FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. What are the fees mentioned on my notice of annual dues?

Article VII Section 11 "Payment" on p.14 of the Sweet Allen Farm Homeowners Associations (SAFHoA) By-Laws outlines the penalties for late payments. Balances owed beyond the due date are subject to these regulations. Fees include ALL COSTS incurred by the HOA to collect your late payment including relevant attorney fees, lien costs, postage and supplies, etc. There is no penalty beyond monthly interest and collection costs. For more information please contact William Hodge.

Delinquent homeowners are the most significant driver of increases in the annual dues. THANK YOU TO MOST OF THE HOMEOWNERS WHO RESPONSIBLY PAY ON TIME. Approximately 24% of us do not pay by the due date and ~12% are still owing at the end of the calendar year. There are many homes who owe for multiple years. The best thing you can do to reduce the cost to all of the homeowners is to pay your dues on time. The interest is assessed to offset the burden to the 76% of the homeowners who pay on time and help us be able to maintain our financial commitments. Please contact the SAFHoA treasurer if you need to set up a payment plan so we can budget for when your dues will arrive. If people paid on time, we could consider ways to reduce our costs related to collections.

PLEASE NOTE (Condo Associations have additional independent monthly fees):

Within Sweet Allen Farm Homeowners Association are two Condo Associations. The condos are part of the Sweet Allen Farm Homeowners but have additional monthly "condo" fees associated with the costs to provide extra services to condo owners. Please contact either Sweet Allen Farm Condo Association (via RIPAC) or Noel Court Condo Association (via Armeny) with additional condo related questions.

2. My property has a structure on the common land, can any property owner use it?

Technically... yes, it is on the common land which is available to all SAF homeowners. However it is in violation of our articles of incorporation with the the Town of South Kingstown. The common land, as established with SAF development project, may not be altered from its original, natural state. There are many cases where the Town of South Kingstown has taken action to enforce this covenant. You are required to remove the structure immediately and begin steps to restore the land to its natural state. If you have any questions please contact the officers.

There are many stone walls on the development. These are not your property boundary. If you are unsure where your property ends, the Town of South Kingstown has records you can request or visit town hall on High Street. Look for platt maps at Town Hall and use the monuments to lay out the street to find your property lines. You can also pay to have your property surveyed if you are uncertain. An official survey will cost a few thousand dollars. Note that your property has setbacks per the Town of South Kingstown Zoning Department. We are zoned R-20. No structure can be closer than 6 feet from your rear property line. Detached structures must be at least 6 feet from rear and side boundaries. All structures must be 25 feet or greater from the street side of your property. No structure that is part of your home can be closer than 10 feet from your side property lines. The entire improvements can not exceed 25% of your property. Most properties are 0.23 to 0.24 acres or roughly 10,019 to 10,454 square feet. NO STRUCTURE OR FENCE OR HUMAN ITEMS MAY BE LEFT IN THE COMMON AREA. THE COMMON GROUND IS TO BE LEFT IN ITS NATURAL STATE FOR THE COMMONWEALTH OF OUR COMMUNITY.

There are many reasons for the common land including the following. The common land gives us privacy from each other, "good fences make good neighbors". The natural state of the common land encourages birds which many of us find pleasant. The trees on the common land provide shade to cool our homes in the summer and drop their leaves to let the sun warm our homes in the winter. The common land provides a wildlife corridor for the often observed whitetail deer in our yards. Deer are migratory and require a finite quantity of space. When we invade their space, they tend to come out of the woods and eat our expensive landscaping. The common area provides a wildlife corridor that allows them to pass through with a greater chance of not disturbing your landscaping. The common land gives you a place to compost your yard waste and avoid the transfer station cost.

Each owner in the SAFHOA owns a 189th share of the common land. This is common space for the commonwealth and common good. Please undertake the process of respecting this space and restoring it to the original state.

3. Why do we have a HOA?

The HOA is required by our articles of incorporation with the Town of South Kingstown. If we do not maintain a HOA, by law, another company will be assigned to manage SAF and our annual dues will increase by over ~10x. Basically you would be charged monthly what you are charged annually. Your neighbors have volunteered to manage SAFHOA to keep your costs low.

