Some Advice... Personal Business

Grumpy

I'm on the board at my condo. My fellow board memebers have a bad habit of always taking the lowest bid period. They don't bother to compare work, just price. The lower the price the more they like it. Because of this the place is falling apart, and I am fighting an uphill battle.

The current situation is some concrete repairs. We got 3 prices all were about $1000 apart from each other. The lowest being $575, the highest being $2500. We all voted to go with the low guy. I was handling the gathering of estimates and after we voted I passed the estimates to the pres who finalized the job and scheduled it.

Today I come home and I am forced to use my rear exit due to caution tape covering the doors necessary to enter via my front door. After I went through my rear door I made way through my condo to my front door to inspect the repairs. Either the pres changed the job description without my knowledge or the concrete repair guy didn't do his job because there was some concrete in place that was supposed to be removed.

Should I raise this complaint next monday at our budget meeting? What should I do? I was furious when I came home. I consider this place to be my home, and it seems like only a hand full of people in our 26 unit building even give a F***

Speedy Petey

I would make a hell of a stink! This is BS and should not be tolerated. It's not the 80's anymore. The bottom line is not the bottom line anymore. 90% of the time you are comparing apples to oranges. Look at the bids carefully and see if you are getting exactly the same things in all of them. You can't go by vague descriptions like "Repair concrete walk".
I see this all the time and we lose bids because of it. Sometimes it's fly-by-night contractors with no insurance or overhead. Guys like this should be doing side work, not competing with full time contractors. Also they cannot be held liable after the job is done and needs correcting.
Since you are in an organization these points are valid and you should state your feelings. The bottom line becomes much higher when you have to sign a change order because your lowballer contractor says; "Oh, that wasn't in the contract. I'll need to get more money."

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Grumpy

I know how to choose an estimate because I write up estimates every day... The problem is the other people don't know how to choose, and base their decision on lowest price. It's 4 vs 1 usually.

Unregistered

Does your state have a licensing for home improvement contractors? If so, I'd start out specifying that we should start using only those people that are licensed. At least you can post complaints somewhere if they do a poor job.
Gerry in MD

Grumpy

That's a good point. Nate posted something about DIY guides and jeez I've written one about "how to choose the right contractor" I may as well print that out and bring it with me to the next meeting.

"Fellow board members... It is important that we learn from our mistakes, instead of repeating them. If we continue to choose low ball contractors our home will continue to fall apart. Here is something I have written that I distribute to my customers. I hope after you read this we can make a change for the better."

orto

Write a new by-law that states that only the knowledgable can vote on construction issues. If that dont werk, call yur uncle guido in new germsey and have em off'd.

Grumpy

First off the unknowledgeable would have to vote on passing the bylaw and they are not going to give up their right. Plus ignorancy is bliss because typically you are too stupid to know you are stupid.

hatchet

Like a friend of mine told a guy during an argument..
"I refuse to match wits with the defenseless". I've been able to attribute this to most people that I've met in any business dealing.

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Rich
WIT Construction Co.
Superior MT Contractor