Condo Media - October 2013 - 34

by Nena Groskind

Feature

The Dos and Don’ts of the Vendor Selection Process

O

f the myriad tasks for which
community association boards
are responsible, the selection
of vendors is without question
one of the most important. It is also a
task for which many board members
are ill-prepared, and, as a result, an area
in which they are likely to make costly
mistakes. We asked attorney John Shaffer and veteran manager Lynne Kelly,
CMCA to describe what boards do,
fail to do, or do incorrectly and what
they should do to improve the vendor
selection process and to increase the
likelihood that they will be happy with
the vendors they choose and with the
quality of the work they do.
John Shaffer, Esq., Associate
Marcus, Errico, Emmer & Brooks, P.C.
“Knowledge is what you get from reading the small print in a contract. Experience is what you get from not reading
it.”
That quote, attributed to an anonymous author, summarizes what Shaffer views as the primary cause of the
vendor-related complaints he is asked
to resolve. It’s what the contracts say
— or more often what they don’t say,

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Condo Media • OctOber 2013

Shaffer notes — that gets community
associations into trouble. Most disputes
between condominium associations
and their vendors, he has found, arise
because the parties made different assumptions or had different expectations
about the work that the contract failed
to acknowledge and reconcile. The biggest problem — the lack of sufficient
detail — is also the easiest to avoid.
Brevity may be a virtue in some areas,
but not usually in vendor contracts,
which, Shaffer suggests, should be as
detailed as possible, describing precisely
the scope of the work, the materials to
be used, and the expectations for the
vendor’s performance.
For example, a contract with a painter
shouldn’t say only that he will “paint
the buildings green,” Shaffer says.
“It should state the preparation work
required (scraping, power washing,
etc.), the type of paint to be used, and
the number of coats to be applied.” A
contract for snow removal, similarly,
shouldn’t say the contractor will remove
snow and ice; it should specify how
much snowfall requires removal, how
quickly the contractor will respond after
the snowfall has ended, how often the

contractor will plow during a continuing
storm, what snow removal equipment
and de-icing materials the contractor
will use, and the contractor’s responsibility to repair landscaping damaged by
plowing, among other details.
The more detailed the contract, “the
less you leave out of it,” Shaffer says,
the less likely the board will end up
fighting with vendors over what they
do or fail to do.
In the interest of saving money (by
avoiding legal fees), some boards will
simply accept and sign the proposals submitted by their vendors. Not
only are these agreements notoriously
skimpy on detail, Shaffer says, they also
tend to be skewed heavily in favor of
the contractor, with plenty of language
asserting the vendor’s rights, but little
or none protecting the association.
Particularly important for the association, Shaffer says, are provisions requiring the vendor to:
• Have adequate insurance (and present proof of it);
• Identify the association as a “named
insured” on the vendor’s policy; and
• Indemnify the association against
Condo Media - October 2013

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