Tip of
the Month - June, 2022
WORKING WITH
CONTRACTORS
Source: Property Management for Dummies
By: Robert Griswold
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.
This web page was updated 5/31/2022.