Property Management

June 17, 2024 Published by British Columbia Chapter - By Aaron Simmer

Emails In Strata Management

From CCI BC Strata Connection Magazine, Volume 02, Spring/Summer 2024

There have been many changes in strata management since I started my career 20 years ago but perhaps the biggest is the growth of email. I recall days when I’d receive a handful of emails, usually from vendors with the latest quote. Hand-written letters outnumbered emails 3-to-1! Flash forward to 2024 and email is akin to a faulty bathroom faucet releasing a steady torrent of water and the shutoff under the sink snapped off when you touched it.

And the drain is plugged.

Every day your strata agent or property manager is metaphorically drowning in email –to the point that some days, nothing happens except for answering emails.

But why does it matter how full your strata agent’s inbox is? It matters because the agent working with your strata corporation would rather be and should be dealing with more critical matters such as reviewing completed maintenance items and ensuring the next batch of maintenance tasks are scheduled; drafting a proposed operating budget for Council’s review or the latest meeting minutes; following-up with owners in arrears; issuing bylaw contravention letters; and studying-up on the latest changes to provincial strata legislation. Email weaves into many of these areas but the difference is that email should be delegated to “part of the job” rather than “the entirety of the working day” for a strata agent.

In no particular order, here are some handy tips to limit or stop sending emails altogether.

EDUCATE & UP-TO-DATE:

Read your strata’s bylaws & rules, meeting minutes, and maintenance notices. Far too often strata agents are inundated with requests that amount to “Can you read the bylaws to me as they pertain to Subject X?” or “Can you tell me all about Council’s decision from the most recent Council Meeting?” or “Can you walk me through the process of getting Council to consider my renovation request?” 99 times out of 100, these questions can be answered with material that has already been delivered directly to you either during the purchase process or as an owner. It is critical that you retain these documents for future reference – it will save you (and your strata agent) precious time.

Minutes of Council and General Meetings are particularly important and are typically crammed with important details on the strata’s budget, explanations on strata fees, contact details, and decisions by the Owners at General Meetings and Council at regular Council Meetings. If you want answers about what’s going on in the strata, it’s likely the minutes contain everything you need to know.

URGENCY:

Emailing an “urgent” message to a strata agent with an inbox 200+ emails deep may be less effective than tying that same message to the leg of a seagull and hoping the information or question reaches its destination. In my experience, it’s tragically common to wade through emails on a Monday morning to find a series of messages from the same sender that describes some horrible emergency involving sewage or water coming through a ceiling, which is punctuated with statements like, “How come you’re not answering my emails?” The management company working with your strata probably offers 24/7 emergency service and that’s the phone number that should be called immediately. Sending a summary email after the fact can be helpful. To reiterate, if something is important and possibly time sensitive, call your agent on the phone.

BE CLEAR.

Each week I receive emails such as the one below, which is a waste of time for a number of reasons:

SUBJECT: Parking

My parking stall is too small for my vehicle and I want to switch spots. Please call me to discuss. Also, there is a leak in the parkade that’s been going on for weeks.

- Ken

Such uninformative correspondence is a waste of electrons! It’s probable that your strata agent could potentially be contacted by 1,500 owners (or more) spread across 20 (or more) different properties so an email from “Ken” about “parking” sent from… the Moon, maybe, who can be sure?... is an abuse of the precious little time each of us has on this planet.

When you absolutely need to write an email include identifying information and other details that fill-out the statements in the email. I have re-written the email above to provide an example:

SUBJECT: NW9999 – Villa du Sample – switch parking stall #62; leak in parkade

My parking stall is too small for my vehicle and I want to switch spots. I’ve reviewed the bylaws and it seems that Council can change a stall when a reasonable request is received and if space is available. If needed, please call me at your earliest convenience at 250-555-1995. Also, there is a leak in the parkade that’s been going on for weeks. I’ve attached a small picture showing where I think the leak is coming from and one that situates the leak so a plumber can investigate.

Regards,
Ken S. Thompson
Unit #45

With that extra bit of clarity, multiple emails are prevented and the receiver has all the information needed to respond.

EMAILS DO NOT REPLACE COUNCIL MEETINGS.

This tip is provided (mostly) for Strata Councils. It’s best practice to make decisions at a regularly scheduled Council Meeting. On occasion a “quick” decision needs to be made by an email exchange, but too many Councils fall into a trap of clicking “Reply All” and mutating that email thread into something that is unrecognizable to the original because it started with approving an emergency repair but then touched on gutter cleaning, the noise coming out of unit #102, and the trouble with owners not breaking down their cardboard so it fits in the recycling bin. And if you really feel a “Reply All” is necessary, at a minimum remove the strata agent from the email thread.

Councils should also be aware that any correspondence to, from and between Council Members could be requested by an owner or be used as evidence in a court action. That’s an important point that not many Councils realize.

Owners should understand that while Council may be in communication by email that does not mean that a speedy response will happen. It’s not uncommon to receive an email like the one below, particularly if it’s late afternoon:

“My contractor is scheduled to start my bathroom reno tomorrow. Could I get a quick approval from Council?”

In these circumstances, I recall the adage, “A lack of planning on your part doesn’t constitute an emergency on mine.” Owners should not expect a group of fellow owners and volunteers to drop what they’re doing to leap into action. Build-in time for any requests of Council’s time. Want to pursue a renovation? Give yourself at least one or two months (or longer depending on the strata) of “padding” to better facilitate a response from Council (which is conveyed via the agent).

This leads into my final point:

BE RESPECTFUL.

In most situations an expression of feeling is beneficial to overall communication; however, email is a horrible way to convey emotion, particularly if one attempts to convey that emotion with an oversized font in ALL CAPS and underlined. As the person who reads these emails it’s easier to just delete the email and move on than decipher the message of the writer. Ultimately it will be the Strata Council that reads the emails sent by the ownership. The Council is a group of owners elected at the Annual General Meeting who donate many hours of their time to running the strata corporation. it’s mostly thankless work and can be quite the learning curve. So, when an email dipped in sarcasm, sprinkled with profanity, and injected with derogatory remarks reaches a volunteer Council Member that’s not just disrespectful… well, it’s in writing and on the record and ready to be brought up in a court of law. Keep emails on topic, provide the necessary information, be polite, and expect (at a minimum) 48 hours for a response.

Email is very good tool to send information quickly and efficiently, and there’s no separating it from the way the modern world does business, but with a few moments of consideration or just reading the latest meeting minutes you could stem the flow of unnecessary emails. It doesn’t take much!

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Aaron Simmer,
C&C Property Group

Aaron Simmer started his strata management career 20 years ago. Currently with C&C Property Group in North Vancouver, he has broad experience working with strata clients in the Lower Mainland and the Okanagan. He’s probably answering an email right now.