Giving a Contractor unlimited and unsupervised access to a rental unit can be dangerous, because you usually have very little, if any, personal background information on the Contractor or his employees.

In addition to good work, dependable response and competitive pricing, when you hire contractors you must insist that they provide a copy of their certificates of insurance, including current and adequate workers compensation and liability insurance coverage. You can contact the state contractor’s licensing board to ensure that their license is current and that they have any required bonds.

When hiring a contractor on a service contract, be very careful to avoid some contract pitfalls. Some Contractors or Vendors will propose a multiyear contract or one with an automatic renewal clause. It is strongly recommended to avoid any service contract that cannot be cancelled with or without cause upon a written 30 day notice.  Even if you must pay a penalty to prematurely terminate the contract, you always want this option. Also, although they will initially say otherwise, all terms of the service contract should be negotiable. Unless they have a monopoly in your area, you should seriously consider another Contractor if the one you are talking with refuses to negotiate.

Be sure to get competitive quotes and make sure that all bidders are using identical specifications.  Have the firm with the best reputation and qualifications set the scope, specifications and proposed time schedule of the bid. Then you can let the other Contractors bid using the same information with the pricing deleted. REMEMBER: Good quality and service cost money.