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As a member of your Chicago condo association’s board of directors, you’ve likely noticed wide variation in owner’s engagement with board initiatives and responsiveness to communication. Some of your property owners might only call to complain. Others want to attend every board meeting.
The challenge for board members is meeting all owners where they’re at. It’s important to keep them informed about the latest association news and decisions that impact them, but you don’t want to overwhelm them so much that you could potentially cause them to disregard future messages altogether.
Tips for Improving Communication in Your Condo Association
In addition to following these suggested best practices for handling communication with owners in a condo association, here are some ways that working with a property management company can help you find the perfect rhythm when it comes to communicating with condo owners.
Property management companies:
● Liaise with owners – By serving as a point of contact for owners, property managers play an important role in freeing up board members’ time. While some questions or concerns are best addressed by the board of directors, many daily inquiries can efficiently be handled by a property management company.
● Post meeting notices – Giving adequate meeting notice is an obligation of Illinois condo associations. An association management company will ensure you are following all state laws and association governing documents by providing the required meeting notices to all members.
● Collect monthly and special assessments – Tracking down payments from owners can at times require multiple contact attempts. Rather than having board members deal with what is at times a contentious task, the property management company will do it for you.
● Provide 24/7 emergency answering services – If anyone in your condo association requires middle-of-the-night emergency help, a full-service association management company will be standing by to answer their call.
Taken together, all of these communication tactics work to improve trust and transparency between condo owners and their board of directors. A property management company helps by taking over the majority of these essential yet time-consuming tasks required of Illinois condo associations.
To learn more about how our team at First Community Management can help improve communication with your condo owners, please get in touch with us today.