The property manager is not replying: the condo board escalation method

Three emails, no answer, and the board runs out of ideas. Here are the four escalation levels, in order, and what actually moves things along.

It is the most universal frustration of condo boards: a simple request, sent by email, left unanswered. Then a follow-up. Then silence again. Three months in, the issue is no longer the document you asked for — it is the feeling of not existing.

In the vast majority of cases this is not ill will but overload: one manager handles dozens of buildings and deals first with whatever is written, dated and tied to a deadline. The method below is therefore less about raising your voice than about making your request impossible to postpone.

Level 1 — The request that cannot be postponed

A request that gets an answer contains four things: a precise subject, a deadline, a reason for that deadline, and a single channel. Compare: "could you send me the lift contract?" with "please send us the lift contract before 12 March, as the board must decide on its renewal at its meeting on the 15th".

The second version asks no more effort of the manager, but it earns a place in their priority list. And it leaves a usable trace if nothing comes.

Level 2 — The follow-up that quotes the first request

With no reply after ten to fifteen days, follow up quoting the date and subject of your original request: "our request of 3 March regarding the lift contract remains unanswered". That phrasing does two things at once: it restates the subject, and it starts a history.

Copy in every board member. A collective request is not handled like an individual one, and it protects you from "I never received that message".

Level 3 — Registered post

After two written follow-ups with no effect, move to registered post with acknowledgement of receipt. It is not a declaration of war: it is the first letter whose receipt cannot be disputed.

Keep it plain: a chronological reminder of previous requests with their dates, the subject, and a reasonable deadline to respond. Avoid adjectives and accusations — a factual letter is far harder to brush aside than an indignant one.

What moves a file along is not the tone: it is the written chronology that comes with it.

Level 4 — The general meeting

The last lever is also the most powerful, and it is too rarely used: putting the subject to the general meeting. A board that presents, with figures and dates, the number of requests made and the average response time gets the attention of every co-owner — and of the manager.

That is exactly what the "relationship with the property manager" section of your annual report is for: "fourteen written requests, average response time twenty-three days, four left unanswered" is a statement nobody argues with. A speech about "poor communication" always invites argument.

The three mistakes that waste time

• Spreading across channels: one request by phone, one by email, one to the caretaker. None is traceable, and each allows you to be sent to another.
• Writing as an individual: a message signed "a co-owner" does not carry the standing of one from the board as a body.
• Dating nothing: with no dates there is no chronology, and with no chronology there is no case.

If nothing works

Once escalation is exhausted, changing provider becomes a legitimate question. It is prepared long in advance: see what the board should prepare so you do not arrive at the meeting without a credible alternative.

Keep the chronology effortlessly

All of the above rests on one thing: being able to find who asked what, and when. A thread scattered across five personal inboxes does not allow it — especially after the board changes.

With CoproHarmony, requests, documents obtained and exchanges are recorded in one place with their dates, visible to every board member. The chronology builds itself, and it is there the day you need it. Create your space for free.

When reminders achieve nothing, the next question is the mandate: remove or simply not renew.