November 19, 2020

Letter to clients of Inspire Property Management

Re: Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) – New orders mandating masks and restricting gatherings

We continue to be proactive in our response to the ever-evolving situation surrounding the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

Earlier today the Provincial Government ordered requirements for wearing masks in indoor public spaces and workplaces, and prohibitions on private gatherings with people outside of one’s own household. These directives are binding upon strata corporations and should be adhered to until further restricted or rescinded.

We take our role in educating our clients about their duties and preventing the spread of the virus seriously. It is important that we consider the risks of and the way our staff members interact with clients during this outbreak. So, I would like to take this opportunity to inform our clients of policies currently in place at Inspire Property Management:

Council Meetings and General Meetings

Earlier in the year, the Province approved regulations which allowed strata corporation to hold meetings electronically during the state of emergency, even if a strata corporation does not have the bylaw ordinarily required to permit meetings by electronic means. Most of our clients have already shifted to telephone conference or online video meetings for their council meetings. This service has always been available free to our clients calling from Canada or the USA.

Some of our clients have preferred to conduct their council or annual general meetings in person- some councils discouraging in person attendance to avoid the contravening the prohibition on gatherings over 50 people that were in place before today’s orders. This approach was recently criticized by the Civil Resolution Tribunal at a meeting where many voters were denied an opportunity to vote in person or electronically. Even if unintentional voter suppression issues are cured, today’s orders will make the practice of restricted in person meetings impossible for most strata communities while the orders are in effect.  Accordingly, we have adopted the following policy:

• Our staff are no longer permitted to attend any non-essential meeting with clients.
• Our staff will encourage all our clients to hold essential meetings by electronic means (phone, video conference or other appropriate method).

We understand that this may limit attendance at meetings by clients without computers or telephone. Our strata managers will advise strata councils on methods to engage meaningfully with owners while physical attendance at meetings is prohibited or unsafe.

A council member who attempts to force a meeting to be held in person by refusing to attend a teleconference, or other reasonable and accessible form of electronic meeting, does not mean that a meeting in person is essential. Bluntly, the safety of our staff and other owners in our clients’ buildings is more important than the opinion of a small minority of people who believe that the pandemic is a hoax, or the government orders are optional.

Appointments and attendance in person at our offices

Our offices have always been by appointment only. Most matters can be addressed by phone or email. Nonetheless, we have noticed that clients are increasingly ignoring our requests to make appointments and not drop-in unannounced.

Our staff tries to be accommodating whenever someone attends our office unannounced. Unfortunately, there have been increased incidents of verbally abusive and unsafe behaviour by some owners who refuse to make appointments and drop-in to the office while visibly ill, refuse to wear a mask, or refuse to use hand sanitizer when politely requested.

Considering the new surge in cases, heath orders and recommendations, and the behaviour of a very small minority of clients, we are imposing new restrictions for our office locations:

• Clients are no longer permitted within any shared office space at either of our locations.
• Our staff are permitted to meet with clients in person for essential matters only. Masks will be required by all parties and physical distancing will be enforced. Clients will be asked to wash their hands or use hand sanitizer when they arrive.
• Clients who “prefer” to drop off documents, cheques, or chat in person, will be asked to leave the document with reception or slip it under our office door. Clients who refuse to comply will be turned away and asked to mail their documents, payments, or requests.

Making Payments

Our prohibition on in person cash payments made on March 16, 2020 remains in place. Nonetheless, a small minority of clients have ignored our repeated requests to mail payments or pay by pre-authorized debit. For the safety of our staff and clients, we have issued a new guidance to our strata managers:

• Our staff are encouraged to make written complaints to the strata council against any person who pays their fees after the due date and fails make reasonable efforts to pay their recurring fees on time.

If you do not already pay your fees by pre-authorized debit, we strongly encourage you to join the 96.7% who already do so. The sign-up form may be found here: https://inspirepm.com/PAD

If you must pay by cheque, mail the cheque rather than attend our office in person. It is best that you send post-dated cheques for the balance of the fiscal year, plus the 2 months into the next fiscal year or until the date that strata fees ordinarily change for your strata plan.

Again, we ask that you not come to our offices without first calling ahead to make an appointment. We will let you know whether your attendance in person is essential.

If you need to deliver a paper or document to our office, you are encouraged to contact the strata manager to confirm the correct address for delivery, fax it to (778) 760-9654, or email your strata manager at the email address for your community.

Inspire Property Management Ltd., per

Greg Bickert
President & Managing Broker

March 19, 2020

Letter to Inspire Property Management Clients

Re: Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) – Cash Payments No Longer Accepted

Dear valued clients,

We are continuing to be proactive in our response to the rapidly evolving situation surrounding the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

Earlier this week, our local Bank of Montreal Branch has closed its doors to the public due to insufficient staff to keep the teller services operational. This means that we can no longer make cash deposits on a regular or predictable basis. As such, we feel that the most appropriate measure it to temporary stop accepting cash payments.

We will continue to be able to deliver cheques to the bank for deposit. However, if we are not making the deposit with a teller, we will not receive deposit slips as usual. This increases the chances that a cheque may be processed incorrectly by the financial institution or not get processed because we will not be able to confirm the accuracy of the deposit while the transaction is being processed with the teller. We apologise in advance if a problem arises with your cheque payment as a result.

We are actively investigating the feasibility of using cheque scanners to remotely deposit cheques. However, ordering, testing, training and other factors may not make it possible- or prudent- for us to process cheques in this manner for several months.

