Network of Vendors | Great North Property Management

The Great North Network
of Preferred Vendors

Keep your property in top shape with our property management network of 3rd party providers.

Great North is dedicated to helping you find the best qualified and independent service providers to complete your projects on time and on budget. After decades in the field of property management, we have established strong relationships with our vendors – this means you have access to proven and reputable service providers for every association managed with Great North. Our goal is to help you locate skilled service providers, which allows us all to achieve greater success.

Are you frustrated with unqualified vendors that provide substandard services with no commitment to timelines and budgets? We have the solution! As one of the leading homeowner association management companies in the northeast region, we know the value of selecting local, qualified vendors for your community. That’s why we have created this resource for you and have thoroughly vetted and verified all of our vendors to ensure the best outcomes. Our extensive list of vendors provides a broad range of services to provide the solutions you need for your association. Plus, our simplified and convenient method of submitting vendor invoices guarantees that all payments are processed accurately and promptly upon review and approval.

With over 350+ association clients, 25,000+ units and experienced association managers, we attract the best service providers that specialize in condominium and HOA communities. Each of these vendors provides high-quality workmanship for our managed communities. Our commitment to providing exceptional services to our clients has earned us a reputation as a trusted partner in the property management industry. So why wait? Contact us today and experience the difference of working with a reliable, trusted, and experienced property management firm!

Reducing your financial risk is our top priority.

To reduce your financial liability, we require all vendors who work on-site at any GNPM-managed association to register with VIVE Vendor Compliance and Management (“VIVE”). Once a vendor registers and submits their company’s information and documents, VIVE will verify their credentials and advise if any additional information is required or if they are compliant and authorized to be an approved vendor for any community managed with Great North Property Management. As the managing agent for each community we serve, we work alongside the board members for each association, to uphold our fiduciary duty to limit financial risk and protect the association’s financial interests.

To ensure that all service providers working onsite meet our minimum standards, we require all onsite service providers to register with VIVE for review and documentation. Any vendor who fails to register their company may experience a delay in the release of payments. We kindly request all service providers begin the review process with VIVE prior to beginning any work onsite. By registering with VIVE, you will then be added to our payment system once approved . To start the service provide registration process, please click here.

To register as a Great North Property Management vendor with VIVE, please go to GNPM Vendor Registration.

How to Become a Great North Approved Vendor

To decrease the financial liability of our clients, GNPM requires all vendors who work on-site at any GNPM-managed association to register with Vendor Information Verification Experts (VIVE). Vendor verifications has become standard in professional association management to protect the interest of all parties involved. An annual fee of $150 will be charged to you by VIVE to register and complete the review, but once approved, your company will be added to our system and approved to work onsite at any association managed with GNPM. The cost breaks out to $12.50 per month over the year but will add you to GNPM’s approved vendor network. The administrative fee covers the cost of running background checks, insurance and licensing checks, and other credentials. Once you register and submit your company’s information and documents, VIVE will run their credentials and you will be notified if they need additional information, or if you are compliant and considered an approved vendor.

To register as a GNPM vendor on VIVE, please go to GNPM Vendor Registration. For VIVE Vendor Support, please call 844.476.8038 or email. Phone services are available Monday – Friday 9a-5p Eastern.

How to Submit an Invoice

To ensure prompt payment, please include the community name and service address and submit all invoices by using ONE of the following methods:

Option 1 – Email invoices here

Send invoices by email OR US Mail only, but please do NOT do both!
Include only one invoice per attachment. (Emails can include multiple attachments.)
PDF is the preferred invoice submission format.
Other accepted invoice submission formats are Word, Excel, JPEG, TIFF, and email with no attachments (where the email itself would be used as the invoice).
The association name must appear on the invoices themselves and not just in the email subject line or body. This will ensure your invoice is routed quickly.

Option 2 – US Mail (note required format):

Association Name

c/o Great North Property Management

PO Box 4579, Dept 125

Houston, TX 77210-4579

Send invoices by email OR US Mail only, but please do NOT do both!
The association name and the address shown above must appear on the invoices themselves and not just the envelopes. This will ensure your invoice is routed quickly.

