Homeowner wants to be paid landscaper

Started by GrantV • 2 replies • 1899 views

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GrantV (Texas)
Posts: 1

Posted:

We have a homeowner who is pushing the board to hire him as the HOA's landscaper. This would cost us more money for less service, and would require us to contract out all irrigation repairs (at an additional cost).

Both he and a group of his friends are trying to push the board into hiring this homeowner, we are currently happy with our landscaper and the contract isn't even up yet.

Our management company cautions strongly against the use of a homeowner as a contract vendor. Our DCCR's do address the issue of homeowners profiting off the association, but are vague.

Any help, suggestions or experences with similar issues would be greatly appreciated.

Grant

hoatalk (California)
Posts: 603

Posted:

This should be a Board decision with support from your management company (MC), not one made by a few homeowners for their own benefit.

Your MC should have a list of approved/recommended contractors they work with and have some standards to apply to any new ones. Some of the standards may be licensed, bonded, insured, references checked, background checks, etc. At a minimum, the homeowner should have an actual business with the proper insurance (Certificate of General Liability with the Association as 'additionally insured' & workers comp insurance) and references.

One way to handle this is to treat the homeowner as any other vendor and if they meet your requirements, have them bid next time you put out a landscaping contract bid. In addition, the homeowner may not be a Board member, else conflict of interest arises. Good business management and ethics require this anyway, so it should not be hard to explain to the homeowner.

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BrianB (California)
Posts: 2,820

Posted:

Yup, have a contract/statement of expectations on what you want a landscape company to do, and the next time the contract is up, then everyone can submit bids. it's the fair, fiduciary responsible way to do things, and your board IS responsible for spending the money entrusted to them wisely.

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