The board asked for three bids to replace the roof on a 48-unit building. They came back at $162,900, $186,400 and $191,250. The lowest one is $23,500 cheaper than the next. Most boards would pick it in five minutes.
Then the roof needs rotten deck boards replaced, the city wants a permit, and the residents complain about nails in the parking lot. None of that was in the cheapest bid. By the end, the association has paid about the same as the middle bid, with a two-year warranty instead of ten.
Most board members don't read construction bids for a living. You don't need to. You need a way to put the bids side by side so they compare like for like, and a short record of why the board chose what it chose. This guide walks through that, step by step.
Step 1: Give every contractor the same scope
Bids only compare if they price the same work. Before you ask for prices, write down what you want done, even if it's one page. For a roof: which buildings, tear-off or overlay, how many layers, what happens to rotten decking, who pulls the permit, how residents and cars are protected, and what warranty you expect.
Send that same page to every contractor and give them the same deadline. If a contractor wants to propose something different, ask them to price your scope first and the alternative separately. That one habit removes most of the confusion before it starts.
Tip
If your manager or an engineer wrote a scope or specification, attach it to every invitation. If nobody did, a short list of "must include" items still beats nothing.
Step 2: Copy each price exactly as printed
Write each bid's total down before you change anything. It sounds obvious, but boards often start "adjusting" in their heads and lose track of where the numbers came from. The printed price is your starting line, and owners may ask for it later.
Step 3: Mark what each bid covers
Go down your scope line by line and mark each bid one of three ways:
- Included. The bid says it does the work.
- Left out. The bid says it does not, or says "by owner" or "by others", which means the association pays.
- Not mentioned. The bid is silent. Treat this as a question, not a yes.
In the roof example, the cheapest bid did not mention rotten deck boards, listed permits as "by owner", and said nothing about cleanup or protecting residents' cars. The other two included all three.
Step 4: Put a price on what is missing
For every item a bid leaves out, put a fair amount next to it: what another bidder charged for the same item, a unit price from the contractor, or a reasonable allowance. Then add it to that bid's printed price. Now you are comparing what each bid would really cost the association.
In the example, the cheapest bid needed about $9,500 for deck boards, $4,800 for the permit and $7,500 for cleanup and protection. Its real price was $184,700, not $162,900. The gap to the next bid shrank from $23,500 to $1,700.
What changed
The cheapest bid was still the cheapest, by $1,700. But it came with a 2-year workmanship warranty against 10 years, and a 50% deposit against 10%. That is a very different choice from "save $23,500".
Step 5: Check what protects the association
Price is half the decision. The other half is what happens if something goes wrong. For each bidder, check:
Step 6: Check references and record any ties
Ask each bidder for two or three buildings like yours that they finished in the last few years, and call at least one. Ask whether the job finished on time, whether extra charges came up, and whether the contractor came back for warranty problems.
Then ask the board itself: does any member have a relationship with a bidder? A relative, a business partner, a past employer. Many states require directors to disclose these before voting on a contract. In California, for example, Civil Code section 5350 applies the state's rules on interested-director transactions to association contracts. Even where no law says so, writing it in the minutes protects the board.
Step 7: Ask your questions in writing
Every "not mentioned" and every gap becomes a question to that contractor. Send them by email and keep the answers with the bids. A verbal "yes, that's included" is hard to enforce. A written one goes into the contract.
Step 8: Write down the decision and the reasons
You do not have to choose the lowest bid. In most places the board's job is to make a reasonable, informed decision, and Florida's condo and HOA statutes say outright that an association is not required to accept the lowest bid. What protects the board is a short written record: the bids received, how they compare once the gaps are priced in, the checks above, and the reasons for the choice.
Put that record in the minutes or attach it to them. If an owner asks a year from now why the board did not take the cheapest bid, the answer is already written.