What’s the most important policy used in your housing organization? Can you share it with other members?
Do you have an internal policy that your organization refers to every day that you think should be included in our policy template guide?
BCNPHA’s Policy Template Guide is one of our most accessed resources – and we are looking to bring it up to date. We came up with a list of policy templates that we will be updating to bring in line with best practices, legislation and operating requirements over the next few months. We want to make sure that our list includes all your most important policies that others may also be able to benefit from.
Here is a list of the new policies we are planning to add:
- Board Evaluation
- Code of Conduct – Board & Staff
- Elder Abuse
- Equity, Diversity & Inclusion
- Harassment & Bullying
- Privacy
- Record Keeping
- Technology Use
- Tenant Relations
Do you think that there are any other policies that we need to add and include in our sector guide? Let us know at research@bcnpha.ca or connect with Peer-Daniel by phone at 778.945.2161.
Draft Policy Templates – Full List
Financial Management |
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| Budgeting | To establish a process for setting and monitoring revenue and expense targets that will provide our tenants with a reasonable standard of accommodation and preserve the value of our assets. |
| Cash Handling & Petty Cash | To state the circumstances under which the society will accept cash as payment and to establish guidelines for its security.
To establish a system to control petty cash account(s). |
| Financial Reporting | To make clear the society’s expectations regarding the frequency and content of financial reports. |
| Investments | To ensure that the society’s reserves and surplus cash are prudently invested consistent with our investment objectives and available when we need them. |
| Rents Collections and Arrears & Returned Cheques | To set due dates for rent and establish consequences for late payments.
To establish guidelines that will allow administrators to assess charges for cheques that fail to clear the bank for any reason. |
| Replacement Reserves | To maintain the marketability of our units by establishing and administering a reserve fund for the replacement of capital items, as required by our operating agreement. |
| Security Deposits | To clarify the legal rights and responsibilities of both landlords and tenants with regard to security deposits and to establish our own guidelines for accepting and refunding them. |
| Signing & Spending Authority & Purchasing | To ensure adequate controls over the society’s spending and provide for the security of its funds, while allowing administrators to conduct society business efficiently.
To set out appropriate purchasing methods for purchases of different amounts. |
| Tendering & Contracts | To establish a process for tendering major contracts.
To govern the letting and administration of contracts for work undertaken by firms or individuals with whom the society does not have an employer-employee relationship. |
Governance & Administration |
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| General | |
| Confidentiality | To protect the dignity of tenants and the security of personal and financial information the society may gather on individuals. |
| Corporate Expenses | To provide a framework for reimbursing employees and directors who incur expenses when doing society business. |
| Education and Training | To foster excellent governance and management by supporting personal and professional development opportunities for both directors and staff. |
| Insurance | To entrench the directors’ ongoing responsibility to adequately insure the society’s buildings and other property against loss and liability claims. |
| Board | |
| Committees | To make clear the roles, responsibilities and authority of board committees in the administration of the society and its development(s). |
| Conflict of Interest | To define what constitutes a conflict of interest for directors and describe how they will be expected to deal with it. |
| Job Description | To make clear the role, duties and authority of the society’s directors. |
| Meetings and Attendance | To set out the society’s expectations of directors regarding attendance at board and committee meetings. |
| Reporting Relationships | To establish clear lines of authority and accountability between the board, its committees and staff. |
| Succession and Recruitment | To ensure board continuity and an orderly succession of capable committed directors from one term to the next. |
| Personnel | |
| Call-outs | To establish guidelines for caretakers called out to deal with emergencies or other extraordinary circumstances. |
| Conflict of Interest | To define what constitutes a conflict of interest for staff and describe how they will be expected to deal with it. |
| Hiring | To ensure that the society hires well-qualified staff for available positions and complies with human rights and other applicable legislation. |
| Hours of Work and Overtime | To state what the society regards as a normal working day and establish guidelines for compensating overtime work. |
| Leaves and Vacations | To establish the type and extent of leaves from work available to employees. |
| Performance Appraisals | To clarify the purpose of staff performance appraisals and establish how frequently they should be conducted. |
| Remote Working | To set the parameters and standards for employees working remotely. |
| Salaries and Benefits | To set the parameters and standards we wish to adhere to in compensating staff. |
| Tenants | |
| Applications & Selection | To establish a transparent, understandable and consistent method of receiving and processing applications for housing from prospective tenants.
To establish a fair, equitable and consistent method of selecting tenants for our developments. |
Maintenance |
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| Condition Inspections | To ensure that units are in a rentable condition when a new tenant moves in and responsibility for any damage is properly assessed. |
| Environmental Controls | To ensure that the society’s maintenance and groundskeeping activities are carried out in an ecologically responsible manner. |
| Keys and Locks (Security) | To balance the society’s right to enter suites and control security with tenants’ right to privacy. |
| Standards of Maintenance – Buildings, Grounds & Units | To provide guidance in setting routines and schedules that will prolong the life of our buildings and maintain our development(s) in a state of good repair.
