A homeowner can approve a quote on the spot. A strata council can’t — the quote has to survive a meeting, answer questions from owners who weren’t in the room, and hold up months later when someone asks what was actually agreed to. That’s a different document, not just a bigger one.
Itemized, not bundled
A single lump-sum figure is hard for a council to evaluate and harder to defend to owners afterward. A council-ready quote breaks the work down by building or by service, so council can see what’s driving the total and approve pieces of it separately if the budget calls for that. If gutters, roof moss treatment and pressure washing are all part of the same visit, the quote should still show what each one costs on its own.
Scope specific enough to prevent disputes later
“Clean the gutters” isn’t a scope. “Clear troughs and flush downspouts on buildings A through D, photographed before and after” is. The more specific the written scope, the less room there is for a disagreement later about what was actually included — which matters more for a strata than a single homeowner, because the person asking the question in six months may not be the person who approved the work.
Proof of insurance and WorkSafeBC standing, attached
Not “available on request” — attached to the quote itself. A $5 million liability certificate and current WorkSafeBC clearance are what a council needs on file before work starts, and asking for them after the fact is the wrong order. We provide ours as a matter of course; our procurement page covers what else we can supply for a vendor file — safety data sheets, a standard scope template — without a separate round of emails.
A defined notice and scheduling plan
The quote should state how much lead time residents get before work starts, not leave it implied. For gutters and roofline work in particular, the date has to work for the notice period your bylaws require, not just for the contractor’s calendar — see our note on timing an autumn gutter clean across a strata property for how that planning actually works in practice.
What happens if something’s found while the crew is on site
Ask this directly: if a contractor notices a separated gutter seam, a lifted shingle or a failing seal while working, what’s the process? A quote worth approving says that in writing — reported with photos, not quietly fixed or quietly ignored. That’s the standard documentation that makes a depreciation report useful rather than just a line of invoices.
A guarantee term, not just a guarantee
“100% satisfaction guaranteed” means little without a stated window. Ours is 7 days from completion on workmanship, plus a moss-free guarantee on roof treatments with the term confirmed in writing — ask any contractor you’re considering to put their equivalent in the quote itself, not just say it on the phone.
Putting it in front of council
Send us the property details — number of buildings, services needed, any access constraints you already know about — and we’ll return a quote built to go straight into a meeting package: itemized, scoped, insurance attached, notice period stated. The strata services overview covers how we scope and document recurring work more generally.