Making Payments while cash is not being accepted

If you do not already pay your fees by pre-authorized debit, we strongly encourage you to join the 94.5% who already do so. The sign-up form may be found here: https://inspirepm.com/PAD

Many strata corporations already have bylaws which prohibit cash payments and require post-dated cheques or pre-authorized debit. We will be encouraging councils to enforce these bylaws and encouraging others to adopt similar bylaws.

If you need to make a one-time payment, we ask that you contact your manager to discuss sending a one-time Interac e-Transfer.

If you must pay by cheque, we will ask that our clients mail the cheque rather than attend our office in person.

Finally, if you do not have a bank account or must for some other reason use cash to make your strata fee payment, you should attend a financial institution to obtain an official cheque, draft or money order. Canada Post also offers a service to convert cash to a money order. More information about this service from Canada Post is available here: inspirepm.com/money-order

Moving Forward

At Inspire Property Management, we believe it is our role and responsibility during this time to prioritize the health and well-being of our clients while also playing a constructive role in supporting local health officials and government leaders as they work to contain the virus. Through that lens, we will continue to make vigilant decisions informed by the latest science-based information and guided by our mission and values.  

Thank you for being a loyal client. We are privileged to serve you and our community.

Inspire Property Management Ltd., per

Greg Bickert
President & Managing Broker

March 16, 2020

Letter to Inspire Property Management Clients

Re: Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19)

Dear valued clients,

The world is facing a global pandemic which has already had devastating effects. Our hearts go out to those affected by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). We hope that the actions of our world leaders, scientists and health professionals will prevent this outbreak from rising to the level of devastation seen during the last global pandemic of 1918-1920. But as always, our personal actions may have the greatest impact in managing the spread of disease.

I wanted to personally reach out to you to provide an update on the actions that Inspire Property Management is taking now that this serious illness has begun to spread in our region.

Health Canada and the World Health Organization has rated the risk associated with COVID-19 as low for the general population. However, there is increased risk of more serious outcomes for individuals aged 65 and older, with compromised immune systems, or with underlying medical conditions. We work with a great number of individuals who are most vulnerable to the serious effects of this illness. Moreover, we often attend meetings with large groups which increases the risk that our staff may become a vector in the spread of this disease, including to our vulnerable clients who may be at risk of a serious outcome.

We take our role in preventing the spread of the virus seriously. It is important that we consider the risks of and the way our staff members interact with clients during this outbreak.

Meetings

This morning, the Provincial Government ordered the cancellation of all meetings with more than 50 people attending. That directive is binding upon strata corporations and should be adhered to until further restricted or rescinded. Strata councils also need to consider modifying the way they convene smaller meetings or consider postponing them.

We are encouraging strata councils who have bylaws permitting meetings to be held by electronic means to take advantage of our telephone conference and/or video conference system. This service has always been available free to our clients calling from Canada or the USA.

We are encouraging strata corporations that have bylaws permitting general meetings to be held by electronic means to consider holding the meeting by phone or video conference. Meetings conducted using our video conference system will allow any owner with an internet connection and a modern desktop browser to easily participate and vote. We understand that not everyone can attend by video conference and that phone conference may limit voters from feeling like they can fully participate in the conversation. We will be training our staff on how to make the best use of our video and telephone conference system.

If your strata corporation has an upcoming annual general meeting but does not have bylaws permitting meetings to be held by phone or video conference, we will assist the the strata council to seek legal advice about balancing the contradicting legal requirements.

Appointments and in person attendance at our offices

Our offices have always been by appointment only. Our staff tries to be accommodating whenever someone attends our office unannounced, but without full time staff at either location, this has often caused avoidable inconvenience to our clients who have stopped in without making an appointment.

Most matters can be addressed by phone or email. You are strongly encouraged to call or email your strata manager rather than try to conduct your business in person, especially unannounced and without appointment.

If you need to deliver a document to our office, you are encouraged to mail it to one of our offices, fax it to (778) 760-9654, or email your strata manager at the email address for your community.

Working from Home

Inspire Property Management has invested in tools and software to make it easy for our strata managers to work just as well at home as they do when they are in the office. We will continue to make it as convenient as possible for our staff to work from wherever they are most efficient. We will be encouraging our strata managers to keep unnecessary trips to the office to a minimum. Again, it will be important that our clients make appointments with their strata manager and not stop by unexpectedly.

Making Payments

If you do not already pay your fees by pre-authorized debit, we strongly encourage you to join the 94.3% who already do so. The sign-up form may be found here: https://inspirepm.com/PAD

Cash has always been a vector for the spread of disease and infections. It also adds additional administrative costs, special trips to the bank, and additional banking fees, all of which is paid for by the strata ownership generally and not by the person who chooses to pay in cash rather than by post-dated cheque or pre-authorized debit.

Many strata corporations already have bylaws which prohibit cash payments and require post-dated cheques or pre-authorized debit. We will be encouraging councils to enforce these bylaws and encouraging others to adopt similar bylaws.

If you need to make a one-time payment, we ask that you contact your manager to discuss sending a one-time Interac e-Transfer.

If you must pay by cheque, we will ask that our clients mail the cheque rather than attend our office in person.

Again, we ask that you not come to our offices without first calling ahead to make an appointment.

Moving Forward

At Inspire Property Management, we believe it is our role and responsibility during this time to prioritize the health and well-being of our clients while also playing a constructive role in supporting local health officials and government leaders as they work to contain the virus. Through that lens, we will continue to make vigilant decisions informed by the latest science-based information and guided by our mission and values.

Thank you for being a loyal client. We are privileged to serve you and our community.

Inspire Property Management Ltd., per

Greg Bickert
President & Managing Broker