To provide guidance in setting routines and schedules that will maintain the health of plantings and the general appearance of our property and grounds. To clarify what constitutes an acceptable state of habitability in individual units and to guide the enforcement of standards and the prioritizing of needed repairs. |
| Tenant Alterations and Decorating | To provide guidelines for tenants who wish to personalize their homes and for evaluating their requests to do so. |
| Tenant Maintenance & Responsibilities | To encourage tenants to take pride in their homes and to keep up their own units and yards. |
| Tenant Requested Repairs | To set up a fair and equitable way to prioritize tenants’ requests for repairs to their units. |
| Unit Inspections | To set a standard for frequency and quality of unit inspections that will supply information for maintenance scheduling and budgeting. |
Tenants |
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| Cannabis | To establish guidelines for the use and growth of cannabis. |
| Common Areas (Internal) | To establish guidelines for the hours and use of (a) the community room and kitchen, (b) the laundry (c) outdoor areas. |
| Community Room Rental (External) | To establish guidelines for the use of a community room by groups other than tenants. |
| Dispute Resolution
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To establish a fair method of resolving tenant grievances and minimize the number of landlord-tenant disputes that go to arbitration.
To ensure that complaints are dealt with promptly, consistently, and fairly. |
| Emergency Preparedness & Response | To ensure that the organization and its tenants can respond quickly and appropriately to emergencies and to prevent them if possible. |
| Eviction | To ensure that the rights and responsibilities of both landlord and tenant are met when a tenant is evicted. |
| Good Neighbour | To encourage neighbourly attitudes among tenants and to control and prevent unacceptable behaviour that degrades the quality of life within our community. |
| Guests and Visitors | To make tenants’ visitors and guests welcome in our developments while defining when a visitor becomes a permanent tenant. |
| Home-based Businesses | To clarify the circumstances under which tenants will be allowed to do business from their homes. |
| Internal Transfers | To permit tenant transfers between different units in the society’s building(s) under certain circumstances. |
| Inter-tenant Conflict Resolution | To establish a process that will help settle disputes and disagreements among tenants amicably. |
| Over- and Under-housing | To define the number of tenants that can live in units of a given size and offer guidelines for dealing with irregularities. |
| Parking | To provide tenants with rules for the use of their parking spaces and those for visitors. |
| Pets and Pet Damage | To regulate the number, type and behaviour of pets in our developments and to stress tenant responsibility for pets. |
| Quiet Hours | To reduce conflict within developments by regulating noisy activities that may disturb others. |
| Rent Increases-Market Units | To ensure that the amount and timing of rent increases are clear and equitable to all tenants and comply with the Residential Tenancy Act. |
| Rent Subsidies | To set out the criteria that qualify tenants for subsidized rent (rent geared to income) and establish an application process for subsidies. |
| Tenant Diversity | To foster respect and tolerance for the diverse economic and cultural backgrounds that are represented among our tenants.
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| Tenant Involvement & Relations | To recognize tenants as important stakeholders in their own housing and to provide them with opportunities to help create a sense of community in all our developments.
To build and enhance relationships between tenants and the staff and board. |
| Tenant Notice to Vacate | To set out the rights and responsibilities of both the landlord and the tenant when the tenant gives notice to end a tenancy. |
SENIORS AND SPECIAL NEEDS POLICIES
Specific Policies for Seniors Hsng.* |
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| Aging in Place | To guide staff and directors in establishing resources and services that will help tenants age at home. |
| Death or Medical Emergency | To establish a system for notifying tenants’ family or other supporters in the event of illness, accident or death. |
| Exiting | To guide staff in understanding under what circumstances tenants can no longer live safe, dignified and independent lives in our development. |
| External Support Services | To establish a system for identifying and registering professionals other than our own staff who may be providing care or services to tenants. |
| Meals and Homemaking Services | To clarify what food and housekeeping services, if any, will be provided or arranged for tenants. |
| Medical Information | To ensure that the society has the information necessary to assist tenants in the event of illness or emergency. |
| Monitoring/Buddy System (Safety) | To establish and support a self-help system of daily tenant monitoring that will ensure tenant safety. |
| Palliative Care | To help guide staff and directors in providing support services for terminally ill tenants. |
Specific Policies for Special Needs* |
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| Discharge | To guide staff in deciding under what circumstances our program can no longer adequately serve the medical or psychological needs of tenant/clients.
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| Meals and Household Management | To clarify for tenants and staff their respective responsibilities for buying food, preparing meals and managing household chores. |
| Personal Care Assistance | To establish methods of personal care assistance that maximize the comfort, dignity and independence of tenants. |
| Personal Financial Management | To ensure the security of funds belonging to clients who need assistance with managing their money. |
| Program Admissions/Requirements | To establish criteria for determining whom it is appropriate to admit into our program and what our expectations of them are. |
| Tenant Abuse | To help identify signs and types of abuse and create an environment for tenants that is free of abuse or neglect by staff, volunteers or other tenants. |