Rogue vendor - what would you do?

I'm curious what others who are or have been board members would do in this situation.

We've just switched landscape maintenance companies. The old one was doing a poor job and we need/needed a bit of work to bring the common areas back "up to spec". We asked (in writing) the new vendor for an itemized bid on the "repair/clean-up work". There's a reasonable chance we might have had another vendor we've used for individual projects do some of this work. Rather than submit a bid, the new vendor began doing the repair/clean-up work and sent us a bill for their first month of contracted service + a couple thousand for repair/clean-up (not itemized any further than that).

I'm kind of shocked that a vendor who's used to working for HOAs would do this. I'd expect them to be aware that if they expect to be paid for work, the BoD has to have approved the expense / directed the PM to have work done based on an approved bid.

Is this such a breach of protocol that you would fire the vendor? If so, would you pay for the non-contracted work?

Well they could have screwed themselves. If you all made the cleanup work a separate contract, then they did the work themselves not with a contract.

Do NOT assume those contractors who work with HOA's UNDERSTAND how HOA's work. Seen that before. Must be clear and concise with vendors how your business decisions work. IF they want something then this is the process etc... Even if you have to put it in the contract itself.

Yes, I have dealt with contractors in the past who have gone on and did the work without consultation with the HOA. It was super uncomfortable and hard to be politically correct. Our case we had a great vendor for drainage issues. We had 3 separate bids with them to be spread out over long time period. 1 of the employees took it upon themselves to pull one of the contracts from a file at the company. Showed up and installed a retaining wall. That was NOT a good morning... The employee got fired from the company but we still had to deal with the installation of a 4 foot high brick retaining wall NOT in the budget...

Was the work necessary ?

Was the work performed satisfactorily ?

Was the price reasonable ?

If yes to all three: What is the problem ?

Other than a miscommunication ?!

Been there several times.

When we fire a landscaper for cause, several things usually precede it:
- repeated conversations with the contractor about poor performance;
- ample opportunity for the contractor to cure the deficiencies;
- a lot of complaints from homeowners;
- an internal discussion among BOD members on whether we might have given the contractor mixed messages.

This last point would apply to both the old contractor and the replacement contractor. We have found that when things go screwy, several BOD members can jump in and have separate conversations with the vendor. Some wind up being inconsistent with the BOD's written message. So it's important to know if a BOD member unintentionally acted at cross purposes to the BOD.

Personally, I look at things this way:
- We're under fire from homeowners and I don't want it to drag out;
- If the work done alleviated the deficiency at a reasonable cost (even if it wasn't as inexpensive as it might have been), then I am satisfied with the outcome;
- When we sit down to discuss things in the future, we should make sure that the contractor knows who the designated HOA contact person is. We don't want any further miscommunications;
- If the work was done, I would pay for it;
- I wouldn't fire anyone, and certainly not someone who helped us out of an uncomfortable dilemma.

It's happening everywhere. Our current landscaper had only 2 visas approved this year, when he got 20 last year for the same workers he has been using for 15 years. It seems that there is no consistency in the way that these visas are being issued.

Necessary: yes
Performed satisfactorily: No idea. I haven't been able to do an inspection yet to see if the things they were asked to bid on doing have been done.

Since they did the work without bidding, and we hadn't gotten bids yet from other vendors, it's hard to say how reasonable the price was.

I find it incredulous that a company would go ahead and perform work that was simply asked to be bid out. Doesn’t make sense.

Are you sure someone didn’t tell them to “ go ahead”?

Since the OP didnt even look at the work done, I have a feeling that he’s out if the loop, generally.

Usually there is a set dollar amount that work can be performed without"authorization" but it sounds like this is more than just a few hundred dollars, then there should be an inquiry by the board on why work was performed without authorization.

If you don't have a got-to person on your BOD who has the answer to that question at the tip of her tongue, and if you have to rely on bids to get comfortable with value for services rendered, then you are in trouble. After all, we're talking about landscaping services - something that you probably spend a significant amount of your budget on year after year after year.