4 MIN. READ
Apartment property managers have a lot of work to do to ensure that everything runs smoothly from day to day. A critical part of the job is managing all the contractors that work on your properties, from simple one-time repairs to multi-year portfolio projects.
The last thing you need is to deal with compliance issues because you did not properly vet or manage contractors. Digital tools can make it easier to keep track of all your contractor activity and minimize the risk of non-compliance.
Apartment property managers must track a variety of contractors that oversee various aspects of building maintenance and construction. Every person who comes to your property presents a level of liability risk.
If something goes wrong and you are found to be negligent in vetting or overseeing the contractors who performed work, you could be held liable for any damages. Not only can this be financially devastating, but it can also be detrimental to the reputation of apartment property managers in the future.
Doing your due diligence in this process requires verifying that a contractor has adequate and up-to-date:
When you receive this information from a potential contractor, you need a way to vet it so you can hire quickly and with the confidence of knowing that your contractors meet all the requirements for effective and safe work.
With digital tools like Raiven, you not only have the ability to check off these legal requirements, but you can also minimize legal exposure with tools to:
You will get alerts if any of your contractors are out of compliance. Thay way, you can fix the situation (or move on to a new contractor) before it becomes a legal problem.
Working with dozens, or even hundreds, of contractors can be chaotic and tedious. This is especially true if you are manually typing information into spreadsheets and trying to keep track of it all. Apartment property managers have enough to do without adding unnecessary manual tasks to the day.
The cloud-based contractor management platform from Raiven gives you tools to streamline the process of vetting and hiring contractors, then managing the entire relationship and tracking all the legally required paperwork to remain in compliance. The user-friendly format allows property managers to easily see what is missing. For example, say you need to get a contract signed or get verification of insurance. You can quickly spot that gap and remedy it before it becomes a significant legal issue.
Keeping all of your contracts on paper is an inefficient way to store information for your property management company. Paper files are also at risk of getting lost or damaged because they were not stored properly.
A better way to manage documents is with a cloud-based software platform. Upload all your contractor documents to the cloud, including:
This centralized storage is accessible anywhere you go, as long as you have access to a computer, smartphone or tablet, and an internet connection. You can check contractor documents while you are in the field or verify liability insurance while you are on vacation. Plus, you always have a digital paper trail for anyone who needs to review the documents, without rifling through years of paper files.
Depending on the type of property you manage, you may also need to collect liability insurance, leases and other agreements from vendors, tenants, and other visitors. It is important to have a simple way to store all those documents electronically so they are available with a few simple clicks whenever you need to review, verify or submit them.
Another important task for apartment property managers is to evaluate contractor performance. When you need to hire, you want to know which contractor(s) you can rely on to complete the work on time, on budget and with the highest quality. To select the best contractors for each job with the best track record, you need a system that automatically organizes and stores the information.
Raiven makes it easy to manage all this information in a single place. We offer complete visibility into the performance of each of your contractors. The exclusive Quality Contribution Index™ (QCI) measures contractor performance in real time, providing an ongoing and continually updated score from 0 to 1,000. It takes into account things like total costs, safety standards, timely completion and more.
You can see performance over time, whether it is holding steady, getting better or getting worse. You can also compare contractors to each other to see how they rate. This visibility allows you to always feel confident that you are selecting the highest performers that can do the job.
Find out how the right software can make it easy for you to maintain complete control of the contractor process from start to finish. Contact us today to get more information and schedule a demo.