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SB 326 & Inspections

What To Do After Your SB 326 Inspection Report Comes Back

You got the report. Now what?

That is the question I hear from boards every week. They went through the SB 326 inspection process, spent good money on it, and now they are sitting on a 40-page document full of findings, ratings, and photos they do not know what to do with.

Here is the problem. The report tells you what is there. It does not tell you what to fix first, what it is going to cost, or whether the bids you are about to collect will actually solve the right problems.

That gap is where boards make expensive mistakes.

What the report actually gives you

An SB 326 inspection is a visual assessment. The inspector walks the property, documents conditions, and assigns ratings. A good inspector does that job well.

But the inspection is not a scope of work. It is not a prioritized repair plan. And it is not a bid document.

The findings say something like "elevated moisture content detected at soffit framing in Building 4." They do not say what that moisture will cost to remediate, whether it has spread behind the stucco where you cannot see it, or what happens to the building envelope if you paint over it and defer it to the next cycle.

That translation is on you — or on whoever you bring in to help you work through it before money starts moving.

The most common mistake I see after a report comes back

Boards take the inspection report, hand it to a contractor, and ask for a bid.

That contractor now controls the scope. They are telling you what to fix, how to fix it, and why their approach is the right one. They want the work. That is not a conflict of interest accusation — it is just how contracting works.

When the scope comes from the same party bidding the job, you have no independent baseline. You cannot compare bids fairly because each contractor is defining the project their own way. You cannot tell whether the priority list makes sense. And when something unexpected comes up mid-job, you have very little leverage.

I have seen boards spend $150,000 to $200,000 more than the job warranted because the contractor's scope included deferred work that should have waited — and skipped foundational repairs that could not. Nobody caught it before the contract was signed. By the time the pattern became clear, the board had already approved the change orders.

What to do instead

Before you issue an RFP or invite a single contractor to walk the property, have someone independent review the inspection findings and build a scope for you.

That scope document becomes the foundation for everything that follows: the RFP language, the bid comparison, the contract terms, the board vote. Every contractor bids against the same defined set of work. You can compare what comes back. You know what you are getting and what you are not. When a contractor tells you something came up on site that was not in the original scope, you have documentation to stand on.

That step is what most boards skip. It is also the step that creates the most downstream problems when it is missing.

Questions worth asking before your next board meeting

If your report is sitting on someone's desk right now, work through this checklist before taking any action:

If the answer to any of those is uncertain, you are not ready to issue an RFP yet.

One more thing

SB 326 is a compliance law. It was designed to protect associations and the people who live in them. The inspection is a starting point, not a solution.

Getting the inspection done satisfies the statute. Using the findings correctly is what actually protects the board.

If you are sitting on a report and not sure what the right next step looks like, that is the exact conversation worth having before any contracts get signed or any dollars move.

We're here to help

Not sure what your report is actually telling you?

We help HOA boards turn inspection findings into a clear, defensible scope — before a single contractor walks the property or a dollar moves.

Schedule a Call with Paul