Invoice Payment Processing

To process payments, our accounting system requires your company be approved in VIVE. Once you are approved and set up in our payment system, your invoices will be processed by GNPM through AvidXchange. GNPM utilizes AvidXchange to process all association invoices efficiently and quickly. To ensure prompt processing of service provider invoices, please be sure to include the community name and service address on each invoice.

Looking for the status of a payment?
Need help with your account?
Want to update your payment address, preferred payment method, or bank account?
AvidXchange offers three different payment options: check (default), Direct Deposit, and prepaid credit card.
To make updates to your payment preferences, please contact AvidXchange Supplier Care
ACH Link Upload

For security reasons, GNPM cannot set the payment preference on behalf of any service provider.

Why is GNPM Partnering with VIVE?

GNPM has a fiduciary duty to protect the interests of our clients and takes this responsibility seriously. This duty includes ensuring contractors performing work in our managed associations have (and keep) appropriate and adequate insurance, are properly licensed to perform trade work and have no criminal business history or recent financial issues, etc.

To perform all these checks and services in-house is not within GNPM’s area of expertise, so we have outsourced the review to VIVE as they are made up of a group of licensed insurance professionals and have the capability, along with a proven track record handling those matters.

To register as a GNPM vendor on VIVE, please go to GNPM Vendor Registration

For VIVE Vendor Support, please call 844.476.8038 or email. Phone services are available Monday – Friday 9a-5p Eastern.

Service Provider Benefits

Once you go through the VIVE process and become compliant, your company will be added to our exclusive list of GNPM-approved vendors of which all have been vetted and held to the same standard as being qualified to work at our GNPM-managed associations.

Our 50+ managers use VIVE as a searching tool when looking for new vendors and will see your company name as a compliant, available vendor to work on any GNPM-managed property.

When you bid on a project, you can be confident that the other bidders have invested in the same level of professionalism and insurance coverage (which decreases the likelihood of underbidding due to low overhead).

You will also be listed on our GNPM website as an approved vendor that homeowners will have access to.

For additional VIVE vendor benefits, please click here.

To register as a GNPM vendor on VIVE, please go to GNPM Vendor Registration.

For VIVE Vendor Support, please call 844.476.8038 or email. Phone services are available Monday – Friday 9a-5p Eastern

VIVE FAQs

Do I have to register and pay for each GNPM-managed association at which I do work?

No. You will only have to register once and pay the $150 per year regardless of how many GNPM-managed associations for which you perform work. VIVE runs these credentials every year so the information is kept up to date so the $150 covers their administrative costs.

Why does the contractor have to pay VIVE? Why doesn’t GNPM pay VIVE on behalf of the contractor?

To maintain transparency and avoid any perceived conflict of interest, the contractor must work with VIVE independent of GNPM.

What if I choose not to register with VIVE?

All current and future vendors will be required to register with VIVE. Those companies which do not enroll with VIVE will unfortunately not be permitted to do business with GNPM or GNPM-managed associations. Payments may be held for vendors that work onsite and fail to register.

For Our Board Members

As one of the leaders in the community management industry, we are constantly striving to find ways to serve our clients more effectively. We know that maintaining your associations through the management of multiple vendors is critical to that service. We have a duty to you, as our clients, to ensure that we do everything within our power to look out for your best interest. This includes ensuring that all vendors who provide service for GNPM-managed associations meet predetermined minimum requirements (especially adequate insurance and licensing).

After careful evaluation, GNPM has contracted with VIVE Vendor Compliance and Management (“VIVE”) to automate our vendor credentialing process. VIVE is a company dedicated to managing vendor requirements including credentialing vendors, reviewing documents such as insurance certificates, licenses and W-9s. By leveraging VIVE’s platform, we are able to provide greater financial security to your association by minimizing your risk and liability. VIVE’s automated vendor portal and intuitive online registration process will streamline vendor interactions, allowing vendors and GNPM to centrally track in an accurate and timely manner all important documents, including contracts, proof of insurance and W-9s. This vendor credentialing process is the standard in the multifamily industry. As most GNPM vendors have been working in the multifamily space for years, they will be familiar with this credentialing process.

