Risk Management for the Self Manager

When you take the self-management route with your vacation rental, your goal is to retain more profit by “sweat equity”. You are acting as property manager. This is the path to the highest level of profit, provided that you have TIE – Time, Interest, and Energy – in managing your property.

An oft-overlooked component of self-management is risk management. When you utilize a quality property manager, the PM should be minding and managing the risks of your rental: Keeping walkways cleared, pest control, keeping stairs and rails in good repair, keeping hot tub chemicals maintained, etc. And if a claim does arise, often the Property Manager is sued alongside the homeowner, if not instead of the homeowner.

When you self-manage, it is essential that you are covering your bases on the risk management front. After 17 years of management, I have heard of all kinds of guest claims:

• Injuries sustained from bee/wasp/yellowjacket stings
• Several injuries from falling down stairs – faulty, loose railing or stairs
• A property claim from a dead tree that fell onto a car overnight
• Illness borne from a hot tub that was poorly maintained
• Eye injury from a fish hook, on fishing equipment left accessible by the homeowner
• Injury from a burn sustained by a propane gas grill that had grease buildup on the burner

If you are self-managing, at a minimum, it would be money wisely-spent to hire a risk management consultant to come to your property once a year and inspect it. They will find potential hazards that probably never occurred to you, but could potentially be dangerous for your guests, resulting in legal exposure to you.

Finally, be careful about offering equipment to your guests – flotation devices, fishing gear, go-karts, bicycles. By offering these, you are effectively signing off on their adequacy and safety, and endorsing whatever activity those devices are used for. If someone drowns in a river using a flotation device provided by you, well, you can see where this could head. Have a solid policy in place as to the maintenance of your hot tub. Stay on top of your monthly pest control.  Take a walk around your property once or twice a year to identify dead or dying trees that could fall on someone, or someone's property.

Risk management is part of your job as a self-manager. In fact, it may be the most important part.  Take it seriously.