BryceD (Texas)
Posts: 7
Posts: 7
Posted:
Hello,
My company is managing a condo community, which I will briefly describe below. What I am looking for is to see if anyone has any experience living in and/or managing a similar type of community. We want to make sure we are on top of our service!
The community is similar to a townhome concept, but the fact that it is 55+ age restricted and the way the yards are setup, we have many complications from things that ordinarily are simple things. The condos actually look exactly like single family free-standing homes. They sit approximately 10 feet from one another on either side and between the homes there is a gated yard area. The association takes care of all exterior maintenance including irrigation and landscaping of everything on the home's exterior, included the gated yard area.
1) Yards: a handful of owners like to place locks on their gates for their own personal reasons. Additionally, some owners have dogs in the backyard. This is a challenging situation for routine landscape maintenance, as we do not always know the exact schedule. They generally come weekly for service during the growing season, but that can change last minute due to weather or other circumstances. It puts the Association in a difficult situation because it has an obligation to maintain the property, but may be unable to due to the altered presence of resident property. Some residents get angry and they demand to be notified of changes in the schedule, but this cannot always be provided within the same week of service. I would definitely like to always give 24 hours notice, but I can't promise something that I cannot rely on the landscape company to always deliver to us. If they fail to uphold their promise, we will look bad. Are there any suggestions here?
2) Landscape Modifications: One other thing we constantly have questions about... our owners have a lot of time and some have a lot of money. Naturally they want to improve the landscaping around their "home" condo so it looks nicer. This can present a problem because the gated area is really more of a dedicated drainage area than a "yard" even though it has grass in it. The houses are close together and drainage is very sensitive. Currently they have to request permission to change anything on the exterior, because in reality it belongs to the condo association as condo property. The challenge comes in that we and the board have concerns about all of the modifications, who is performing them (unknown third parties, DIY, etc.), and what could possibly be damaged as a result in the immediate future and the longterm... (if the drainage is disrupted it could potentially lead to foundation issues down the road). The association is mostly covered as far as resident responsibility for modifications, not only is it written in their documents, but they are reminded of these responsibilities when they fill out the modification form.
3) Landscape modifications & maintenance: Furthermore, all owners' dues equally pay for association landscaping throughout the community. When modifications are added, it becomes unclear as to who should pay for the maintenance and how is that easily collected, since these modifications alter the state of the condominium from how the builder built it. Tracking individual maintenance costs throughout the community becomes a burden potentially on the management company to track all the separate accounting work just to track and accommodate this - again, not something in the contract and the landscaper and management company both take on extra duties as a result, if not worked out. It is nearly impossible to keep a running list of exactly all the condos with exterior modifications to landscape, and exactly the size, etc. of all the modifications and how they should be charged... or if all owners should just split everything, even if it was not built that way.
If anyone has any suggestions or feedback, I'd really love to hear what's working out there. The private yard area (but still condo property) makes it very difficult to perform the association's purpose. Thanks in advance!
My company is managing a condo community, which I will briefly describe below. What I am looking for is to see if anyone has any experience living in and/or managing a similar type of community. We want to make sure we are on top of our service!
The community is similar to a townhome concept, but the fact that it is 55+ age restricted and the way the yards are setup, we have many complications from things that ordinarily are simple things. The condos actually look exactly like single family free-standing homes. They sit approximately 10 feet from one another on either side and between the homes there is a gated yard area. The association takes care of all exterior maintenance including irrigation and landscaping of everything on the home's exterior, included the gated yard area.
1) Yards: a handful of owners like to place locks on their gates for their own personal reasons. Additionally, some owners have dogs in the backyard. This is a challenging situation for routine landscape maintenance, as we do not always know the exact schedule. They generally come weekly for service during the growing season, but that can change last minute due to weather or other circumstances. It puts the Association in a difficult situation because it has an obligation to maintain the property, but may be unable to due to the altered presence of resident property. Some residents get angry and they demand to be notified of changes in the schedule, but this cannot always be provided within the same week of service. I would definitely like to always give 24 hours notice, but I can't promise something that I cannot rely on the landscape company to always deliver to us. If they fail to uphold their promise, we will look bad. Are there any suggestions here?
2) Landscape Modifications: One other thing we constantly have questions about... our owners have a lot of time and some have a lot of money. Naturally they want to improve the landscaping around their "home" condo so it looks nicer. This can present a problem because the gated area is really more of a dedicated drainage area than a "yard" even though it has grass in it. The houses are close together and drainage is very sensitive. Currently they have to request permission to change anything on the exterior, because in reality it belongs to the condo association as condo property. The challenge comes in that we and the board have concerns about all of the modifications, who is performing them (unknown third parties, DIY, etc.), and what could possibly be damaged as a result in the immediate future and the longterm... (if the drainage is disrupted it could potentially lead to foundation issues down the road). The association is mostly covered as far as resident responsibility for modifications, not only is it written in their documents, but they are reminded of these responsibilities when they fill out the modification form.
3) Landscape modifications & maintenance: Furthermore, all owners' dues equally pay for association landscaping throughout the community. When modifications are added, it becomes unclear as to who should pay for the maintenance and how is that easily collected, since these modifications alter the state of the condominium from how the builder built it. Tracking individual maintenance costs throughout the community becomes a burden potentially on the management company to track all the separate accounting work just to track and accommodate this - again, not something in the contract and the landscaper and management company both take on extra duties as a result, if not worked out. It is nearly impossible to keep a running list of exactly all the condos with exterior modifications to landscape, and exactly the size, etc. of all the modifications and how they should be charged... or if all owners should just split everything, even if it was not built that way.
If anyone has any suggestions or feedback, I'd really love to hear what's working out there. The private yard area (but still condo property) makes it very difficult to perform the association's purpose. Thanks in advance!
