I'm Doug King at 546 Latimer Circle and I have CC'd Yung on this email because she is my significant other and I want her involved. I am going to try to list my rational for moving the responsibility for the siding maintenance to the association rather than the individual homeowners. I am completely for it and all my rationales reflect that position.
First of all there is the economy of scale. If each individual homeowner has to perform the maintenance then the contractors have no reason to give any discounts.
Second, the termite work for an individual home would be useless if the adjoining homes do not perform the necessary work at the same time.
Also, there would not be any way to "tent" a home that requires it because the entire block would need to happen at the same time. I have already discovered that seems to be impossible.
As for the maintenance schedule, it would be very reasonable and logical if it was determined for the entire complex by the association, otherwise there is no knowing the state of a given home or block of homes. An added benefit would be that all homes would get the proper maintenance rather than only those homeowners who are most responsible.
One major benefit of the association determining the maintenance schedule would be that each homeowner would get the attractiveness of advertising their home as virtually guaranteed to be up to the best standards when they want to sell. It would apply to their own home and to the adjoining homes.
So, that is all I can think of at the moment. Feel free to put this in a general distribution email or the blog you mentioned. Thank you so much for all your hard work.
Yours
Doug (and Yung)
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Welcome
Welcome to the discussion blog for the Fairmeadow CC&R Revision process. The project is currently being reviewed by the Board of Directors, but you are welcome to post your comments here on the issues that have been presented. Several Homeowners have shared their thoughts about the suggested changes to Article VII, with the Association becoming responsible for exterior maintenance of the structures and for termite inspection and exterior damage repair. Those comments will be posted for everyone to see and will also be used for the pro/con statements on the ballot when the CC&R Revision is put to the vote.
Costs
Jan Buzzbee rightly asked a question about the costs of the Association taking over the responsibility for termite inspection and control:
Joy,I neglected to ask a question at the meeting of the 8th that I meant to ask. We talked about the termites and the siding at the meeting on December 8th indicating the change would be the association to take responsibility for the termite control and siding replacement. If the association is responsible for the siding, are we required to keep in reserves the amount necessary to replace the siding of the complex at a stated time period as we do the fences and roofs? Have we received a estimate of the cost to replace siding if we were required to replace the whole complex? I do realize there is economy in numbers, but it would be helpful to know the cost whether it would be a special assessment to all owners or an increase in our monthly dues. We talked about the termites and how each homeowners could be assessed an amount for the cost if we needed to treat, whether it was tenting or some other method. Thank you for your thoughts on this.
This was the CC&R Revision Committee's reply:Based on comments received from the survey and discussed at length during the Town Hall meetings, the committee feels that the Board needs to get certified estimates regarding the costs of Termite Inspections and Treatment as well as other aspects of siding maintenance before this issue is brought to the membership for a vote. We were prepared in January to ask the Board to seek some competitive bids from termite companies as well as confirm information given to the committee by the consultant who oversaw our painting process, but this, too, was carried over to February.The background of the proposed change is the following:1. Our Association is in the minority on this issue; most Common Interest Developments and Townhouse Complexes have delegated the responsibility for exterior maintenance and termite control to their Associations. In that way, the membership can be assured that the work is done to standard and in a timely fashion.2. During the previous revision process in 2005, the Board was told that a reserve of $500,000 for siding replacement was required; subsequent investigation has shown that that figure would only be applicable if the Association were to do regularly scheduled full replacement of the siding similar to the roof replacement that must be done every twenty to thirty years - this is not a standard maintenance procedure! Instead, exterior maintenance and siding repair would be done on an 'as-needed' basis because of pest or environmental damage, so the repairs would be covered by the annual operating budget or a reserve that is set up specifically for termite inspection and repairs. Any event that required wholesale replacement of the siding, such as a fire or earthquake, would be considered catastrophic and come under a different category, hopefully covered by insurance.3. Understanding that the membership wanted some sense of the costs involved for termite work, the committee did get preliminary estimates of $30,000 for termite inspection and exterior repair of all units and the common buildings; the warranty for the work would be three years, so the cost would be amortized at $10,000 per year. The repair work would not include painting, but the Association has sufficient paint in reserve that could be used by a handyman to complete the work. These estimates are the ones that need to be validated as discussed above in item 2 under Project Status.4. Any interior damage repairs would be the responsibility of the individual homeowner, but a special price would normally be offered by the contactor to do the work as part of the project.5. The Board needs to do an update of the reserves study with this project in mind, so we can know if there is money in reserves that would cover the initial termite program, but, if not, the cost could be covered by a monthly dues increase of $10 per unit. We will document the financial details in the ballot.6. The above numbers do not include tenting. If tenting is required for certain blocks, the cost will most likely be covered by a special assessment of ALL Homeowners. Again, financial details will be provided with the ballots.7. If the membership does vote to return the responsibility for exterior maintenance back to the Association, provisions will be made to make sure that any documented maintenance that should have been done by individual owners this year will be completed at the owner's expense.
