The Challenge

Langsam Property Services is one of the most innovative and well-respected management firms in the New York real estate industry. While managing over 350 properties across more than 11,000 residential units for clients such as large institutional funds and small private owners, and through renovating neglected housing under rigorous City programs, Langsam has established itself as a leader in maintaining the highest standards for its residents.

In 2010, in the face of increasingly complex regulation and rapidly growing enforcement efforts, Langsam’s leadership began looking for a partner that could transform their compliance capabilities – helping them avoid costly fines, resolve tenant complaints quickly, and take their ability to proactively manage compliance portfolio-wide to the next level.

The Partnership

Langsam was looking for a compliance partner that could not only track their critical data, but also act as an extension of their team, and SiteCompli had the transformative capabilities they were seeking:

• SiteCompli’s robust technology could track and alert in real time on compliance issues from violations, complaints and inspections to hearings and permits, across the full gamut of regulatory organizations (FDNY, DSNY, DOT, ECB, etc.).
• Langsam was able to heavily customize the SiteCompli’s technology – both its web interface and email notifications – across the organization to ensure the right staff received the right information exactly when they needed it.
• Langsam integrated its vendors and consultants into their SiteCompli workflow to ensure accountability and increase efficiency.
• Langsam staff utilized SiteCompli’s robust reporting capabilities to track issue resolution and other important performance metrics.

SiteCompli became an essential partner to Langsam with its Client Services team providing a layer of support that made the technology impactful and accessible to every level of its organization. As Langsam expanded their business and added new properties, SiteCompli was on hand to deliver prospective property reports and to run compliance sweeps on each new building once it was added to their SiteCompli account.

“SiteCompli is the industry-leading compliance solution for a reason: their combination of technology, knowledge, and support is unparalleled,” says Sheldon Mann of Langsam. “We operate under short deadlines in high-stakes situations, and we need a true partner supporting us. SiteCompli’s team makes their technology accessible and useful for tackling our compliance challenges.”

Impacts

Defaults

The Environment Control Board adjudicates the vast majority of violations written by City agencies, including the Departments of Buildings, Environmental Protection and the Fire Department. Missing an ECB hearing results in a default penalty being issued, often amounting to over five times the face value of the original violation.

As soon as a violation requiring a hearing is issued, SiteCompli sends a series of alerts and reminders so that important hearing dates don’t slip through the cracks.

During their first year with SiteCompli, Langsam saw a 28% drop in their default rate on ECB hearings related to FDNY, DEP and DOB violations.

With increased City enforcement comes more violations issued and, in turn, more hearings to keep track of. With constant updates from SiteCompli, Langsam stays ahead of the curve.

Housing Complaints

Tenant complaints made through the City’s 311 system are handled by the Housing Preservation Department (HPD), and if not handled can become expensive HPD violations.

The faster an organization finds out about tenant complaints, the faster they can resolve the issue, creating a better experience for the tenant and avoiding high costs for Emergency Repairs imposed by the City.

Since joining SiteCompli, Langsam has closed over 16,000 housing complaints without any resultant violations. Because SiteCompli data gets to the Langsam staff members who need it, when they need it, Langsam is able to handle complaints quickly and effectively, before City inspectors even arrive on site.

Continued Innovation and Additions

In the spring of 2014, Langsam took over the management of a group of 42 heavily distressed buildings and armed with SiteCompli data, reporting and alerting, began the task of elevating them to the Langsam brand standard.

Within four months, Langsam

• Cut the cost of defaults stemming from critical building-related ECB hearings in half
• Corrected and closed 3X the number of HPD violations than were closed on those buildings in the previous four months (1,000+ violations)
• Decreased the rate of HPD complaints resulting in violations by 80%

The Results

As an industry leader and a SiteCompli client since 2010, Langsam has been on the forefront of establishing best practices for managing building compliance. Langsam’s staff has provided critical feedback to SiteCompli as new regulatory issues have become central, resulting in an improved technology for Langsam and the broader real estate community.

“In just a few short years, SiteCompli has become an essential service provider to Langsam, and a valuable addition to the real estate industry as a whole,” explains Matt Engel, Vice President. “Real Estate is such a large asset class and SiteCompli provides critical transparency to ensure safety, efficiency and operational effectiveness.”

Mark Engel, President and CEO of Langsam, adds:

SiteCompli saves our staff countless hours, and saves our organization from paying unnecessary and costly fines. In our four years with SiteCompli, we have seen a marked improvement in how we track our data and our efficiency, as well as a decrease in our overall compliance costs, even in the face of increased enforcement and escalating fines.

Results

Products & Services Used