Question: Did management get bids on all our existing services so that costs can be reduced, if not why not?
Answer: While we review the current costs and do our best to project future costs, when it comes to preparing the association budget, we don’t do blanket bidding for existing services and services providers. We compare the on-going costs of all services with our experience and the costs we are paying for services at similar properties to make sure they are fair and reasonable based on the level of services needed by the association. This year many vendors are experiencing labor shortages and don’t have the ability to provide bids. Some are not even accepting new clients. It’s important to remember that many associations only have control over a small part of their budgets as the majority of their budgets consist of electric, water, trash and insurance expenses for which there are limited providers. The board has little or no control over those costs. The function of the budget process is to determine the funds that the association will need to meet its ongoing obligations and to determine what each owner’s share of those expenses will be for the coming year.