Joy,I neglected to ask a question at the meeting of the 8th that I meant to ask. We talked about the termites and the siding at the meeting on December 8th indicating the change would be the association to take responsibility for the termite control and siding replacement. If the association is responsible for the siding, are we required to keep in reserves the amount necessary to replace the siding of the complex at a stated time period as we do the fences and roofs? Have we received a estimate of the cost to replace siding if we were required to replace the whole complex? I do realize there is economy in numbers, but it would be helpful to know the cost whether it would be a special assessment to all owners or an increase in our monthly dues. We talked about the termites and how each homeowners could be assessed an amount for the cost if we needed to treat, whether it was tenting or some other method. Thank you for your thoughts on this.
This was the CC&R Revision Committee's reply:Based on comments received from the survey and discussed at length during the Town Hall meetings, the committee feels that the Board needs to get certified estimates regarding the costs of Termite Inspections and Treatment as well as other aspects of siding maintenance before this issue is brought to the membership for a vote. We were prepared in January to ask the Board to seek some competitive bids from termite companies as well as confirm information given to the committee by the consultant who oversaw our painting process, but this, too, was carried over to February.The background of the proposed change is the following:1. Our Association is in the minority on this issue; most Common Interest Developments and Townhouse Complexes have delegated the responsibility for exterior maintenance and termite control to their Associations. In that way, the membership can be assured that the work is done to standard and in a timely fashion.2. During the previous revision process in 2005, the Board was told that a reserve of $500,000 for siding replacement was required; subsequent investigation has shown that that figure would only be applicable if the Association were to do regularly scheduled full replacement of the siding similar to the roof replacement that must be done every twenty to thirty years - this is not a standard maintenance procedure! Instead, exterior maintenance and siding repair would be done on an 'as-needed' basis because of pest or environmental damage, so the repairs would be covered by the annual operating budget or a reserve that is set up specifically for termite inspection and repairs. Any event that required wholesale replacement of the siding, such as a fire or earthquake, would be considered catastrophic and come under a different category, hopefully covered by insurance.3. Understanding that the membership wanted some sense of the costs involved for termite work, the committee did get preliminary estimates of $30,000 for termite inspection and exterior repair of all units and the common buildings; the warranty for the work would be three years, so the cost would be amortized at $10,000 per year. The repair work would not include painting, but the Association has sufficient paint in reserve that could be used by a handyman to complete the work. These estimates are the ones that need to be validated as discussed above in item 2 under Project Status.4. Any interior damage repairs would be the responsibility of the individual homeowner, but a special price would normally be offered by the contactor to do the work as part of the project.5. The Board needs to do an update of the reserves study with this project in mind, so we can know if there is money in reserves that would cover the initial termite program, but, if not, the cost could be covered by a monthly dues increase of $10 per unit. We will document the financial details in the ballot.6. The above numbers do not include tenting. If tenting is required for certain blocks, the cost will most likely be covered by a special assessment of ALL Homeowners. Again, financial details will be provided with the ballots.7. If the membership does vote to return the responsibility for exterior maintenance back to the Association, provisions will be made to make sure that any documented maintenance that should have been done by individual owners this year will be completed at the owner's expense.
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