Polls: Getting a Decision From Twelve Owners Without Twelve Phone Calls
Anyone who has managed a block of flats knows the problem: one decision, many people, no meeting. Polls are built for exactly that.
A building has a roof. The roof needs work. Three contractors have quoted. Twelve owners must choose one, and the service charge will not be raised until they do. What follows, in most managing agents' offices, is a fortnight of phone calls, a reply-all thread that collapses on day three, and a decision that is eventually made by whoever answered the phone last.
A poll from the case
On the building case, the Polls tab. Create a poll: the question, the options (Contractor A, B, C — with the quotes attached as files), single or multiple choice, a deadline, and whether votes are named or anonymous. Recipients are the people linked to the case — every owner in their contact role — or a pool drawn from the sub-cases, one owner per unit.
Each recipient receives a secure link. They open it with a one-time email code (or a password you shared separately), confirm they are opening the poll, and vote. A read receipt tells you who has seen it. "Remind non-voters" nudges the ones who have not.
Results when you say so
Votes are private until the sender publishes the results. Then everyone who voted can be sent them. Ranked polls report an average rank; choice polls report counts. The whole thing — question, options, votes, timestamps, result — stays on the case as the record of the decision.
Poll templates
If every building faces the same decisions, build them into the template: an annual budget approval poll, a contractor selection poll, an AGM date poll, each ready to send on every building case with a locked option order. The manager fills in the specifics and sends.
Where polls are not the answer
Some decisions must be made in a meeting with a quorum and a minute. Polls do not replace that; they replace the informal canvassing that happens before it, and they make the "we consulted the owners" line in the minute something you can prove.
Beyond buildings
The same tool picks a hearing date among five solicitors, chooses which of three protocol amendments a research team pursues, or lets a project's stakeholders rank priorities. Anywhere a decision has more owners than a meeting can hold, a poll is the shortest path.
