DHA
Construction Management

It's month five of a nine-month project, and the association just held its annual meeting. Three of five seats changed hands. At the new board's first meeting, the questions start, and every one of them is fair: Why did we pick this contractor? Who approved that color? What is this forty-six thousand dollar change order doing on the agenda? Can we still change the railing? Nobody in that room was there for any of those decisions. The two returning directors remember the outco

You're standing in your kitchen on a Saturday morning with a cup of coffee, and you hear a drill. Someone you've never seen is mounting a box to the outside of your building. Nobody told you they were coming. Nobody told your board. There's no work plan, no notice, and no agreement on file that says who fixes it if it leaks. I'm watching this happen right now at a condominium association I work with. It is not an isolated incident. There is a fiber construction wave rolling a

The letter shows up in month four. It's polite, it's on letterhead, and it's addressed to the board. "Please be advised that the Contractor has incurred twenty-two days of compensable delay attributable to Owner-caused conditions, including delayed submittal approvals, restricted site access, and unavailability of the designated laydown area. A change order request follows." The board reads it twice and lands somewhere between confused and annoyed. Then the meeting happens, a

To the community managers reading this — I know your week. Hail tears through the Front Range, and within an hour your inbox is full: a board president who just watched his garage door get hammered, a homeowner whose skylight is leaking onto the dining room table, the regional VP asking for a status update, and three contractors who somehow already know about your storm. You are the one everyone is going to look to first. The boards will eventually vote, but you set the tempo

Community managers, I know your world: You’re juggling 5–10 communities, vendor issues pop up daily, and when a big capital project hits—like a roof replacement, full exterior repaint, or parking lot rehab—the bidding process can feel like herding cats. Boards want the “best” choice, residents want no special assessments, and you’re stuck trying to make sense of three (or more) wildly different proposals that don’t even compare on the same planet. That’s where bid leveling be

By Sean Davis | DHA Construction Management As a current HOA board member of 12 years and a civil engineer with over 30 years in construction and project management, I’ve lived both sides: sitting in board meetings approving projects and managing the bids, contractors, and execution. I’ve seen communities work hard to handle maintenance and repairs—only to leave serious money on the table because of avoidable RFP pitfalls. Here are three frequent hazards and quick ways to avo