Life in Condominiums: Make sure your summer landscaping contract is not as relaxed as you were in your last vacations

Ice starts to defrost, snow stops falling and as trees start to grow their first leaves back, we say bye bye winter and hello spring-summer season. If you followed our Cold Season Condo Property Maintenance Checklist and our tips about winter maintenance and snow removal contracts, we are confident that you had a nice and smooth winter season, with hopefully no unforeseen costs. We now bring you some tips for your spring-summer contracts to make your life in condominiums just that much easier.

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Life in Condominiums: What clauses you MUST include in your summer landscaping contract

To be prepared is half the victory — Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Some of you might already be asking ‘What summer landscaping contract? In my condo we don’t have a separate contract for that’. If this is you, then this means that your condo is either managing these activities: a) together with your winter maintenance and snow removal contract; or b) you have had the same contractor for several years now but you never wrote it all down in a contract.

Regardless of the reasons why there may not be a specific contract for your condo’s summer landscaping needs, our first and perhaps most important tip for you is to pick up the phone, contact your legal advisor and get them to start working on a draft for that contract. You can find legal advisors and other condo vendors in our Vendor Directory. Most condo management companies tend to have contract templates for many different topics, so you can also call your property manager and ask them to send you a copy if they have one.

My condo has it all covered in a single contract and I don’t see why we should change that

If you have your summer landscaping framed within your winter maintenance and snow removal contract, there is nothing to worry about. There is no problem with keeping it all together, but if you really want to have an extensive contract that converts all specific aspects of both types of activities, you might end up with a very very very very long contract that no one wants to read and that most likely won't get updated for the next decade. Every season has its particularities and so should every contract. 

Individual contracts also allow for easier termination in case the work performed by the contract is not up to the standards. If there is just one contract for everything and the contractor has been amazing at fulfilling its winter obligations, but its summer landscaping job is just not cutting it, how are you going to manage the situation? You will most likely end up having to cancel the whole contract and sign two separate ones instead; or get stuck with a contractor that does half the work as your condo needs it.

We did not need a contract all these years, so why should we need one now

It is possible to have a long last relationship with a contractor that, although not framed within a specific contract, has been a problem free relationship and has had both parties happy with their side of things. Nonetheless, the golden rule in law is ‘put it in writing’, and this is due to the fact that, just because things are good now, it does not mean there won’t be any problems in the future.

By saying this we don’t intend to be pessimistic, but when it comes to contractual relationships, it is always recommended to prepare for the worst case scenario to avoid future headaches, even when things are working smoothly. People, situations, companies and life in condos change, and no one can guarantee that there will be no change in the way things are in the future.

What should a specific summer landscaping contract contain?

Every property and every contract has its own particularities, so there is no one size fits all contract that will guarantee 100% of the possible issues are specifically treated. Having said that, condo management should make sure at least the following things are addresses in its summer landscaping contract:

1. Contract duration. Shorter term contracts are easier to cancel in case of problems

2. Payment schedule. Make sure everyone knows when to pay and when to get paid.

3. Breach of payment. What happens in case payment is not done in time? Is there any one time extension period? Is an extra fee due to be paid per week of delay?

4. Specifications for the work to be done. Be as detailed as possible. The more detail the more clarity of expectations. Work specifications can be done as an annex to the contract to facility amendments in the future.

5. Frequency. For each task to be performed by the contractor, make sure to specify how often or when they need to happen.

6. Insurance requirements. No matter how careful a contractor is, damages can always happen, so it’s better to ask at least for an insurance that covers damages to the property, and liability insurance to other people’s property and person.

7. WSIB coverage

8. Liability transfer. If someone gets injured on your property, they might not care that it was your contractor’s fault and file a claim against your condo. Make sure you include a clause in your contract so in this cases your contractor must cover all expenses and be liable for all costs incurred by the corporation

9. Termination conditions. Make sure it’s not only in cases of negligence. 

10. Chargeback for third part work. In case your contractor fails to perform one of its tasks and you have no option but to hire someone else to do the job instead, make sure the original contractor is bound to pay for the costs you incurred. It would be also wise to set up a limit to said costs to avoid further litigation.

Next steps after implementing the contract.

Even the best of contracts should be reviewed after a period, and perfected based on past experience. Periodical revisions are something that not only contracts can benefit from, and even if you decided to keep our summer landscaping contractual relationship as it is, make sure that at least you perform an annual/bi-annual inspection to the property to see if there’s any winter damage, and anything to repair prior to summer. Consider roads, sidewalks, the building, machinery, landscaped areas, etc.

Life in condominiums is not always simple, but there is no reason to make it hard. Be prepared for all situations and avid unexpected headaches.

-Stratastic Inc.

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