OCTOBER 2023CIOAPPLICATIONSEUROPE.COM9The multi-family property also comes with a lot of emotionally taxing events, such as domestic abuse, suicide, animal abuse, drugs, mental health issues, and in recent years considerable criminal activity. This can have a personal impact, especially as training to cope with repeated input is rarely offered to our professional community. The multi-family risk manager can assist the onsite teams in these circumstances by offering both emotional and practical support. These activities may pose a physical threat to the onsite teams, and significant and varied measures may need to be put in place to protect their safety. These threats are more prevalent in multi-family, not only due to the nature of the product but because team members and their families may also live at the property they manage. This is not something you deal with as a risk manager for a class of office or industrial assets. Fatalities onsite and an unfortunate reality in the industry. The business side of the response includes cleaning any environmental conditions using appropriate vendors and getting any potential claims paid from the deceased's policy-not an easy feat. It requires getting into uncomfortable details like a method to commit suicide since insurance may cover the claim if the cause of death was a gunshot, applying for the `explosion' peril. Property managers must deal with survivors for unit clearing out or transferring roommates and recovering remediation costs and outstanding rent. The onsite team may need counseling due to the nature of the death or their relationship with the deceased resident (or both). This process can have many additional factors and must be treated with great respect and sensitivity to all involved. Litigation is frequent and heart-wrenching when your teams have done everything right, but you still end up with a six-figure settlement because a jury/jurisdiction may be sympathetic to a plaintiff and award them a higher value in a trial. Exaggerated expectations for landlords and management are often baked into the allegations and outcomes. Let me be clear; we honor and respect our residents. We want them to be happy and live their best lives in our communities. I am so proud every time I see a resident has baked a cake for a leasing agent who has been kind to him/her or bought them flowers because that says it all. You won't find a more patient and giving group of individuals than our onsite teams. They have hard jobs and do them with care and compassion. Managers' passion for their community is uniquely shown in the planning of regular and creative resident events-themed parties, meals (sometimes cooked at home by the team), charitable giving collections, contests, crafts, and the list goes on. Risk Management is able to support these activities by providing a contract to use and an insurance review when a third party is engaged to come onsite as part of the event. There is not a day I do not learn something new about this business or get surprised by an incident report, but that is why I have a deep passion for this profession of risk management. Boredom just isn't possible if you are paying attention. A risk manager must stay abreast of each state's list of protected classes that change seemingly with the wind
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