It has nearly become a full time job dealing with Compliance Depot and several other like companies

As a reputable vendor in the multi-family industry, it has nearly become a full time job dealing with Compliance Depot and several other like companies. I completely understand the need for these companies and agree that compliance is important. I’m curious though, is Compliance Depot as big of a headache for the properties as it is for vendors? For us, it is the required “verbiage” on the COI that is constantly changing that frustrates me the most. I know how vendors feel about Compliance Depot, but what about managers and maintenance? Is it worth it to use these companies or is old school better? Has it limited your available vendors to chose from?

We feel the same way. It's a necessary frustration. Yes, it limits our pool of vendors. Old school requires the managers to ensure there is sufficient insurance etc. and Managers are just too busy to ensure this.

I promise, it is a pain for us too....lol.

CD is a big headache. I think many of our good vendors don’t want to jump thru hoops just to work.

We use RMIS which is essentially the same thing (I’ve used Compliance Depot in the past as well).
It’s very easy for us on the property side and I find that it does not limit my vendors (If I want to use someone who isn’t certified, I tell them to get certified).
My only headache with it is the vendors who aren’t completing their paperwork for certification/ recert correctly and therefore are still pending in RMIS, yet keep calling me harassing me about invoices and me having to consistently tell them that I would be happy to pay their invoice as soon as they are certified. For some vendors this is an ongoing issue and they just don’t seem to get it.
I have a budget to stick with and I WANT to pay your bills on time and in accordance to my budget... I’m not purposely blowing your invoice off. There’s a reason it hasn’t been paid.
I am extremely happy with RMIS and Compliance Depot doing the work for us (I don’t have time for all that honestly) and def would not want it to go back to how it was in the old days with vendors submitting COIs to me personally.

I just started using and want to die. It is hard to find vendors now and they usually don’t want to figure it out or call people to help get it figured out. I wish I could just do it myself for them. I hate it.

Denise Phillips Rowe- when I worked with Greystar we used CD. That was my only experience with it. But, on my side of things, it was a tedious and time consuming work load to use. It was frustrating for us and for the vendors who weren’t familiar. A constant ‘having to explain’ and weeding through the steps in our back end of the system. I much prefer NOT using CD. But I have mad respect for the properties who do and make it look easy. I know it HAS TO BE FRUSTRATING on the vendor side. B

CD and RMIS are huge pains. Hard time getting vendors.

Feeling is mutual. I hate having to look for an approved vendor

As a vendor, it has been a pain since day one. We work for over 1000 apartment communities and have to go through the BS for every one. If a manager puts our company name in slightly different, CD creates a new account. Why they cannot use our tax ID number so one registration is good for every community is bizarre. It's not about paying, it's pure stupidity on the part of CD and the others.

There should be an exemption for companies like my law firm where we do not step foot on a property.

Harry Heist that is 100% a management company decision. They can exempt.

Do not get me started..! I could write a book about this subject...

They have streamlined the process by creating the Key program. Once you are fully in compliance, any management company under this program you become automatically approved.
Just pay the fee and fill out a W9.
Just looking at some positive here lol.

It is a bit of a hassle....but some folks's legal teams have them so locked down, if you get into llitigation down the road, the outcome can hinge on improper wording on a cert of insurance. Blame litigiousness if anything.

We are a larger vendor and have HR handle this, I don't know how smaller vendors have the time.

It’s really not that hard to use. We can send the vendor a packet with detailed instructions to get setup and in compliance, along with the phone number and email to use for assistance. Vendors that want to do business with us will take the time to set it up right the first time and ensure COI is updated at required.

Josh Stephens agreed but why not see that we already are approved and with a tax ID number be done with it? Often my staff has to do this multiple times for the same company, just different properties.

Harry Heist Then that’s on the property. This means they are not taking the time to search Compliance Depot for approved vendors and add them to their approved vendor list for that property. I always start my asking the vendor if they are already approved in Compliance Depot and ask for their Vendor ID#

It’s a PITA from a vendor standpoint. Even just renewing the info each year is difficult. We send in the updated docs and they are rejected multiple times. Our insurance agent hates the process as well. What companies don’t understand is vendors pass these expenses on to the customer. If a customer requires a vendor to pay a fee to CD that fee ultimately gets passed on through higher pricing to the customer.

Everything old school works better imho. I think it makes the whole thing more costly than it needs to be. That's true with most things.

The struggle is real on site

It’s a pain for us mangers because it is a pain for our vendors!

Compliance Depot is the

CD never seems to return calls or e-mails. We have lost work waiting to be approved and in some cases decided the work just wasn't worth the hassle when we could be just doing work rather than chasing a 3rd party who had no real skin in the game so we can do work. Tough all the way around for everybody.

With more and more day-to-day tasks being automated, I think that managers and management companies should be able to ensure that the correct vendor insurance is in place. In the past, we had time to hand deliver community notices to all doors, keep track of physical guest cards, and create renewal offers one by one. We even drove checks to the bank and manually posted to each ledger! These are just a few of the tasks that are now automated on the site level. We should be able to find a few extra minutes to look at a document and verify insurance compliance.

What I find frustrating is when the property / compliance company decides to pay my invoice with a credit card and then turns around and charges me a fee for payment processing on a credit card they chose to use. What!? Additionally, the contract the compliance organizations send you asking you to sign before they can do business with you does not apply to your industry and seems to be a blanket construction contract. I know several vendors that have said enough is enough and have chosen not work with organizations that utilize a compliance company due to all the hoops that have to be jumped through.

We've sent quite a few clients to NetVendor and they're much happier with the level of service over Compliance Depot.

I explain it to my owner-clients this way. "Your costs will be inversely proportional to your risk tolerance." In other words, expect to pay more if you want to reduce your potential risk. A key reason smaller owners and operators are able to work more efficiently and ultimately achieve lower costs is they tend to have a greater tolerance for risk. Larger companies with far more investors and greater exposure commonly feel the need to eliminate as many risks as possible, but they also understand this comes at a cost.

Programs like the one you are concerned about are perceived and sold as nearly free for the buyer, so why not take advantage. This is short-sighted. As you point out, there is absolutely a cost involved.

Years ago I worked in the commercial cleaning business. We did work for petrochemical companies that required us to pay their compliance vendor to monitor us. The costs and paperwork were extraordinary. At first we complained. After all, we were simply cleaning office buildings. We weren't wrenching on pipes full of killer chemicals. Of course in the end, the customer gets what they want and we had to appreciate that their level of risk tolerance, however misguided we thought it was, was what we had to embrace. Instead of being upset, we simply sent them a bill. We put a value on their demands, were firm and transparent with our margin requirements and said, "if this is what you want, here's what it will cost." Some dropped their demands, others paid. Because we delivered excellent service, no one considered firing us.

Good business executives understand how to balance risk and costs effectively. Generally speaking when it comes to vendor services, the multifamily industry is a very low risk business. This is why, unless some REIT is forcing us, we skip this added compliance cost. What I do expect is that all vendors we work with are managing their affairs professionally, are paying attention to risk management, are properly insured and are indemnifying us for their issues. After all, one of the reasons we engage contractors is to transfer risk.

The great thing about American business and free trade is we never have to say no or be unhappy, we just adjust the price!