A co-owner wants to redo a bathroom or replace their windows, and the board has to authorize the work. Until now the question "who will do the work?" came in by email, when it came at all, and nobody checked the contractor's licence before the meeting. CondoAide now asks the question in the request, and fetches the answer from the register of the Régie du bâtiment du Québec (RBQ).
The contractor is part of the request
In "New request", a work authorization asks "Who will do the work?". If it is a contractor, the co-owner gives the company and its RBQ licence number, and can add a contact person and an email. The number is on the contractor's quote or contract.
The licence field searches the register as you type. After three characters it suggests the licences that match the number or the company name, each with its status in the register. Picking one fills in the number and the company name, and a link opens the licence's record on VériBât. A number typed in full still works.
While the request is submitted, the co-owner, or the board on their behalf, can change the contractor or remove it.
The board sees the register's answer
The request shows what the register says, in its own words:
- "Licence in force in the RBQ register";
- "Licence in force, with a restriction" (the register does not say what the restriction is);
- "Licence no longer in the RBQ register", with the date it left;
- "Number not found in the RBQ register".
It also shows the registered holder and the date of the check. When the holder in the register is not the company given in the request, the request says so.
The licence is checked again when the board puts the request on an agenda, and whenever someone clicks "Check again". If the register does not answer, the last answer is kept: an outage never erases a real answer.
The syndicate's vendors too
The same field is used on a vendor record. The vendor page shows the register's answer, the date of the check and the VériBât link, and the answers are refreshed automatically.
The vendor list and the payment dialog flag "Not in the RBQ register" and "Licence restricted". Once the register has answered, a licence expiry typed by hand no longer raises a flag, because the register is the authority. It still does for a licence the RBQ register cannot speak to: one issued by another body, or a number not checked yet.
What is sent
The check goes through VériBât, another service of Solutions Nicvi inc., the company that runs CondoAide. Only the licence number, or the text typed to search, is sent to it: not the co-owner's name, not their unit, not the content of the request. The privacy policy says so.
CondoAide reports what the public register says. It does not decide whether the contractor is right for the work, and the decision to authorize stays with the board.