Practical guide
How to prioritise and track condominium reports
Prioritising reports in a condominium means deciding, objectively rather than by gut feeling, which issue to tackle first. A flood in progress and a burnt-out light bulb cannot sit on the same level. A triage method based on risk to people, damage to the building and number of owners affected lets the condominium manager respond first where it truly matters, justify the choices if challenged and avoid leaving minor requests behind. Traceability completes the chain: every report receives a status, an owner and a date, so nothing is lost among phone calls and emails.
Checklist for assigning priority
- Ask the reporter how long the problem has lasted and whether it is worsening
- Assess the risk to personal safety (gas leaks, falls, electrical systems, a lift stuck with people inside)
- Assess progressive damage to the building (leaks, floods, structural failures)
- Estimate how many owners or units are involved
- Check whether a legal obligation or deadline imposes fixed timescales
- Assign a priority band and tell the reporter the expected time to take charge
Why you need a criterion, not instinct
Without an explicit criterion, the order in which reports are handled ends up depending on who called most insistently or which email arrived last. It is an unfair way to work: the loudest voice gets served before the person with an objectively more serious problem. A written criterion overturns this logic and puts real risk at the centre.
Article 1130 of the Italian Civil Code entrusts the condominium manager with providing common services and carrying out conservative acts on the common parts. Giving priority to interventions that protect safety and preserve the building is therefore not just good organisation, but consistent with the duties of the mandate. A transparent method also protects the manager, because it makes the choices demonstrably non-arbitrary.
The three triage questions
Every report can be assessed with three quick questions. The first concerns people: is there an immediate safety risk? A lift stuck with someone inside, a smell of gas, an exposed electrical cable demand top priority and the immediate activation of emergency services or the on-call technician.
The second question concerns the building: does the damage grow over time? A leak or a flood worsens hour by hour and must be tackled before a static problem. The third question concerns extent: how many units are affected? A fault in the common system affects everyone, a leak in a single property has a narrower perimeter, though it still needs managing.
- Critical priority: danger to people, immediate intervention
- High priority: damage worsening over time or an essential service interrupted for many
- Medium priority: disruption affecting few or not worsening quickly
- Low priority: cosmetic requests, improvements, schedulable maintenance
From status to closure: tracking every request
Assigning a priority is of little use if the report is then lost. Every request should have a well-defined status, for example received, taken in charge, in progress, awaiting third parties and closed. The status shows at a glance where the case stands and who has to make the next move.
Each report should be linked to an owner, an opening date and an expected intervention date. When the work passes to a supplier, the status records it and the owner knows they have not been forgotten. At closure it helps to note what was done: the same report may recur, and the history saves you from starting over.
Communicating priority to the owner
Low priority does not mean no reply. An owner who reports a cosmetic improvement is entitled to know that the request has been recorded and will be assessed in due course, perhaps taken to the owners' meeting if it involves spending. Frustration comes from silence, not from a justified wait.
It is worth explaining, when needed, why one intervention comes before another. Telling someone with a broken shutter that the office is dealing with a flood in the basement makes the work order understandable. Transparency about priorities reduces disputes far more than any justification given after the fact.
Organising the flow with management software
A spreadsheet may suffice for a few buildings, but when reports multiply you need a tool that holds priority, status, owner and history together. Dedicated management software lets you open each report as a ticket, assign it, update its status and keep the communication with the owner in a single place.
AmministraPro gathers owner requests into an orderly flow, with statuses, priorities and assignment to the supplier, so no report goes unanswered. The features are described on the /funzioni page and the available plans on the /prezzi page, with options suited both to the practice managing a few buildings and to those following many.
Frequently asked questions
Who decides the priority of a report?
The decision rests with the condominium manager, acting within the mandate received and the duties to preserve the common parts set out in Article 1130 of the Italian Civil Code. Applying a written criterion that is the same for everyone makes the choice objective and defensible, avoiding a situation where whoever protests loudest simply prevails.
Must a flood be handled at once, even at night?
Yes, a flood in progress is damage that worsens rapidly and must be tackled without waiting for office hours, activating the on-call technician or emergency services. It falls among the urgent conservative acts the manager may order to limit damage to the common parts and to the properties involved.
How do I stop minor requests being forgotten?
By assigning a status and a date to every report, including low-priority ones. A request recorded as received and awaiting assessment does not disappear: it stays in the list until it is closed. Systematic tracking, not memory, is what stops small requests from being lost.
Should I tell the owner the priority assigned?
It is good practice to communicate at least the taking in charge and the expected intervention time. Explaining, when useful, why another report comes first eases tension. An owner accepts a justified wait more readily than prolonged silence, and transparency about the work order prevents many disputes.
Do I need software to manage priorities?
For a few buildings an orderly register may be enough, but with many units management software makes the flow sustainable. Tools such as AmministraPro let you classify reports, assign them and follow their status through to closure in a single place. The features are on the /funzioni page and the plans on the /prezzi page.
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