Homeowner Landscaping

The Association owns all land surrounding homeowner units. We are in the process of updating our covenants where it states in general that “landscaping” is part of the Association responsibility. When the development was handed over to the Association, the then board of directors did not follow the covenants, and homeowners were allowed to do their own thing (with board approval but not done consistently) regarding their landscaping. Personal landscaping has never been included in the budget. Therefore, a sizable increase in the maintenance fee would be necessary for the association to assume responsibility.

After 20 years, the board of directors is proposing that the landscaping be officially removed from the covenants as an Association responsibility to represent what is actually taking place. As units turnover, it will help clarify to new homeowners their responsibilities.

With homeowners allowed ownership of plantings surrounding their unit, but not ownership of the land on which the plantings are installed, I’d be interested in hearing a discussion from other HOAs experiences with similar conditions.

Thanks.

Recently, this has been an issue in our community as well. Homeowners plant trees on utility easements without our knowledge, flower beds with brick borders etc. Then one owner sells and the next owner does not maintain the plantings. Then the HOA has to pay to remove the borders and dead plants and trees where they are planted over untily easements. I'm not sure why you have to specifically say that the landscaping is part of the Associations responsibility. If these are common areas, it would stand to reason that the HOA would be responsible for maintaining the area. Your proposal to transfer the responsibility is unusual. We'd have to look at your documents and see how this is addressed, where it's addressed in your documents and what's required to change this. Is this a small HOA?

This IS complicated, thus my seeking other experiences.

JohnC

The Association has been taking care of all trees and shrubs on the property except that immediately adjacent to the unit which homeowners maintain as was determined by the original board of directors and has been practiced for 20 years. We have, however, in the past replaced a shrub or two that was original to the development and located within the homeowner's personal landscaping.....adding to the confusion.

MikeS

We have similar problems with people's plantings not being cared for properly and the association having to get after people to weed and prune, etc.

Where it is addressed is as follows: "Exterior Maintenance. In addition to maintenance upon the Common Area, the Association shall provide exterior maintenance upon each Lot which is subject to assessment hereunder, as follows: paint, repair, replace and care for roofs, gutters, downspouts, exterior building surfaces, trees, shrubs, grass, walks and other exterior improvements...."

The word "lot" is another inappropriate word since there are no individual "lots" but the units are on one big lot. Again, confusing!

We are a small community with only 7 buildings, 2 units per building on a little over 3 acres.

EllieD

Don't laugh......even that is complicated.

Our documents originally said we were a condominium, but it was later found that we did not meet the criteria as defined in state law to be a condo, so the covenants were amended to say we were not a condominium.....but everything was geared toward that type of community and the documents were never updated to reflect our true status as a mere homeowner association with covenants, etc.

Joyce

Sorry for so many questions but trying picture/decide in my own mind.

1. Are yoiu saying the association is/was responsible for all landscaping upto and including beddings/plants adjacent to each building?

2. Are you saying that over the years the BOD allowed people to plant whatever adjacent to their buildings without asking permission?

3. Who does the upkeep of the beddings/plantings adjacent to the buildings?

To me the issues would be inconsistent appearance in looks, expectations, and maintenance.

Looks as in could become real hodge-podge looking as some like to plant, others do not like to play in the dirt.

Expectations in that as a non dirt player and according to the CC&R's, I expect you to keep my place looking nice and if not as nice as some others I might also complain.

Maintainance for looks but if you are spending my dues to maintain other peoples plantings/gardenings then we have an issue.

What is not working now? What are people complaining about?

My initial thinking is do not change the CC&R's saying each unit owner is responsible for beddings say within 48 inches adjacent to their unit. This is surrending all control and opening a Pandora's Box, even when poor to little no control has been exercised in the past.

My 2nd thought is to inform all owners what the association is responsible for and that individual planting has gotten out of hand in that it is costing the HOA money to maintain and in the future, approval must be gotten from the BOD/ARC, even if a replacement.

Hope this helps.

1. Yes. According to how our Covenants are written.
2. Inconsistently. Depending on who was serving on the BOD. Some BODs required permission, while others looked the other way.
3. The homeowner prunes and weeds, installs mulch or rock and edging. The Association clears away leaves in fall; along with a spring clean-up of debris in the landscaping. About 3-4 people have had a dead shrub replaced at the expense of the Association, which were original plantings while the majority have replaced dead shrubs at their own expense. (Inconsistency)

The front landscaping is absolutely very inconsistent in appearance; there are those who take care of their landscaping meticulously, while others leave a lot to be desired. One has created a flower garden as opposed to shrub or bush plantings.

Recent complaint by two people is that shrubs/bushes have been covered by the Association inconsistently. This is true. Since the majority have assumed responsibility but our covenants say the Association maintains landscaping, now is the time to clarify once and for all.

We have had very little turnover in our community; now that is beginning to change. With new people moving in to the community, they assume the Association maintains their landscaping or they believe they can do whatever they want around their foundation when seeing the variations of landscaping present.

Since we are updating our documents, it is a good time to clarify landscaping responsibilities.

For the Association to assume responsibility, we would have to require all landscaping to contain similar and/or low maintenance plantings, correct? Our maintenance fee would have to increase considerably in order to cover pruning, edging, mulch/rock replacement not to mention removal of shrubs in need of removal. It is a lose, lose situation for our current board.

Thanks for your input.

Joyce

Our conversations have been mostly about landscaping adjacent to the buildings. What about landscaping upto the buildings as in grass cutting, etc.? Also what about landscaping of common areas?

Thanks

Joyce

I am not sure you can separate things so neatly. To me, either the association does the landscaping or it does not, especially in those areas seen by the public as per the overall appearance of the complex.

While maybe not as black and white as I make it sound, I think it might be less grey then your think.

What would you do if you were in control of the situation?

Thanks.