Disclosing quotes to residents by HOA

Started by RaghuramA • 12 replies • 728 views

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RaghuramA (Texas)
Posts: 26

Posted:

We are a HOA in Texas state. We recently took over the HOA from the builder and within 6 months replaced the management company. To do so, we have constituted a subcommittee of interested residents and called for quotations from 4 different management companies, held discussions and negotiations with them and finalized one company with unanimous decision by the subcommittee and HOA members.

Now, one of the resident is asking for the documents of this process and reasons for selecting this company.

How do the HOA go about this? We do not have separate HOA website, we use the management company website.
hence, we cannot upload all these docs into that website.

Please advise

Thanks
Raghu

PaaN
Posts: 219

Posted:

As y'all are a newly formed HOMEOWNERS association I give the following advice:

Get the terminology correct from the beginning.

While (being new) most of your residents (except children) are probably owner/members the word resident is DIFFERENT than member.

"Membership is appurtenant to and may not be separated from ownership."

Only members have a vested interest in your association.

Only members (or their designated Power of Attorney) have any rights to 'internal' documents / records.

Only members should be serving on 'corporate committees'.

Sloppy terminology and record keeping based on same WILL become an issue 'down the road'.

Best of luck in your new home(s).

BarbaraT1 (Texas)
Posts: 821

Posted:

Raghu,

Usually the actual bid documents from any vendor are kept confidential as a courtesy to vendor. Competitors would love to get their hands on a sample contract or fee schedule.

However, it is certainly appropriate to provide information to homeowners regarding choices the Board makes and why. I would suggest providing owners with the scope of work, the bid prices of each bidding company, and the rationale behind the choice you made.

KerryL1 (California)
Posts: 14,550

Posted:

With Barbara, but disagreeing a little. So far as a I know, at least in CA, you're not required to give Homeowners any materials related to the bids, just the board approved executed contract. Letting Owners review the other bid prices would lead to skepticism about why, say, you didn't select the lowest bid.

But I'm curious to know why the new board of directors comprising owners didn't interview the MCs. It definitely is the board's responsibility.

RaghuramA (Texas)
Posts: 26

Posted:

PaaN

I believe all homeowners are members automatically.
All the members of subcommittees are owner/members.

Kelly

We have interviewed all the 4 MCs from which we sought bids and the board members also participated in the process alongwith subcommittee. Subcommittee was entrusted with the job of identifying the MCs and getting bids from them and board participated in the interview process alongwith the subcommittee members.

Finally, we drafted a process document detailing as to why one MCs was selected over others and all the members agreed on that thru emails, though physically not signed.

Thanks
Raghu

JaredC (Texas)
Posts: 264

Posted:

Choosing a new management company is well within the rights of the HOA. As far as the homeowners request I would just write a simple letter and make copies of the various bids. I can see no compelling reason why this information shouldn't go out if someone asks for it. Transparency is also a good thing.

Also keep in mind that official document request are governed by Texas Property Code 209.005 and homeowners must submit those official requests with proper language in their letters. This does not mean informal requests should always be ignored though. Just sayin.

Since you are a new HOA do you have all your proper Texas policies like Document Retention, Document Production, Collections etc?

RaghuramA (Texas)
Posts: 26

Posted:

Jared

Thanks for the update. Yes, we have the retention policies. However, I have a doubt here.
These bids are board's internal docs. We cannot send these to the MC for retention as these will have their competitors bids also. So, where do we keep them? Electronic copies will be sufficient to retain in some place like Google folders, docs etc ?

Please advise

Thanks
Raghu

JaredC (Texas)
Posts: 264

Posted:

Eh, your current MC won the bid. Why even care if they have their competitors bids? If it means that much to you then why not create a single PDF document with all the bid info then email it to everyone on the board for safekeeping? People's memories are going to fade so the less complex you make it the better which is why I'd just send it to the MC to keep track of. Of course no one will care about the info anyway in a few months.

PaaN
Posts: 219

Posted:

PaaN

I believe all homeowners are members automatically.
All the members of subcommittees are owner/members. .....

That is my precise point,

HOWEVER

as y'all will discover 'down the road',

NOT all residents are homeowners/members

AND

NOT all residents are entitled to 'corporate/HOA stuff'.

I, again, strongly advise that y'all BEGIN with proper and precise terminology.

(stop using the term 'resident' in place of the term 'member' - they are NOT interchangeable)

GenoS (Florida)
Posts: 4,276

Posted:

From a Florida perspective (i.e. not Texas so your mileage may vary) FS 720.303 (HOA statute) says,

"A current copy of all contracts to which the association is a party, including, without limitation, any management agreement, lease, or other contract under which the association has any obligation or responsibility. Bids received by the association for work to be performed must also be considered official records and must be kept for a period of 1 year."

Bids must be kept for a year as official records of the association and all homeowners have the right to see them. I can't imagine any good reason why anyone would want to hide that information away from the homeowners. People who have something to hide have their own reasons, I guess.

JohnC46 (South Carolina)
Posts: 14,265

Posted:

Rag

In most cases owners are allowed to see signed contracts and not the bids that resulted in the contract being awarded. I know is SC, we do not have to keep bids as we did not contract with them.

Personally, I would save bids for future reference.

KerryL1 (California)
Posts: 14,550

Posted:

As owner-freindly as we are in CA, we do not have to show owners bids, only executed contracts, but I believe we have to keep them for a while.

RichardP13 (California)
Posts: 3,868

Posted:

I would provide an RFP (Request For Proposal), an executed contract and a reason why the Board choose the vendor they did.

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