By Gareth Quin
Gathering consensus among homeowners has long been a difficult process for any communal residential environment. The nature of multiple owners living in an apartment block or gated estate is that decisions are difficult and making everyone happy is never an easy task.

Trustees are put in place and mandated to make calls in the best interests of the other owners. Often this ideal doesn’t translate into reality and frustrations arise. The truth of the matter is that most owners don’t want to be involved because it’s an effort. And, more often than not, these same owners get irritated when they see certain things happening on the property and only raise the issue when a decision has been made.The simple solution is to get a quick collective opinion from all the owners in the community and run with consensus on the issue. This ensures a pure democratic solution-solving process. The main issue is convenience. How can one get collective opinion effectively, where every owner can cast a vote without going through a laborious process every time a decision needs to be taken?The only real solution is to leverage technology. Use email, SMS and the web to provide a platform that creates a simple, seamless way for owners to have their say on all critical matters relating to the body corporate or home owners’ association.

It’s simply not practical to wait until an annual AGM, which is usually poorly attended in any event, to get collective opinion. If residential communities want to maintain a well-managed, connected environment among the owners, then making use of a digital voting platform is one way to ensure harmony and retain value for the common property.

The ability to receive issues up for vote by SMS and email makes it simple for everyone to give their input, guarantees fairness in decision making and eliminates unnecessary disputes among owners. Nowadays, a lot of people have holiday apartments and second homes where it is difficult to stay connected and communication is lacking. An online digital communication and voting system is one way to bring dislocated owners in a communal residential environment together without the effort.

Maintaining communications around the common property is crucial to protecting one’s investment and digital voting is a convenient solution to an age-old problem.

For more information on digital voting systems:

Log on and register at www.howzitt.com/inblox
Or email us on inblox@howzitt.com

Article reference: Volume 5, Issue 6

This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution license.