The problem is not the price, it is that they measure different things
At a meeting three figures get compared and the lowest wins. The trouble is that those three figures rarely cover the same work. One includes waste removal, another does not. One allows for scaffolding, another says a ladder will do. One gives a written guarantee, another says nothing.
Before comparing prices you have to level the scope. Otherwise the community is not choosing the best quote, it is choosing the one that left the most out.
The questions that level the scale
What exactly is included and what is not. Who removes the waste and at whose cost. Whether a permit or street occupation is needed and who applies for it. How long the guarantee runs and on what: labour only, or materials too.
And one almost nobody asks: what happens if something unforeseen appears once work starts. An honest answer is that it stops, gets shown and gets decided. A vague answer is a future levy.
What gets voted badly in autumn
Autumn is meeting season, and also when outdoor works get postponed on the grounds that the weather is turning. Waterproofing, guttering and facade painting end up waiting for May.
Sometimes that is reasonable. But if the problem is an active leak, waiting six months means a whole winter with water coming in, and in May the repair costs more because the damage has grown.
Periodic maintenance versus fixing what breaks
Many communities only call when something fails. It costs more, and above all it arrives at the worst moment: the lift stops on a Friday, the pool pump fails in July, the garage drain gives way in the middle of a storm.
An annual shared-areas contract does not abolish breakdowns, but it turns part of the unplanned spend into planned spend. For an administrator, that is what makes an annual budget hold.
What you can ask of any provider
One point of contact instead of four numbers. A monthly or quarterly report of what was done, with photos. And separate quotes for anything outside the contract, authorised before it is carried out.
None of that is a favour. It is the minimum for the committee to be able to account for itself next year.
