Post date: Nov 24, 2012 6:47:33 PM
The Board of Directors elicited feedback from the residents of the community on a number of issues. During this process residents asked a number of questions. The following is the response to those questions.
“Why do some properties pay more than others?”
Payment of condominium contributions is based on unit factor; all units combined, including common property, must equal a unit factor of 10,000 in any condominium plan. Some units will have a higher unit factor than others based on many factors including unit size, unit location, unit view (mountain, park, house, fence, etc…) and anything else the developer decides to base the unit factor on at the time of plan registration.
“Speed bumps are too high.”
The speed bumps have proven effective to help remind drivers of the need to slow down to the posted speed limit for our roadways. At a slow speed and with due care, most vehicles are able to pass the speed bumps without issue. To help ensure non-residents are aware of the speed bumps they were painted 2 years ago and will likely be re-painted on an annual basis to ensure they stay highly visible.
As a reminder, our roadways are narrower than typical City roadways and obviously we do not have any sidewalks. With the need for pedestrians and vehicles to share the roadway, it is imperative for safety that speed be controlled.
We would like to see blue bins [city recycling].
The decision to elect to go with blue bins for the community is a permanent decision. It commits all residents now and for the foreseeable future to the incremental fee the City charges for blue bins. There is no ability to opt out, or to leave the plan later. Once committed, only the City will be able to make changes to the program.
This decision was submitted to all owners for consideration previously and the response was minimal. The majority of those who did respond were against proceeding further so the matter was dropped.
In order to move forward with this, there needs to be a strong majority of residents who would like to do this.
“We seem to be caught between our condo board not being able to manage/implement authority and bylaw [services] being able to. How do [we] get some clear definition in this area, mainly in relation to parking and dogs?”
The Board is not caught between being able to manage the property and the applicable by-laws. The City by-laws tend to be quite specific and don’t always apply. As private property, the Board has some limited authority to act. Having said that, the Board is currently taking action to strengthen our bylaws and make them more directly applicable to our bareland condo situation. In order to make this happen we will need the support of a super-majority of residents (75% or higher) in order to pass the changes we will be seeking. We hope we can count on your support.
“Lawn maintenance has always been substandard. Workers have no regard for the condition of our lawn, doing a poor job with general cutting and damaging our lawn and building structures with the edge trimmer.”
Based on the survey results, in general the majority of residents who responded were happy with the level of lawn care. As always, if you have issues with the service being provided, please contact Rancho.
“There is no privacy in our backyard. It would be nice to sit on our deck without having the whole neighborhood knowing it.”
This falls outside of the scope of the Board and property management. You are welcome to address this issue by planting trees/shrubs or building a privacy screen on your property provided you seek prior approval from the Board.
“The amount of fees that we are required to pay is disproportionate to the amount of service we receive from the condo association. With that amount of money going into the fund each month there is no reason why we cannot have more done on both the general property as well as individual properties.”
Our condo fees go to two places:
Operations and Maintenance or those costs associated with snow removal, lawn maintenance and other repairs around the property. This also includes the fees we pay Rancho as our property manager.
The reserve fund covers long-term costs associated with maintaining the property (eg. in future years we will need to re-pave the road). Every five years an engineering report is produced confirming the present state (and the expected life expectancy) of our assets and the projected costs to repair/replace them. We as a condo association must then ensure sufficient funds will be in the reserve in order to address these expenses as they occur.
Every year auditors review our books to ensure that the association is fiscally sound and able to meet its financial obligations (eg. by the time the road needs to be replaced, we have enough money in reserve to make it happen). Between Rancho and the auditors, the association is guided for fiscal soundness and that any funds contributed over costs is used to offset annual increases (the engineers recommended that fees be increased by at least CPI every year) and as a “hedge” against higher than planned costs like for snow clearing.
The following is the link to the latest engineering report: View
All owners should have received the latest copy of the auditors report in the mail.
By reviewing these documents you will see that the association is saving sufficient funds to meet our current and future commitments.
As a side note, there are typically two possible situations that could lead to increased fees in future: