# "Written confirmation of apparent low bidders"



## akrause (May 18, 2010)

We recently lowered our bid price on a large commercial job substantially to be in the “alleged” ball park of the other bidding painting contractors. I knew who the other bidders were and I was glancing at one of their web sites when something caught my eye. Within the job description of one of the team members, I saw that her tasks included …..*“ obtaining written confirmation of apparent low bidders”.* Does anyone have any knowledge of exactly what that is and how to go about it ? Certainly the GC would not be legally bound by any law to disclose their bid numbers (even though he told me what they were) so what does this mean?
Should I assume that if someone tells her that her company is high on a number that there is some industry standard by which to obtain some kind of document from the GC certifying his pricing claims? Never heard of that but it would sure be nice. I'm thinking GC would just say "Take it or leave it, ...I told you where you need to be".


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## akrause (May 18, 2010)

The more I study this, I'm now thinking it relates to the paint contractor getting prices from *their* subs and making sure their bids are confirmed in writing. There is nothing else on the web about this term that supports my initial thoughts.


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## CApainter (Jun 29, 2007)

akrause said:


> We recently lowered our bid price on a large commercial job substantially to be in the “alleged” ball park of the other bidding painting contractors. I knew who the other bidders were and I was glancing at one of their web sites when something caught my eye. Within the job description of one of the team members, I saw that her tasks included …..*“ obtaining written confirmation of apparent low bidders”.* Does anyone have any knowledge of exactly what that is and how to go about it ? Certainly the GC would not be legally bound by any law to disclose their bid numbers (even though he told me what they were) so what does this mean?
> Should I assume that if someone tells her that her company is high on a number that there is some industry standard by which to obtain some kind of document from the GC certifying his pricing claims? Never heard of that but it would sure be nice. I'm thinking GC would just say "Take it or leave it, ...I told you where you need to be".


From what I was able to gather, she did those tasks with a previous company, not the current one. 

From my understanding, certain government jobs need to verify the low bidders in the event that they grossly underbid the project, and therefore, may need to be disqualified from the selection process.


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## straight_lines (Oct 17, 2007)

One of my reps send me stuff from a site they use for opportunities all the time and they show the 123 bidders. It amazes me how much they differ many times. Winner is 200k + cheaper than the next bid.


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## akrause (May 18, 2010)

CApainter said:


> From what I was able to gather, she did those tasks with a previous company, not the current one.
> 
> From my understanding, certain government jobs need to verify the low bidders in the event that they grossly underbid the project, and therefore, may need to be disqualified from the selection process.


Great detective work! Looks like you found the actual person and page where I originally saw it. In the end, indeed it does mean that at a previous company she made sure low bidders were accurately reflecting the scope of work in their bid. My attorney pointed me toward the case of CitiRoof vs Tech Contracting (attached) wherein a roofing subcontractor mistakenly did his takeoff in the wrong scale and was $30,000.00 low on a job. After realizing this, CitiRoof withdrew their bid. Amazingly (in my opinion) the court found that the GC had reasonable right to base their overall bid price to the owners on the price submitted by the sub, despite the fact that another sub came in at double what CitiRoof did. The GC was awarded twenty some thousand dollars in damages, the difference between the two subs bids.
This is what sparked the term "Obatin written confirmation of apparent lowest bid".


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