The CMA Network of Qualified 3rd-Party Vendors

Helping our clients find the best service providers.

We are dedicated to helping our clients find the best qualified and independent service providers to complete their community projects on time and on budget. We have established strong relationships with our vendors to better serve our clients and ensure that we can provide reputable service providers for every association managed with CMA. Our primary objective is to help our clients locate skilled service providers, which allows us all to achieve greater success.

Are you tired of dealing with unqualified vendors that provide substandard services to your community? Look no further! As one of the leading community association management companies in the southeast region, we understand the importance of selecting local, qualified vendors for your community. That’s why we have gone the extra mile to thoroughly vet and verify all of our vendors for your convenience. Our extensive list of vendors provides a broad range of services that cater to the needs of your community. 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 1,100+ association clients and 200+ association managers, we attract the best service providers that specialize in condominium and HOA communities, providing high-quality workmanship at lower costs 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 our clients’ financial risk is our top priority.

To reduce our clients’ financial liability, we require all vendors who work on-site at any CMA-managed association to register with VIVE Vendor Compliance and Management (“VIVE”). Once you register and submit your company’s information and documents, VIVE will verify your credentials and inform you of any additional information required or if you are compliant and authorized to be an approved vendor for any community managed with CMA.

As the managing agent for each of our clients, we, along with the board members that serve each association, have a fiduciary duty to limit financial risk to 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. It is important to note that failure to register your company may lead to 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 CMA vendor with VIVE, please go to CMA Vendor Registration.

How to Become a CMA Vendor

To decrease the financial liability of our clients, CMA requires all vendors who work on-site at any CMA-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 $199 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 CMA. The cost breaks out to $16 per month over the year but will add you to CMA’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 CMA vendor on VIVE, please go to CMA Vendor Registration
  • For VIVE Vendor Support, please call 844.476.8038, email, or chat online VIVE Vendor Support. Phone and chat services are available Monday – Friday 9a-5p Eastern.
  • For general questions for CMA about this program, please contact Rhodes Collier at 404.835.9242 or email.

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 CMA
PO Box 36729
Charlotte, NC 28236

  • 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 CMA through AvidXchange. CMA 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

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

To make updates to your payment preferences, please contact AvidXchange Supplier Care

You can also contact the AvidXchange Supplier Care team by phone at 704-971-8170.

 

Why is CMA Partnering with VIVE?

CMA 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 CMA’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 CMA vendor on VIVE, please go to CMA Vendor Registration
  • For VIVE Vendor Support, please call 844.476.8038, email, or chat online VIVE Vendor Support. Phone and chat services are available Monday – Friday 9a-5p Eastern.
  • For general questions for CMA about this program, please contact Rhodes Collier at 404.835.9242 or email.

Service Provider Benefits

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

Our 200+ 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 CMA-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).

For additional VIVE vendor benefits, please click here.

  • To register as a CMA vendor on VIVE, please go to CMA Vendor Registration
  • For VIVE Vendor Support, please call 844.476.8038, email, or chat online VIVE Vendor Support. Phone and chat services are available Monday – Friday 9a-5p Eastern.
  • For general questions for CMA about this program, please contact Rhodes Collier at 404.835.9242 or email.

 

VIVE FAQs

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

No. You will only have to register once and pay the $199 per year regardless of how many CMA-managed associations for which you perform work. VIVE runs these credentials every year so the information is kept up to date so the $199 covers their administrative costs.

Why does the contractor have to pay VIVE? Why doesn’t CMA 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 CMA.

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 CMA or CMA-managed associations. Payments may be held for vendors that work onsite and fail to register.

For Our Boards of Directors

As the leader 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 CMA-managed associations meet predetermined minimum requirements (especially adequate insurance and licensing).

After careful evaluation, CMA 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 CMA 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 CMA 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.

CMA 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.

Should you as a Board member have general questions about this program, please contact Rhodes Collier at 404.835.9242 or email Rhodes here.

Hidden Cost of Exemptions

Introduction

Every Homeowners Association (HOA) Board will at some point hire a third party (vendor) to perform certain tasks on behalf of the HOA or to furnish services to the HOA and its members. In doing so, an HOA 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 HOA and its members, HOA Boards of Directors and community managers must understand how to properly protect the HOA 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 HOA’s risk exposure, therefore opening up the HOA to a severe 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 HOA is general contractor!

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

An HOA 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 HOA. Studies have shown that over 45% of vendors have had a lapse in one or more of their policies in the past two years.

Past Financial Practices

Hiring vendors with questionable financial practices (bankruptcies, liens, and judgments) can also place the HOA 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 buddy 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 HOA risk exposure and inevitable financial loss.

Should you as a Board member have general questions about this program, please contact Rhodes Collier at 404.835.9242 or email Rhodes here.

Become a CMA Service Provider

If you have additional questions about becoming an approved CMA service provider, please contact Rhodes Collier at 404.835.9242 or email here.