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Audit Trail: A Community’s Best Defense Against Key Loss and Liability

audit trailMultifamily communities come in all shapes and sizes; however, they all require an equally effective key control policy to ensure resident safety and reduce liability exposure. Here are three reasons why an audit trail can be a multifamily community’s best defense against key loss and liability.

#1 Who has the keys?

The main security issue presented by traditional key systems and hook boards is keys going missing without a trace. Missing keys are not only a source of stress, they put the community’s management company at risk. How, you ask? Consider that a potential resident has arrived and is waiting to view an apartment home. If the key hunt takes too long, you could lose the prospect for good. “I’ll come back later”, often never happens and losing potential residents hurts your occupancy rate. And what if an employee needs to inspect a unit or make a repair? Every minute spent searching for the key kills productivity and wastes money.

Employee resentment can also quickly build-up when keys go missing. Everyone dislikes the exhaustive search and unhappy, frustrated employees are more likely to seek employment elsewhere. As a result, the property management company then faces understaffing issues in addition to future hiring and training costs.

#2: Accountability

When there is no accountability, it is easy for individuals involved to shirk responsibility:

– Imagine that an employee is working with a potential resident when someone interrupts and asks where a set of keys are. The easiest thing to say is, “I don’t know” and go back to the task at hand. And in the event the employee shifts their attention to the key search, he or she might lose the prospect.

– That same key we spoke of earlier, might have been accidentally taken home. If the employee knows there’s no audit trail in place, they may be inclined to stay quiet and return it the next day when no one’s around. Otherwise, a trip back to work to return a key will take away free time.

– A vacant apartment home is left unlocked after a showing and is vandalized overnight. No one owns up. This costs money to repair.

– Keys are lost and truly missing. The property has to pay for a replacement, wasting money.

Using an electronic key management system like HandyTrac, property managers can instantly reveal who last checked out a specific key using a secure audit trail. The system can also run a report of the key’s checkout history. Instead of hassling everyone, only this single employee is contacted. Employees will immediately understand that they are responsible for all keys they check out. A key control system creates a culture of accountability. A key hook board doesn’t.

#3: Instant reporting

By running reports generated using a secure audit trail, managers can quickly see:

– At the end of a shift and close to closing time, which keys are still checked out? Go round up any that should be checked in!

– How many times has a specific apartment home been viewed? Who has checked out the keys, when and for what purpose?

– What is a specific employee doing? What keys have they recently taken out and why?

With HandyTrac’s audit trail generated reports, managers are fully aware of community ongoings and can ensure a safe environment for residents and employees alike.

HandyTrac offers two excellent electronic key management systems including the new Touch system; featuring a large touch screen display and biometric technology for added security. Ask us for a quote and build a culture of accountability at your community today!

What is Premises Security Liability?

security liabilityIn any type of multifamily housing — be it apartment communities, student or military housing — the safety of your residents is an ongoing point of concern. Without proper security measures in place, if someone becomes a victim of a crime while on your property, that person could potentially hold your company legally responsible on the grounds of premises security liability.

Simply put, premises security liability means that as a property owner/manager, you are expected to have reasonable security measures in place, and if you are found negligent on that front, you could be legally liable for any harm or damage deriving from a crime. This article in Justia explains further:

“An injured person is able to bring a negligent security suit based on the duty imposed on landowners and possessors of property to offer reasonable security measures and protect lawful visitors from foreseeable crimes of third parties. Negligent security assumes that the crime could have been prevented or at least made less likely by using appropriate security measures.”

The Hidden Weakness: Key Control

Most multifamily housing communities understand and implement basic security measures to reduce the risk of crime — for example, installing security cameras and gated entry systems, or implementing ample lighting across the premises. However, proper key control is one aspect of premises security that can be easily overlooked.

With a large number of home invasions, robberies, burglaries and sexual assaults, the predator didn’t need to break in because they were able to obtain a key. In fact, as we mention here, one of the biggest jury awards given in a premises security liability case was one in which a rapist broke into the management office and found the key to his victim’s apartment clearly labeled.

Since the management oversees keys to all units, protecting and monitoring the use of those keys is one of the most important parts of keeping residents safe — and also one of the aspects most likely to be targeted for negligence. Not only do the keys need to be kept secure, but their use needs to be tracked. You need an audit trail — you need to be able to document and trace who had use of the keys, when they obtained them and when they were returned.

Obviously, not all crimes can be prevented, but one of the best ways you can improve safety for your residents is by implementing a secure system for key control. This also serves as a tremendous safeguard against premises security liability.

HandyTrac offers a variety of state-of-the-art key control systems that keep keys secure while generating a reliable audit trail. To learn more, contact us today.