Reducing Risk and Saving Time through Vendor Credentialing
Hiring a vendor without verifying criminal records, insurance and financial standing can result in poor work, fraud or lost money. It’s always a risk, but becomes even more so at 3 a.m. when there is a major plumbing issue and a new contractor is hired because a preferred, long-standing vendor can’t be reached.
Every day in single family property management, new vendor relationships are forged. But the problem, says RealPage Vendor Credentialing Vice President Tracy Castleman, is that vendors aren’t always fully vetted, which puts companies at risk.
A non-credentialed vendor may refuse to take responsibility for poor workmanship or damage, and the management company may have no recourse. But a comprehensive vendor credentialing program can help property managers avoid being left holding the bag.
An informal poll in a recent Propertyware webcast, “Vendor Credentialing 101,” revealed that most respondents handle vendor credentialing internally, but 23 percent didn’t routinely check to verify their vendors’ insurance coverage.
With RealPage® Vendor Credentialing, property managers can reduce risk and time through a cloud-based solution that delivers end-to-end vendor compliance and risk mitigation for single family and multifamily properties. Vendor credentialing is comprehensively managed, and more critical information about plumbers, electricians, HVAC professionals – anyone who performs a specific vendor service– is readily available for review. RealPage® Vendor Credentialing handles all the legwork and paperwork to ensure vendors meet company policies and standards.
Vendor Credentialing handles all the legwork and paperwork to ensure vendors meet company policies and standards….Wikipedia
“If you are not collecting policy endorsements, that’s huge,” Castleman said. “That’s a red flag for me. It’s not enough to simply collect an endorsement, you need to evaluate the content of the endorsement to ensure that the coverage you are looking for is there and there isn’t an exclusion sitting there that will impact the coverage you are trying to achieve.”