Do you give your landscaper ALL landscaping work?

We have a landscaper on contract for weekly mow and blow and irrigation type work. They call this "landscape maintenance" in my neck of the woods.

We also have a lot of projects going on in my neighborhood, things that are called "landscape enhancements". Things like monument landscaping, landscaping improvements around playgrounds, parks renovations, etc.

We've made sure that all landscape maintenance is done by our landscaper, but sent out landscape enhancements to competitive bid as there are a number of landscaping vendors interested in doing the work. We then select the "best" proposal. Best is a combination of experience, cost, proposal details, etc. Oftentimes this has gone to other vendors besides the one that does our landscape maintenance.

The landscape maintenance contractor finally decided he was fed up with losing work, and called me today fuming mad about the work that he is not getting. Informed me, in essence, that he has no desire to continue the landscape maintenance contract if he doesn't get all of the enhancement work as well.

Is our board wrong to send landscape enhancements out to competitive bid? We have been specifically asked by our homeowners to solicit multiple bids so we spend homeowner dollars wisely. I really can't disagree.

He claims that he underbids the maintenance contract and makes up for the losses when he gets the enhancement work. But since we don't give him the enhancement work, he's threatening to raise the maintenance contract cost when the contract is up.

I guess it's his prerogative as whether we wants to work with us or not.

I happen to really like sending out the enhancements to competitive bid. It's blown me away that one vendor can come in as much as 2x or 3x more than another on the same task, and we are saving lots of money by going with the lower cost proposals wherever possible.

We give our landscaper contracts for other projects in an effort to keep their base contract for mowing and blowing at a minimum. There have been some jobs that we did not give them but the bottom line is you have to keep good contractors around and that means giving them some incentive to do so. You treat them well, they treat you well.

Jack,
I hear what you are saying about competitive pricing. The way I have done it in past contract pricing is to list all common area elements and as many possible extras that may pop up. Get them to give you the hourly rates for these jobs like sprinkler repairs, broken value replacement and Tree removal and replacement costs. I would also put any job that is over $5,000 will automatically go out for 3 bids.

I always would give the edge in close bids to the current vendor. You know they will do the job and that makes a 5% increase in cost worth it IMO. Who really wants to go out for all of those small bids? Landscape vendors will soon find out many times you are just wasting their time and will quick bidding on your HOA jobs.

Jack,
Sounds like you are doing the right thing. They are lucky to having you serving on your board.

The $30K to $50K jobs are where the fat can get trimmed and that could mean 10 to 20% savings. This depends on how busy the vendors are that are bidding on the jobs. I always say you can tell how bad a vendor wants the work by the proposals they give you.

I am curious, with an annual operating budget of $250K, how are you doing all these landscaping upgrades?

If in your shoes, I would been upfront with the landscaper on how the Association does it's bidding. When I send out bids for landscaping for a community, I will always include irrigation repairs, upgrades and enhancements as part of the bid.

This would hold true for pool vendors, gate vendors, etc.

Yes, Our landscapers do about 90% of landscape and maintenance. They re landscaped both of our entrances, and offered a lifetime warranty on the plants they used. They also maintain all the community irrigation watering systems as well including all front of home service as well. The only service our landscaper does not offer is palm tree trimming, for that we bid it out to another company.

I suppose it makes sense to get an all inclusive landscaper, they will bid the project at one price, but expect some variables to come up in your budget, and plan for those accordingly like back flow valves etc.

It's the association's money and board members have a duty to spend it responsibly, so if the landscaper doesn't like it, he can either find a way to offer the service, focus on what he already does in the hopes you might ask him for a bid or drop you as a client.

That said I do understand him being a bit frosty - it doesn't sound like you've even given him a chance to bid on the work. You've already hired him - didn't it dawn on any of you that you might get some sort of discount because you're a current customer?

I understand getting multiple bids - it is a good idea, but to do this each and every time when you have a contractor who may be capable of doing the job can be a waste of time. The thing to do is ask if they've done this type of work before, ask for references and check them. You might then give him a smaller project to see how that goes. If it's sucessful, you can give more work and if this contractor is a decent businessman, he'll do the job right, not only to keep you as a customer, but your praises might result in more business. It's what people do when they buy things for their own home - same principle here.

Say, don't you have another conversation on this website about contracting with someone voicemail and now there's a dispute about the winterization of the irrigation system? If so, I'm beginning to wonder how your board goes about selecting contractors in general. Maybe you should go to the CAI website and get some educational materials on hiring and working with contractors. Or if you have a property manager, let him Or her do the research and you review it and make your decisions that way.

I guess it's time to solicit bids for general mowing services.

In reality, this should be done at the end of every contract anyway as it's the only real way to know if you are paying market prices.

I would simply explain that he has the option, like every other contractor, to submit a bid. If he is underbid, then he should consider his prices. Then thank him for the heads up on the mowing contract.

It seems you're doing the right thing here especially if it's the will of the homeowners.

We do give our landscaper all the enhancement work too as it's easier for us and they don't feel they're getting screwed but our current landscaper was originally brought in for regular maintenance and defacto enhancement after they were winning most of the enhancement contract bids so I guess it's a different situation to you

So, if you have a large tree removal project, do you bid out or give it to that third vendor automatically?

We would want bids if a job was over $500 and if our landscaper bid, we would look favorably on his bid.