While you can’t control the weather, you can control how your team plans for it. As a property owner or a member of a property management team, having standard operating procedures (SOPs) in place for each season’s challenges means when weather hits, you can minimize liability and exposure to weather-related risks and damage. But how do you prepare standard operating procedures and make them visible to the entire organization? How do you avoid seasonal weather impacts on your assets?

We’re breaking down the seasonal annual issues you may encounter below. It’s important not just to be aware of these watch-outs, but to make sure everyone on your team knows how to respond and record information in a centralized place.

While all of these issues may not affect your properties, use this chart as a starting point and then expand based on the needs of your properties:

• Create customized standard operating procedures for when and how to check and perform each task.
• Identify which person, role, or team of people is responsible for implementing the SOP when a certain event happens.
• Talk about how you’ll continually update your SOPs as roles and building best practices change. Your procedures should be standard yet adaptable to changing needs.

A couple of hours every season of your property management team will save you thousands of dollars in damage when issues pop up. Take a look at the flowchart we’ve created below to get you started!

(Click to view the whole image)