Membership in the Certified Rental Building Program (CRBP) is an effective means of maintaining a high standard of quality when managing your building or working with tenants. When prospective or existing tenants see the familiar green CRB Program logo and checkmark on your property, they will immediately know that they can Rent With Confidence.
The CRB Program, North America’s only multi-residential certification program, was founded under six disciplines which all affiliated property managers must comply with in order to receive the certification for their buildings. In this six-part series, we will examine each of the disciplines in detail and explain their importance to the program.
Discipline 4: Financial and Risk Management
CRBP’s fourth discipline covers the important area of financial and risk management standards and requirements. Apartment building ownership can be as rewarding as it is profitable. However, like any business entity, ensuring you judiciously manage these two areas is vitally important to long term success. CRBP recognized this from the outset and created a number of sound corporate governance financial/risk management standards to provide key stakeholders (residents, employees, and investors alike) that CRB-approved denotes the best of the best in multi-res professional property management the industry has to offer.
Financial Management Measures
Ensuring a sound financial wellbeing for any business is key to its long-run survival and having a long profitable time horizon for its ownership and investors/unitholders alike. Notwithstanding this fact, financial prudence also plays a key role in the lives of the employees that work for the property management organization and for the residents that live in those apartment buildings. To that end, and with a focus on quality living for residents, CRBP financial standards include the following:
- Financial statements are filed in accordance accepted financial practices
- There is an annual operating budget
- There is the existence of a capital management plan
- Appropriate liability insurance/coverage
- Evidence of tenant insurance requirements
Risk Management vs. Risk Mitigation
Professional property managers believe that one of the best ways of approaching a prudent risk management regime is to adopt a proactive approach. The more that is done to prevent risk at the outset, the easier it will be to avoid certain disastrous situations, such as resident slip and falls, electrical failures, instances of fires, etc. One misconception that often arises is risk mitigation versus risk management. The two could not be more different. Risk mitigation seeks to reduce the effects of an unfortunate event or circumstance that cannot be avoided. Risk management identifies potential areas of concern within your buildings and proactively addressing them before they can impact your residents’ (tenants’) quality of living.
Throughout the CRBP six disciplines, there are hundreds of instances where proactive risk mitigation is a requirement of many standards. Below are few examples for the reader to gain a better perspective.
- Evidence of a snow removal requirement and respective logs
- Daily/weekly/monthly building operations checks and logging of any unsafe areas of concern and related follow-up
- Contracts with licensed professionals for elevators/HVAC/plumbing/electrical/maintenance and capital work, etc.
- After hour 1-800 emergency contact number
- CRB state of condition assessment covering all areas of the property/building alike
- Annual suite inspection process
- Strict adherence to all Fire Code requirements
- Strict adherence to PIPEDA rules and resident privacy
- Building emergency plan
There are countless more examples that could be easily provided to demonstrate CRBP’s commitment to ensuring its members are practising a prudent risk management regime throughout their organization and across their apartment properties. Being a CRBP member, and by extension, adherence to its many financial/risk management requirements, provides peace of mind to investors and unitholders. More importantly to employees and residents alike, it builds on the CRBP’s mantra of being well-run, well-managed, and well-maintained apartment properties.
For further information about the CRBP and how to apply for the certification, please contact the Federation of Rental-housing Providers of Ontario (FRPO) – Ted Whitehead, Director of Certification, or visit our website today at www.frpo.org.
