The vendor playbook for HOA and condo work

Ten sections, written to be skimmed or read straight through. Each link jumps to the section.

An association is not a homeowner. It is a Florida not-for-profit corporation — condominiums under Chapter 718, homeowner associations under Chapter 720, and the general corporate framework under Chapter 617. The directors who sit on the board are corporate officers with a statutory fiduciary duty to every member of the community. They are not customers buying a paint job; they are stewards of other people’s money.

That changes who your client is. The board is the legal client — not the property manager who calls you, not any individual director who happens to like your work, and not the homeowner whose unit sits next to the area you are servicing. Every decision that binds the association has to flow through the board acting as a body, on the record. If you walk in expecting a single-decision-maker phone-call sale, you will lose work to vendors who understand the structure.

The good news: once you understand the structure, these are the most stable customers in residential construction. Associations do not move. Boards turn over slowly. Budgets are approved a year at a time. Vendors who learn the rules tend to keep contracts for a decade.

Most boards require three apples-to-apples bids before they vote on any material expenditure. The threshold is usually spelled out in the association’s governing documents — commonly anything over $10,000, sometimes as low as $2,500 for condos with strict procurement policies, sometimes tiered by category. Read the threshold before you pitch.

Why three bids: the board’s fiduciary duty is protected by the business-judgment rule, which only applies when directors can show they made an informed decision. Three competitive bids is the cleanest evidence of that. If a contract is ever challenged by a unit owner or in litigation, the bid file is what insulates the board.

What this means for you in practice: scope-of-work clarity matters more than price. If your bid covers different work than the other two — different square footage, different warranty terms, different exclusions — you are not comparable and the board cannot use you. The board will either award to one of the two comparable vendors or re-bid the whole package. A clean, line-itemed proposal that mirrors the RFP is almost always going to beat a cheaper proposal that wanders off-scope.

No single board member can sign you up over the phone. Material contracts require a duly-noticed meeting (notice posted on the property for at least 48 hours, longer for certain categories), a motion on the agenda, a discussion, and a recorded vote. The vote appears in the minutes; the minutes are the proof.

Some declarations require unit-owner approval on top of board approval — typically for very large capital expenditures, material alterations to the common elements, or any item the governing documents specifically reserve to the membership. The CAM or association attorney will know the threshold for that particular association.

Practical implication: if a single director tells you “yes, you have the job, start Monday” before a vote, they personally do not bind the association. You may be working on goodwill; you do not have a contract. The safest move is to ask, politely, for the meeting date when the award vote will happen, and for a signed contract or work authorization after the vote. Reputable boards expect the question and respect the vendor who asks it.

Most associations are professionally managed by a separate management firm under a management agreement. The CAM (Community Association Manager) assigned to the property is a Florida-licensed professional who runs the day-to-day: they collect requests, gather bids, schedule site visits, draft agenda items, and present recommendations to the board. They are your day-to-day contact and the path through which most work originates.

They are not your client. The CAM does not have authority to award contracts unilaterally — they recommend, the board decides. Trying to go around the CAM directly to a friendly board member tends to backfire: it strains the manager’s relationship with the board, makes you look like a difficult vendor, and often gets you removed from future bid lists.

Treat the CAM as a partner. They control which vendors get invited to bid; they screen for licensure, insurance, and past performance before the board ever sees your name. Showing up on time, returning calls, sending clean proposals, and keeping your certificate of insurance current is what earns repeat invitations. Management firms often manage dozens or hundreds of associations — a single good relationship with one CAM can compound into bid invitations at many properties.

Associations pay on accounts-payable cycles, not on demand. Net-30 from invoice receipt is the floor; net-45 and net-60 are common, especially if the management firm runs a centralized AP function that batches checks weekly or bi-weekly. The board treasurer typically reviews and approves the AP run before checks go out.

Plan cash flow for it. Vendors who win and keep association work either have the working capital to carry receivables for 30 to 60 days, or they structure deposits up front. For materials-heavy work — roofing, painting, paving, landscape installations — a 25 to 50 percent deposit at contract signing is reasonable, with the balance billed at substantial completion or milestone draws. Spell the payment schedule out in the proposal; do not leave it for negotiation after the vote.

Late payments do happen. Associations sometimes have cash constraints in the weeks before assessments come in. A polite, timely follow-up to the CAM almost always resolves it; sending a stop-work notice to the board because an invoice is two weeks past due is the fastest way to lose a long-term account.

Every association adopts an annual operating budget — it is a statutory requirement for both 718 condos and 720 HOAs. The budget has line items for recurring services: landscape maintenance, pool maintenance, pest control, elevator service, fire-life safety inspections, common-area cleaning, irrigation, tree trimming, pressure washing, pond maintenance, and so on. Each of those line items is a standing book of business for one vendor, usually on an annual or multi-year contract.

If you can land one of these recurring contracts, it is the most stable revenue in residential construction services. Boards renew with the incumbent unless something goes wrong, because the cost of changing vendors (rebidding, ramp-up, training the new team on the property) is real. The flip side: incumbents lose contracts when service quality slips. Boards remember a missed mowing cycle in August.

Reserve-funded work is a different track. Capital projects — roof replacement, repaving, exterior painting, elevator modernization, structural repairs — come out of reserve accounts, not operating. Those projects typically run through a bigger procurement: a formal RFP, a longer bid window, sometimes an engineer of record drafting the specifications, and almost always a unit-owner vote if the expenditure crosses the threshold in the declaration. For condos, the Structural Integrity Reserve Study (SIRS) now dictates what items must be funded and on what schedule.

