Maintenance Bid Process

Started by WilliamS1 • 1 replies • 1941 views

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WilliamS1 (South Carolina)
Posts: 113

Posted:

We are a 110 unit hoa built in the late 1970's/ early 80's. We have a large ongoing maintenance program running about half our budget.

The maintenance is coordinated through a man on our board who is very adept at this type of work.

Our PM has a small construction company which seems to capture about 80% of our maintenance business.

According to our maintenance coordinator, they (the PM's company) usually offer the lowest bid, IF WE CAN GET MORE THAN ONE BID, and they have proven fairly reliable.

Problem:
Sometimes the work is not quality, and other times they go quite a bit over their bid, and finally there is room for a bit of corruption.

In the business world, we usually always get three bids prior to a decision unless the cost of getting bids exceeds the potential savings - so usually anything over $500 we make sure and get three bids. We also rotate work to different companies when bids are close to stay " bid worthy" with a few companies.

Does anyone have a policy statement on this and what are some experiences.

Thanks

JohnM3 (Florida)
Posts: 288

Posted:

In my 15+ years on boards I live with 3 personal rules. 107 as Treas ( 305 units) 3 lakes 10 miles of streets
1. Never ever hire a MC that is a family business cause if you complain about anything you are bad mouthing their family
2.Never ever let your MC do anything except maybe Lawn and Garden stuff everything else is subbed out. All are on a renewable yearly contract with a 30 day cancellation clause. If thy dont perform they get a 30 day notice and they are gone.
Rule 3 Never ever put all your financial eggs in 1 basket period.
Use a Credit Union for your savings account ( Reserves) and a standard bank for your lock boxes and operateing account. But try to keep both institutions geographically near each other or at least a branch of each.Why a FCU simple always give a better interest rate and cd rates.Set up a checking type savings account so you can move funds around to your needs. They usually allow 5 to 10 checks per month.

bye bye

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