By Anita Stewien – Facilities Administrator

At MidCity Property Services, the Facilities and Maintenance Department covers an entire spectrum of duties. However, none of these would be possible without having a structure in place to appoint contractors that meet the company’s expectations and standards, to provide the best quality service to landlords and stakeholders.

The vetting of contractors is a complicated procedure, sometimes resulting in a very long process before a contractor is considered to ‘represent’ MidCity and becomes one of the ‘preferred contractors’. To become one of our contractors, an application form needs to be completed and submitted, accompanied by all the necessary documents, which include the following:

• The Company’s letterhead
• The Company’s resolution authorising you to sign on its behalf
• Certified copies of the signatories’ identity document/s
• The company’s certificate to commence business
• Copy of VAT Registration Certificate (if applicable)
• Copy of SARS registration
• The signed Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act

Only once the above documents have been received, the vetting process will commence.

In this competitive industry,  MidCity Property Services must ask, ‘Why this contractor?’ Our first step to determine this, is by sending the contractor a quotation request. As required by MidCity’s Portfolio Managers and Assistants, our Facilities Management Department needs to send out the Request-For-Quote to our existing contractors. Our existing service providers and contractors will provide quotations free of charge. Should the location be outside of the contractor’s service area or if the job doesn’t justify fuel costs contractors are welcome to decline the quote and we will send a different request.

Using this information, we can then determine the quote’s turn-around time, the scheduling of appointment arrangements with the contact person on site, as well as feedback to our office regarding the status and estimated receipt date. This information, accompanied by the contractor’s quote and our current contractors’ quotations, is then submitted to the trustees / directors / owners for consideration and further instructions.

This process enables us to determine if potential contractors’ prices are market related and whether their quotes compare well with those of our preferred contractors.

Once the quote is approved, we will send an Order document along with an Acceptance of Work Completed form to be signed by the contact person, acknowledging that the contractor completed the work (should they not have their own standard job card that the client can sign).

This way, landlords choosing to use MidCity Property Service’s contractors will enjoy optimal benefits. We do annual checks on our vetted contractors to ensure they still meet statutory and service delivery requirements. After decades of proven excellence, this is just another way that we provide holistic solutions that cover all facets of the property industry.