Nobody said where it goes
A submittal with a model number and no position is not a proposal, it is a shopping list. Boards reject it because they cannot approve something they cannot picture, and it is the most common failure by a distance.
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The approval comes first.
Not after the quote. Not once the equipment is on the van. First — because the expensive failures in this work are procedural rather than technical.
01 — Why this page exists
Nothing here is difficult. It is just easy to get wrong in an expensive order.
A rejected or forgotten submittal does not cost a little more. It costs a season.
Boards commonly meet monthly. Miss an agenda deadline by two days and the answer arrives five or six weeks later than it needed to. Get rejected for something that could have been designed out in ten minutes and you are waiting for the meeting after that. Meanwhile the equipment is ordered, the installer's calendar has moved on, and it is now July.
Worse: work done without approval can be ordered removed at the owner's cost. That is rare and it is not a threat we make to sell anything — it is simply the reason we will not start a job in an HOA property without a written yes, however confident everybody is that it will be fine.
So we prepare the package with the quote, at no extra charge, and it is yours whether or not you use us. That is not generosity. A rejection costs us two months of a scheduled job, and preparing a proper submittal is the cheapest insurance against it we have found.
02 — The package
What goes in, item by item.
Associations ask for different things and some have their own form. This is the set that covers nearly every request we have seen, and anything your board's form adds is straightforward once this exists.
- What is proposed
- Plain language, one paragraphWhat is being replaced or added, and why. Written for a board member who is a volunteer with a day job, not for another contractor.
- Where it goes
- A marked-up plan or a photograph with the position on itIncluding clearances, and how far it is from the nearest neighbouring window or door. This is the item boards most often ask for and least often receive.
- What it looks like
- Dimensions, finish, and any screeningPlus a photograph or elevation of how it will appear from common area. If a screen is required, what it is and who maintains it.
- How it is isolated
- The vibration detail, stated explicitlyPads or mounts, flexible connectors, resilient hangers. Including this unprompted changes the tone of a review, because noise is what the board is actually worried about.
- Penetrations
- Where the envelope or a rated assembly is crossed, and how it is sealedEvery hole, with how it will be flashed or firestopped. This is the item that protects you later.
- Access and hours
- The logistics planWhich entrance, lift booking, corridor protection, working hours, and the undertaking that nothing stays in common area overnight.
- Licence and insurance
- Contractor licence number and certificatesSent up front rather than on request. Most vendor requirements ask for them and a missing certificate is a pointless week.
- Responsibility afterwards
- One sentence about who owns whatAsk the board to confirm, in the approval letter, who is responsible for the penetration and the equipment thereafter. A "yes" that does not say this is a "yes" you may have to re-litigate in five years.
03 — Why they get rejected
Five reasons, and four of them are avoidable on paper.
Nothing about noise
Noise is the board's real concern and an unaddressed submittal invites them to imagine the worst. Stating the isolation detail unprompted is the single highest-value paragraph in the package.
The appearance was not shown
"A condenser on the balcony" and a photograph of a screened unit in place are different applications. Many associations have an architectural standard, and something that looks unconsidered gets treated as unconsidered.
Penetrations were not mentioned
A board that has ever had a water intrusion claim will look for this first. A submittal that names each penetration and says how it is sealed removes the objection before it is raised.
What the documents actually prohibit
The one that is not avoidable by writing better. Some properties genuinely do not permit what an owner wants. Finding that out at the submittal stage rather than after ordering is the entire point of doing it first.
And the timing one
Not a rejection, but it costs the same: submitting after the agenda deadline. We ask for the meeting calendar at the first visit, which is a question almost nobody asks and which routinely saves a month.
04 — The calendar
The meeting date matters more than the lead time.
People plan these projects around how long the equipment takes to arrive. In an HOA property the binding constraint is almost always when the board next sits.
So the first question we ask a new enquiry in a managed property is not what equipment they want. It is: when does the board meet, what is the agenda deadline, and does the managing agent screen submittals before they go on it?
That last one matters. Where an agent reviews first, a package that needs a small correction can often be fixed inside a week instead of waiting a full cycle — but only if it was submitted with enough time before the deadline for the agent to look at it.
None of this is complicated. It is simply information that nobody asks for and everybody needs.
What we do while waiting
Nothing. We do not order equipment, book a lift, or hold a slot on a maybe. If approval comes through and our next opening is three weeks out, we will tell you that honestly rather than pretending the wait was somebody else's fault.
When the answer is no
It happens, and it is usually not final. In order of how often it works:
- Ask what specifically. A rejection is often about one item, and the letter may not say which. Ask.
- Move the position. A different location on the same property solves a surprising share of them.
- Change the configuration. Ductless instead of a roof unit, or a smaller outdoor unit in a permitted spot.
- Add what was missing. Screening, an isolation detail, a flashing detail — often the whole objection.
- Accept it. Sometimes the property simply does not allow it, and we will tell you that rather than help you push.
05 — The limit
What we will not do.
We prepare submittals. We do not interpret your governing documents, and the distinction is not a technicality.
CC&Rs, rules and architectural guidelines are legal documents, they vary enormously between properties, and they are frequently ambiguous about exactly the thing an owner wants to know. An HVAC contractor offering a confident reading of a clause is doing you a disservice, however helpful it feels in the moment.
What we will do instead: read what you give us, design to the clearest reading of it, and tell you precisely which sentence we are unsure about. That is a more useful output than a guess, because it is something you can take to your board, your managing agent or your own counsel and get a real answer to.
We also will not tell you that something will "probably be fine". Either there is a written approval or there is not, and we work on the second half of that sentence.
For boards and managers
If you are on the receiving end of these rather than the sending end, two things may be useful.
First: we are happy to be the contractor who tells an owner that what they want is not permitted. It lands better from a tradesperson than from a neighbour on a committee.
Second: we will give an independent view on whether a noise complaint is actually caused by the equipment somebody is blaming. That question comes up constantly and it is rarely as obvious as either side thinks.
06 — Approval questions
Asked once people have read this far.
Do I need approval for a like-for-like replacement?
Frequently yes, even when nothing visible changes, because many properties require notice for any work touching common area or the building envelope. Some associations have a simpler process for like-for-like, which is worth asking about — it can be days instead of a meeting cycle. What we will not do is assume it on your behalf.
How long does approval usually take?
It is set by the board's calendar rather than by anything we control, which is why we ask for the meeting date and the agenda deadline at the first visit. Where a managing agent screens submittals first, a small correction can sometimes be handled inside a week; where the board reviews everything itself, missing a deadline means waiting for the next meeting.
Can you submit it on my behalf?
We prepare the package and we are happy to deal with the managing agent directly on the technical content. The application itself usually has to come from the owner, because most associations will only accept a submittal from a member. We will tell you exactly what needs your signature and what does not.
What if the previous owner installed without approval?
It comes up, usually at the point somebody wants to replace the equipment. The practical route is almost always to bring it into the process now rather than to quietly repeat it — a board that discovers an unapproved installation during a replacement is a harder audience than one asked to regularise something inherited. We will prepare the package either way; we will not install into an unapproved position.
Is the submittal really free?
Yes, with any quote, and it is yours to take to another contractor. The reason is straightforwardly self-interested: a rejected or delayed submittal costs us a scheduled job and two months of calendar, and a properly prepared package is the cheapest way to avoid that. If you use it elsewhere, we would rather that than have prepared nothing.
Get the submittal started before the board's next meeting.
Tell us the property and, if you know it, the meeting date. That is where this actually begins.