Expect every association to ask for a current certificate of insurance before work begins, naming the association as an additional insured on the general liability policy. The typical minimums:

• Commercial general liability — $1,000,000 per occurrence, $2,000,000 aggregate is the common floor. Larger condos and high-rises frequently require $2M/$4M or higher, especially for any trade working at height or with water exposure.
• Workers’ compensation — required by Florida statute for most contractors with one or more employees. Associations will ask for proof; some require it even if you are a sole proprietor and would otherwise be exempt.
• Trade or contractor license — state license for regulated trades (roofing, plumbing, electrical, HVAC, general contracting, pool, pest control); county or municipal occupational license for trades that do not require state licensure. Associations verify license status through DBPR before awarding work.
• Commercial automobile — if your crews drive company vehicles onto the property, expect a request for proof of commercial auto coverage, typically with a $1M combined single limit.

Keep these documents current and let the CAM know proactively when a policy is about to renew. A lapsed COI is the single most common reason a vendor gets quietly dropped from a bid list — the manager is not allowed to award work to an uninsured vendor.

Association work is calendar-driven in a way that is easy to learn and hard to fake. Vendors who pitch around the regulatory and budget cycle win bids that vendors pitching cold do not.

• Fall and early winter — budget adoption — boards finalize the next year’s operating budget, typically between September and December. This is when recurring service contracts get re-bid and renewed. If you want a landscaping or pool contract starting in January, your bid needs to be in the CAM’s hands by October.
• Annual meeting + reserve study refresh — most associations hold the annual member meeting in the first quarter; reserve studies are often refreshed in the same window. The reserve study is where capital projects get scheduled — if your trade does roofing, paving, painting, or other capital work, watch for the refreshed study to know what is coming.
• Hurricane prep (May–June) and post-season recovery (October–December) — Florida-specific. Roofers, tree trimmers, glass and impact-window vendors, water-mitigation crews, and general contractors see surge demand. Pre-positioning a relationship before June is far more valuable than trying to break in during a storm response.
• Milestone inspections (SB 4-D) — condo and co-op buildings three stories or taller must undergo a Phase 1 milestone inspection at 30 years of age (25 years if within three miles of the coast), and every 10 years thereafter. Phase 2 inspections follow when Phase 1 finds substantial structural deterioration. These trigger capital work for structural engineers, concrete restoration contractors, waterproofing, balcony repair, and post-tension cable specialists.
• SIRS — Structural Integrity Reserve Study — required every 10 years for condo buildings three stories or taller. The SIRS sets minimum reserve funding for specified components: roof, structure, fireproofing, fire protection, plumbing, electrical, waterproofing, windows, and any other component with a deferred maintenance expense or replacement cost over $10,000. Vendors whose trade touches a SIRS component should know where each property sits in its 10-year cycle.

The vendors who lose association work tend to lose it for the same handful of reasons. None of them are about price.

• Chasing only the manager and ignoring the board. The CAM gets you invited; the board awards the work. Vendors who never make a confident, professional showing at the board meeting where their bid is voted on tend to lose to vendors who do.
• Surprise change orders without re-approval. If the scope grows mid-job, the change order needs to go back to the board. Sending a CAM a $14,000 invoice for work that was not in the original motion puts the CAM in an impossible position with their treasurer. Document the change, send a proposed change order in writing, and wait for written authorization before proceeding.
• Letting insurance certificates lapse. As covered above — the single fastest way to fall off the active vendor list. Calendar your renewals.
• Missing scheduled maintenance dates. For recurring contracts, the cadence matters as much as the work. A skipped mowing in growing season, a missed pool chemical service in July, a no-show for quarterly pest control — these are the moments that lose renewals. If you cannot make a date, communicate.
• Price-undercutting then degrading service quality. Bidding aggressively to win a contract and then cutting corners to make the margin work is the oldest way to burn an association relationship — and the industry is small enough that the next association will hear about it.

Most of the friction above is paperwork friction. We built Common Elements to take it off your plate.

• A verified vendor profile — credential-backed badges for license, insurance, and ownership. Boards and CAMs see the verification at a glance; you upload your COI and license once instead of emailing it to every manager who asks.
• An RFP marketplace — boards and managers post scope, deadline, budget, and required line items. You respond in a structured form. The board’s Compare view shows your bid next to the others apples-to-apples, which is what gives you a fair shot on the scope-of-work clarity problem from section 2.
• Multi-association directory access — a single profile reaches every association in your service area. You do not have to repitch your company at each property; the verified profile travels.
• Reviews from actual board clients — tied to specific completed engagements and to verified board members or managers who wrote them. You can respond publicly. No anonymous reviews, no pay-to- rank.
• Contract paperwork in one place — insurance certificates, license renewals, bid submissions, award notifications, and signed contracts all live on the same record. When the next renewal cycle comes around, the file is ready.

The platform itself is described in more detail on the vendor overview and how it works pages.

1. The board is the client. The CAM is the gatekeeper and partner; no single director can bind the association.
2. Three apples-to-apples bids, awarded by board vote. Match the RFP scope exactly or you are not comparable.
3. Net-30 invoicing is the floor. Plan cash flow; ask for a deposit on materials-heavy work; do not threaten stop-work over a late check.
4. Keep insurance and licensing current. A lapsed COI is the fastest way off the bid list.
5. Learn the calendar. Budget adoption in the fall, reserve studies in the first quarter, hurricane prep in the spring, SIRS and milestone cycles for buildings 30+ years.

If you have already read this and the model fits how your company sells, the next step is a verified vendor profile. It takes under ten minutes and feeds into every RFP and directory search on the platform.

Verified vendor accounts are free during pilot. No card required.