Writing an Air-Tight Safety Plan

It was a day like any other at one of Jim Cantrell’s San Francisco office buildings—until things started to smell bad.

Tenants started to complain about a noxious, irritating odor that prompted a call to the fire department. Cantrell and his staff immediately began searching for the source of the odor, bringing in everyone from the building’s HVAC company to a contractor working in the building at the time. In less than two hours, the odious culprit—roof-coating chemicals from the building next door—had been located, and the problem was being addressed. Cantrell, partner of Cantrell Harris & Associates, a real-estate management firm in San Francisco, says the crisis was short-lived because his employees knew exactly what course of action to take.

“Whenever something like this occurs, your staff has to know what to handle and how to handle it quickly so panic doesn’t happen,” says Cantrell, also a certified property manager with the Institute of Real Estate Management, where he is on faculty. “Our team went into effect and took care of the situation.”

The best way to assure such quick responses for your own building is through a safety plan—a written set of guidelines for handling both emergencies and everyday safety hazards. Here are some suggestions for getting started on yours.

Customize it. Every property is unique, so take that into account when you write your plan. If your area is prone to natural disasters like flooding, earthquakes or hurricanes, outline specific procedures for dealing with them and include the names and phone numbers of appropriate agencies. For example, if a fire badly damages one of Cantrell’s residential properties, his staff is instructed to call the Red Cross to find temporary housing for displaced residents. If you’re unsure what procedures to follow in specific situations, call your local department of emergency management or fire department. “These days, they have emergency preparation booklets you can get for free most of the time,” says Kimberly Smith, CEO of Corporate Housing By Owner and broker/ co-owner of AvenueWest Corporate Housing in Denver, Colo.

The information in your safety plan will also depend on the audience you’re trying to reach. Smith says her staff manuals include information on the company’s safety policies and procedures, while the safety guides for her residents include emergency numbers and practical guidelines, like reminders to call management when an exterior light is out. “If there was to be an attack and the property was not properly lit, you could be held responsible for that,” Smith says.

In most locales, safety plans for small properties are voluntary. But safety plans for large office buildings and other properties are sometimes required. Cantrell advises checking with local fire departments, police departments, and even city and county government offices to find out what safety-plan regulations and requirements exist.

Include preventive guidelines as well. When writing the safety plan for your staff, encourage them to be proactive. The safety instructions for Smith’s properties try to head off bad situations by following specific procedures, starting from the day a potential tenant turns in his application. Smith suggests screening every tenant through credit and reference checks, which will usually reveal any red flags. To avoid claims of housing discrimination residential property managers should set a specific credit score number or other objective standard that applicants have to reach to move in. “You should do checks on every single tenant or don’t do them on anyone,” Smith says.

Other preventive measures in a good safety plan include regular building checks to identify potential problems. Cantrell says his staff pays particular attention to hazards that can cause falls, like vacuum cords stretched across hallways and wet sidewalks caused by over-watering. “Trip-and-fall hazards are the biggest cause of injury in a property,” Cantrell says. “We check for things like that that can cause problems.”

Not having a safety plan—or having one that’s inadequate—not only affects the lives of your tenants, but can affect your bottom line as well. At one of Cantrell’s apartment properties in Kentucky, a family of four was killed after a cigarette set their couch on fire, releasing a poisonous gas. Though management couldn’t have prevented the fire, three other tenants moved out because of the incident, making a bad situation worse. That’s why it’s important to head off as many preventable accidents as possible, Cantrell says.

“The tragedy is, of course, the loss of life, but then it affects the business too,” Cantrell says.