Academy/Procurement, Bids & Contracts
Service-level agreements
Turn "the vendor will provide good service" into a promise you can actually hold them to.
A service level agreement (SLA) is the section of a vendor contract that sets measurable performance targets, most often a response time, and states what happens when the vendor misses them, such as a service credit or a corrective action plan. A vague promise of good service, with no number and no consequence, is not an SLA.
What actually has to be in it
An SLA is not one sentence promising good service. Industry guidance on service level agreements lists the pieces that make one work: who the parties are and what work is covered, a plain description of the service, measurable performance metrics such as response time, who is responsible for what, a stated consequence for missing the metric such as a service credit or a corrective action plan, and any stated exclusions. If your vendor contract is missing the consequence piece, you have a description of the service, not an SLA.
Response time and resolution time are two different clocks
Say your irrigation vendor's SLA promises to "acknowledge a reported leak within 24 hours." The vendor emails back in 20 hours, then does not actually fix the leak for six days. That vendor met the SLA, because response time and resolution time are separate promises. A response-time metric only measures how fast the vendor answers; it says nothing about how fast the problem gets fixed. A contract that only states a response time leaves the fix itself unregulated. Write both clocks into the SLA if both matter to your community.
A missed metric needs a stated consequence
A number with no penalty attached is a wish, not a contract term. The two common consequences are a service credit, a defined dollar reduction on the next invoice, and a corrective action plan, a required written response describing how the vendor will fix the pattern. Either one only works if the contract states it plainly rather than leaving the board to negotiate a remedy after the fact.
Whether a missed SLA metric also gives the board a right to terminate the contract, and not just collect a credit, depends on what your termination clause says elsewhere in the agreement, not on the SLA section by itself. Check the termination clause that sits alongside your SLA before assuming the two work together.
Check yourself
Answer before you read the explanation, recalling it is what makes it stick.
Your landscaping contract requires the vendor to acknowledge a reported hazard within 24 hours. The vendor emails back in 20 hours but does not clear the hazard for six days. Did the vendor meet the SLA?
The management company's new contract says only that it will provide good service in a timely manner. A board member asks whether this counts as a real SLA. What is the right answer?
The pool service contract includes a service credit clause: a fixed dollar deduction from the invoice for each day the vendor misses its stated response window. The vendor misses the window twice this quarter. What should the board expect happens next, under a properly drafted SLA?
Sources
Related elsewhere in the Academy
Procurement, Bids & Contracts
Next, check whether your SLA's penalty actually connects to your termination rights: read Termination clauses.
What counts as a measurable metric, the size of a service credit, and whether a missed SLA also triggers a right to terminate for cause are all decided by the specific language in your contract, not by any general rule.