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I remember when ordering status certificates used to be simple. You would make a phone call to the property manager who would ask you to come by in seven days and bring a check with you to pay for the estoppel certificate. The process was further modified with a paper trail where you had to fill out a piece of paper with information to ensure accuracy and checks had to be delivered before you could get the order confirmed etc etc etc… It’s now become simple to order status certificate again unless you’re an owner at a Brookfield Real Estate Services managed condominium.
I love the internet and I think it’s the best thing since we were able to slice bread but sometime implementation of internet based services require additional due diligence. Brookfield just hired a company called Condo Cafe (www.condocafe.com) to handle all their requests for status certificates which as a business person makes sense to me. Why would you have someone in your office working full time generating status certificates when you can have the process automated with third party websites and phone service! It’s a great idea but the execution, in this instance, is poor!
The service went live this week and I’m one of the lucky ones to having to deal with it. The website has a nice interface but the condo building I’m looking to order a status certificate for doesn’t exist on the system. Naturally, you would call the number listed on the website where I’m being told to go back to Brookfield to get them to issue me a status. No problem, right? Wrong!
Brookfield doesn’t deal with status certificates anymore and all requests need to be sent back to Condo Cafe…
I’ve now opened a ticket and escalated it to the highest level within Condo Cafe to ensure I can get this certificate for our client.
An easy fix for this situation could’ve been to have an intern sit on the website and just search through all the addresses that Brookfield is managing. If one doesn’t show up, it gets flagged to be checked. I’m dealing with the Condo Cafe, who ironically are also using third party service providers to handle their phone calls, have poorly trained staff members who are also having to call others in their office to come help them to deal with this situation.
My day would’ve been spent better if I didn’t have to deal with this situation. I’m glad they are implementing a self help menu for their clients to make it easy to purchase status certificates but my experience with this round of ordering has been less than stellar… I hope all the kinks get worked out soon and I’m able to get my status certificate soon!
Let’s see how Condo Cafe responds to my escalating request and I may write a follow up on it if it’s a worthwhile read 🙂
Brookfield Property Management makes themselves look bad in owners, buyers, realtors and lawyer’s opinion. It is so hard to order status of certificate, they should have better property management to take care of buildings, condos, townhomes they take care of because certainly, they do not take care of their people (owners of units). They are not customer oriented and should be replaced by a better property management service.
I’ll actually defend Brookfield as I got an apology call on Monday from them as the particular building I was ordering for was never supposed to be on CondoCafe. There should’ve been better screening at the front desk to find out if I was a particular owner who should be contacting condo cafe or not. They called me back and expedited my status certificate to be ready in two days.
Now, I agree that it would’ve been better if I didn’t have to go through the whole process but even for them to keep track of me as a stakeholder shows that I was dealing with someone that valued customer service.
I think the condo cafe option they are implementing will allow them to worry more about managing the properties and less about having to deal with status certificates.
I hope the issues are all resolved before I have to order the next status…
I agree with you Beatrice, almost same situation i faced. They deal customers as a problem.