip and fall claim or an accident needs to be added to a low-ball price a manager may be contemplating,” says Bryk, adding, that how much money is spent on sales and marketing could ultimately be undermined when saving a few dollars for winter maintenance.

For further reference and better communication, Bryk suggests property managers understand the different factors between rock salt and more expensive, yet less damaging products on the market. See chart below:

chart2

Rebecca Melnyk is online editor of Building Strategies & Sustainability and Canadian Property Management.

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