Community site plans

Started by LeilaH • 6 replies • 506 views

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LeilaH (Washington)
Posts: 10

Posted:

Our HOA has been trying to find the construction site plans, especially with the grading plan, that we need for a unit with structural problems. Our community is about 20 yrs old, and we've needed them several times in the past for other issues, so I've been told previous Board members have tried getting them from the City and the County with limited success. At this point, no one has them. And no one has time to go to the City and County to try again, so does anyone have any recommendations on a company providing such a service to get them for us, for a fee of course?

SheliaH (Indiana)
Posts: 6,964

Posted:

I take it the developer is long gone? Otherwise, start there. If previous board's tried to get the information with limited sucess, are they still around? If so, they may remember what they did and you can try from that point.

If no one has time to do the legwork, perhaps you can hire a paralegal to dig through the government records. Looking through newspapers may also work. There may have been are preformed that mention which construction did the work

Or check with a local college that has an architecture department - I would think they run across this stuff and might know and maybe refer you to a student who will do the research for you for a fee

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it. Marcus Aurelius

LeilaH (Washington)
Posts: 10

Posted:

The builder is no longer in business and apparently they did not give us the plans at the time either. None of the last 2 management companies have them either, and no idea if there was a management company before them. Someone mentioned trying to ask the original landscaping company if they have it, but I'm not hopeful, even if we can figure out who they were.

Thanks for the tip on asking an architecture firm / student.

MelissaP1 (Alabama)
Posts: 13,836

Posted:

Think about the process. Where would you have to file for the SAME thing today? What is that resource or requirement? Would it be with the Code department of your city/county? Start with asking a Realtor where such thing may need to be filed if you were to build today?

Although I rarely recommend involving a Realtor in HOA activities, they are a possible resource for researching such things. Just be aware that NOT all Realtors are created equal. So ask more than 1. Had a friend who had a realtor tell her they couldn't pull records at the court house. Which was ridiculous as those are PUBLIC documents. They just didn't know how.

House plans usually have to be submitted somewhere by the developer. Ask a Developer where that is.

Former HOA President

NpS (Pennsylvania)
Posts: 4,216

Posted:

You can probably hire a Title Search Company to obtain copies of Plats and any other recorded maps of the development.
From those documents, you should be able to get the name of the engineering firm that prepared them.
Even if that firm is no longer in business, they often get merged into another engineering firm.
Many engineering firms have digitized old records - so you might be able to get a full set of original drawings for your development.

Sikubali jukumu. Read all posts at your own risk.

DouglasK1 (Florida)
Posts: 2,046

Posted:

In our area I can find the community site construction plans online in two different places: 1) The local water management district (St. Johns WMD) which has to approve them, 2) The county records web site.

Escaped former treasurer and director of a self managed association.

CathyA3 (Ohio)
Posts: 6,299

Posted:

Do you have any of the original owners still living there? One of them may have their purchase paperwork that may include floorplans.

If you know the name of the developer and any companies that bought them, you also may be able to do a search through cached internet pages. It's a long shot, but twenty years isn't that old and there's a lot of old stuff still floating around on the web.

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