OH&S Standards...A Timely Reminder..
1-Oct-2005
By Peter Lowenstern, REIV Corporate Solicitor
The recent murder of Melton agent’s representative Lorelle Makin has highlighted the need for estate agencies, estate agents,a nd agent’s representatives to take appropriate measures for personal safety when attending appointments out of the office.
The Occupational Health and Safety Act (2004) imposes an obligation on employers to provide systems of work that are safe, so far as is reasonably practicable. This means employees have to be provided with appropriate information, instructions, training and supervision to enable them to carry out their work in safety.
Likewise, when at work the Act requires employees to take reasonable care for their safety.
Workplace safety is a joint responsibility. It requires consultation to devise safe systems of work, so far as is reasonably practicable. With consultation in mind, remember no one has cornered the market for good ideas. Everyone at your workplace has something useful to contribute, so far as safety out to the office is concerned.
Here are 12 useful ideas your agency can adopt, or adapt, when setting up procedures to be followed by everyone who works away from the office.
1. Do not advertise a property as being vacant, or use words that could readily suggest it is vacant. For example, “executor’s auction”, “deceased estate”, or “mortgagee’s sale”. Properties that are obviously vacant can attract thieves and other undesirables.
2. Whenever possible, meet prospective purchasers and tenants at your office before conducting an inspection. This gives you the opportunity to record their details, including telephone numbers and addresses. It also gives you the opportunity to ensure they have identified themselves satisfactorily. Introduce them to other people at your office. This means there is shared knowledge of them, an important deterrent for someone who is up to no good.
3. Have an appointments book with your receptionist. Ensure all staff know they must complete it before they go out to an appointment. It will record the staff member’s name, the name of the person he or she is meeting and their ‘phone number, the address of the property to which the staff member is going, the purpose of the appointment, the staff member’s mobile number, the time of the appointment (and, importantly, an estimate of when it will end), the staff member’s car rego number, and the estimated time of return. If your prospect is with you at the time, introduce him or her to your receptionist and let him or her see you complete the appointments book.
4. Use a buddy system. Your receptionist is everyone’s buddy. All staff must have a mobile ‘phone and have it on at all times when out at appointments. When a staff member finishes an appointment, the first thing he or she must do is call your receptionist. If a call is not made within, say, 10 minutes of the estimated time the appointment will end, the receptionist calls the staff member. If contact cannot be made after, say, a further three calls ten minutes apart, the receptionist knows, as does the staff member who is out of the office, the police are to be informed. For out of hours appointments, each staff member has another staff member as a buddy. The buddy is given the particulars that must be recorded in the appointments book and takes on the receptionist’s role.
5. Never go to an evening inspection of vacant premises unaccompanied.
6. Always confirm appointments with prospective purchasers and tenants by phone before leaving the office. If you are unable to confirm an appointment, do not go to it, and arrange another time.
7. When conducting an open for inspection, park your car where it cannot be blocked-in, arrive early and ensure you are aware of entrances and where they lead to, so you can leave quickly, if necessary. Place yourself near the front entrance to greet people when they arrive and record their particulars. It is a good idea to have conditions of entry displayed prominently at the main entrance. One of these should be a requirement for people to present ID. Identity should be proven by a driver’s licence, the number of which you will record.
8. When conducting an open, or any other inspection, never enter a room before, or precede along a passage ahead of, the person to whom you are showing the property. Always let them go ahead.
9. If you feel unsafe about going to an appointment, trust your instinct: don’t go. Call the person you were going to meet and make an excuse.
10. If you fee threatened at an appointment, report the matter to your employer immediately upon return to the office. Advise the police, if appropriate. If you feel you are in a threatening situation and are unable to leave immediately, make an excuse to call your receptionist/buddy with a coded message that indicates you are in trouble and the police should be called straight away. For example, your coded message might be to say “Hi, I’ve left the file for the Wilson Crescent property on my desk, could you look at it and tell me the planning scheme zoning, please?”.
11. Junior and inexperienced staff, especially females, should never be allowed to go to appointments unaccompanied.
12. If you are selling or managing a property with difficult vendors or tenants who may have a propensity for threatening behaviour or actual violence ensure your file records this, all staff are aware of the situation and no staff member attends the property unaccompanied.