We work directly with your vendors to begin their registration. While we do not expect disruption to your level of service, we know it is important for you to be aware of these changes. Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to help you achieve the vision for your community as much of which is accomplished and made possible through vendor partners.

GNPM will continue to bring the latest tools and practices to the community association industry and affiliated professionals. We are offering VIVE to our communities at no additional cost to our associations in an effort to add more value to our already robust service offerings. VIVE simplifies the process of screening and tracking vendors for all managed properties.

Hidden Cost of Exemptions

Introduction

Every condominium / HOA Board will at some point hire a third party (vendor) to perform certain tasks on behalf of the association or to furnish services to the association and its members. In doing so, an association may be exposed to liability brought about by the vendor’s actions and/or the terms of the vendor contracts. Because such liability may substantially impact the financial interests of the association and its members, Boards of Trustees / Directors and community managers must understand how to properly protect the association when hiring a vendor. Credentialing services like those provided by VIVE Vendor Compliance and Management (“VIVE”) transfer the risk exposure back to the vendor.

Before making the decision of exempting or waiving a vendor from being credentialed, there are several items to consider when contracting with a vendor to perform services:

Licensed, Bonded and Insured Vendors

Unlicensed vendors are rarely bonded or properly insured. This increases the association’s risk exposure, therefore opening up the association to a financial risk in the event of property damage or injury. For example, when you hire a licensed general contractor, the general contractor and their insurance carriers are the primary payers in the event something goes awry on the job. If that general contractor is not licensed and insured to handle the project, the association is general contractor!

If an unlicensed contractor breaks a sewer line, the association is responsible. If a worker gets hurt and can’t work for two years, and there’s no workers compensation coverage in place, the association could be on the hook for that worker’s medical bills and lost wages.

An association that hires an unlicensed or uninsured vendor also subjects itself to potential liability for unpaid wage or worker’s compensation claims brought by the vendors’ employees.

The issue of lapsed coverage is also important here because there are many instances of vendors cancelling their policies during the coverage year with no notification provided to the association.

Past Financial Practices

Hiring vendors with questionable financial practices (bankruptcies, liens, and judgments) can also place the association in the precarious position should the vendor not be able to complete the job due to lack of capital or simply walks away from the job after receiving the first payment.

It’s the Law

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions based on U.S. foreign policy and national security goals, threats to national security, foreign policy or the economy of the United States.

Sanctioned organizations, companies, and individuals are listed on the Special Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN) list and other government watch lists. Most are unaware that that they are breaking laws by doing business with people or organizations on these lists and don’t check their vendors against them. As a result of this, many companies and non-profits, large and small, are fined for inadvertently transacting business with U.S. sanctioned organizations. Companies who are slapped with fines, many in the hundreds of thousands and even multi-million dollar range, usually had no idea that their vendor was on one of these lists.

Hidden Dangers with Friends and Family

Hiring friends as contractors doesn’t make the liability and risk issues go away. Everyone can enter an arrangement with the best of intentions, but when your friend falls off the ladder and files a claim with their insurance company, they may well pay the claim and then go after you in subrogation proceedings (the area of law in which insurance companies fight to get reimbursed after paying their customers’ claims).

In one California case, Mendoza v. Brodeur, a homeowner asked his neighbor to do some work for him on his home. But the neighbor got hurt on the job. The homeowner thought he was hiring an independent contractor who had his own insurance. The court rejected that reasoning and found instead that the homeowner was the neighbor’s employer and therefore should have had workers compensation coverage in place to cover the possibility of injury on the job. Since worker’s compensation wasn’t there, the homeowner has to cover the costs personally.

Closing

There are scenarios where exempting/waiving a vendor from going through the credentialing process makes sense. But exceptions made blindly, without understanding the impact of the vendor’s failed criteria, greatly increases the association’s risk exposure and inevitable financial loss.