4. What does SAF HOA do? (A.k.a. what do I get for my dues?)

Your dues contribute to several items that keep SAF one of the most desirable developments in Rhode Island. They contribute to the following:

  • Maintenance of the common lands including; mowing, invasive species removal and tree care.
  • Collection of delinquent dues.
  • Liability insurance for the common land.
  • Maintenance of the the signs at the two entrances.
  • Legal representation for the SAFHoA.
  • Maintenance of the SAFHoA.

Note: The condos have their own condo fee(s) in addition to this fee for SAFHoA. These are the typical condo fees to maintain the properties around the condos as well as other condo specific expenses. The three associations are separate as are their finances. All shared expenses between SAFHoA and the condo association are agreed upon at the SAFHoA annual meeting.

5. When will the snow be removed on the sidewalks in front of my property?

SAFHoA does not collect dues from residents to remove the snow on sidewalks. In July 2018, the Town of South Kingstown has amended their municipal code to make homeowners in the Town of South Kingstown responsible for snow removal in front of your property. You have 24 hours from when the snow has fallen to clear the walkway. Of particular interest to the Town are sidewalks that are used by school children to travel to and from school each day.

The new Town of South Kingstown sidewalk maintenance policy is here:

https://www.southkingstownri.com/DocumentCenter/View/2235/Sidewalk-Snow-Removal-Policy?bidId=

6. Privacy Policy

It would save costs to the home owners if we could send out information and statements electronically. If you are willing, please submit your email to be added to the email billing list and make a note that you agree to receive the SAFHoA material electronically. We will try to reduce paper and postage costs this way.

In no way does SAFHoA distribute any information about owners to commercial or other entities. We only share information with our property management agency (Armeny). We are all neighbors and do not want to violate anyone's privacy.

The home owners association has to collect information and maintain a list of owners for the purpose of dues collection. This information is collected from public sources. The list is only shared with Armeny Inc. for purposes of billing and collections. Our website provider (Go Daddy.com) may be able to see some information but they are bound to their privacy policy.

In the simplest terms, we are not collecting any information to share beyond what is necessary to comply with our Charter and ByLaws and we will do everything to keep your information private.

7. Animal Feces along the sidewalks

Over many years a reoccuring complaint has been the quantity of animal excrement that remains on or near our sidewalks. It is a legal requirement to clean up after your pet (link to Town of South Kingstown ordinance coming). If nothing else, carry a small shovel with you and move your pet's excrement into one of the undeveloped areas (woods) away from human traffic. Most of our homeowners comply to keep our common area clean and actually clean up the feces from other animals. THANK YOU TO ALL OF THE RESPONSIBLE PET OWNERS WHO CLEAN UP AFTER YOUR COMPANIONS. Feces left near human traffic areas presents more of a risk than simple nuisance, it can pose a health risk due to the bacteria that break this material down. We do not want to start the next super-virus pandemic so please clean up after your pet.

Our residents have observed or suspect that the feces left behind is from dog walkers who are not homeowners. If you are to witness an offender, please note the location, time, date, description of the human and description of the pet and submit that to the officers or to the police. A photo from your smartphone with a description of the location would also be helpful. With a collection of data, we can begin to address this problem with the Town and Police department. But we need detailed data to begin to address the problem as signs posted in recent years have not curbed this problem. SAFHoA does not collect dues to enforce this issue but are willing to escalate it if we are provided with good data to bring the case to the town to assist us.

Note that due to our drainage "frog" pond, we have geese in the neighborhood who also do not clean up their excrement. There is little that we can do about this source. But it is something to note that much of the debris could be non-pet sourced.


We are here for you. If there is a question that you have that is not answered at this website, please ask. One of the officers will respond to you as soon as we have an answer. Homeowners (including condos of course) will get preference to non-owners. Please include your property address in SAF, contact address and phone number with your question. Thank you neighbor for your interest in keeping our community in the highest ranks in Rhode Island.