Boards repeat "get three bids" like it came down from somewhere. It did not. Three is a habit that spread because it sounds fair, and on a lot of projects it produces three numbers that cannot be compared to each other.
Before any of this matters, the board has to know the work is the association's to do. That question is settled in the declaration, and our post on maintenance responsibilities covers how to read it.
Steve Cousino, a senior association manager quoted in CAI's guidance on hiring contractors, puts the target differently: as many bids as it takes within reason, enough to know whether a price is in line or out of whack, and enough to compare terms and the extras a vendor throws in. He also warns the other way. Too many options and the board cannot decide.
So the number is not the thing. The document you send out is the thing.
Write a scope sheet before you call anybody
A bid answers a question. If three contractors get three different questions, you have three prices and no comparison.
A scope sheet fits on one page and carries the following.
What the work is, in nouns. Not "repair the fence." The forty-two cedar panels along the north greenbelt, posts included, hardware included, stain to follow.
Where it is, precisely. A map, a photo set, or a written boundary. Contractors bid conservatively when the edges are vague, and you pay for their caution.
What the finished condition looks like. The standard the work has to hit, and who signs off that it hit it.
What the contractor supplies and what the association supplies. Dumpster, water, power, gate access, storage for materials.
Schedule constraints. Hours the community allows work, days that are off limits, how much notice residents get.
What is explicitly out of scope. This line saves more money than the other five together, because it is where the change orders would have come from.
Cousino's advice on the receiving end is the mirror of this: provide an accurate scope of work, ask questions about the bid to be sure you understand it, and never assume what is or is not included.
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Compare on terms, not only on price
Line the bids up in a table with the scope items down the side and the contractors across the top. The gaps show up immediately, and the gaps are the interesting part.
Then read past the number.
What is the payment schedule? A contractor asking for half up front on a project that runs eight weeks is asking the association to finance the job.
Who handles permits, and is the cost in or out?
What happens when the work is wrong? The correction process, the timeline for it, and what the association can do if the correction does not come.
How does the contract end? Cancellation terms are negotiable, and CAI's guidance is blunt that many terms and conditions are written to benefit the vendor, so a board should not be shy about asking for changes.
Who is the client on the paperwork? The association, named as the association. If a management company is involved it goes in as care-of, not as the responsible party.
Take the notes as you go and keep them with the bids. A board that cannot explain later why it chose the second-cheapest bid is a board that has a problem it did not need.
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The conflict check happens before the bid list, not after
If a board member owns a company that could bid the work, or is related to somebody who does, that comes out before the invitations go out. The awkward version of this conversation is the one that happens after the award.
This is not only an appearances question. Directors carry a duty of care, which Cornell's Legal Information Institute describes as the obligation to act in good faith and with the prudence an ordinarily careful person would use in the same position. The same page notes that courts applying the business judgment rule examine the processes by which directors and officers reached a decision. That is not a shield, and how much deference a court gives varies, but a documented and evenly applied bid process is the record a board would want to have. Our post on conflicts of interest covers what recusal should look like in the minutes.
Before work begins
Get the W-9, get proof of insurance, and verify any license the trade requires. Cousino calls this a reasonable ask that any contractor should have no trouble meeting, and the request itself is a useful filter. He is blunt about why the license check matters, in his own words: "An unlicensed contractor is also an uninsured contractor. If that contractor suffers injury while on the property, the association is liable."
Then get every one of those documents into the same place as the contract. An association running HOA-OS has a document library that holds the executed contract, the certificate and the scope sheet together, which is what lets the next board find them without calling anybody. Our vendor management guide covers what happens after the award.
Contractors price what the scope sheet asks for, and they price the gaps in it too.