January 30, 2015
Dear Everyone:
Busy week.
Not one, but two
Homeowner Association Board meetings, then the
CRM Workshop.
About the
Associations. My “community”
is one of four that share the same entrance, so we all pay for the road,
landscaping and, most important of all, the “guardhouse”.
Note that the “guardhouse” is not, actually, a guardhouse.
Don’t call it a guardhouse.
It’s a “Welcome Center”, where visitors can check in and be
admitted provided a Resident has given advance permission.
Furthermore, the
people staffing the “Welcome Center” are not “guards”, nor are they
“security”. They’re “privacy
officers.” I was made aware
of all this shortly after I bought my current place, when the guy I was
paying to paint my new-to-me
condo couldn’t get in to do said painting.
So I stopped at
the not-a-guardhouse and received some information from the not-a-guard.
Also, a copy-of-a-copy-of-a-copy of a form to fill out for
people, like “Jeannie”, who are always welcome.
You can change this list at any time, provided you can remember
who you authorized to enter the last time you updated the list.
Also, they want a password which, unlike most passwords these
days, is no more than five
letters long.
All of this, of
course, protects the umbrella association, and through it the four
communities, from lawsuits if the wrong someone gets through the gate.
The “privacy officers” will
not wrestle your ex-husband
to the ground if he tries to get through the gate.
What they will do is call 911.
Nevertheless,
when I called the “Welcome Center” one day to let them know that I was
expecting someone, the answer was:
“Security, ‘Bob’ speaking.”
Evidently someone forgot to tell “Bob” that he was not
“security”, he was “privacy”.
So each community
is expected to provide a representative to the umbrella association for
the umbrella Board of Directors.
As usual, whoever has time to be on the community association
Board tends to wind up on the umbrella Board as well.
So it’s frequently those of us retired people who fill the
positions.
On the other
hand, it’s a great way to find out what’s going on in the neighborhood
and get to vote on important things like what kind of
picnic tables to
buy and whether or not to replace the aging
sycamore trees with
flowering pear trees instead.
The only real
drawback, apart from meeting at 8:00 in the morning, is when the
umbrella association’s meeting falls in the same week as the community
association meeting, which is what happened this week.
And the community
association meeting, which usually begins at 4:30 and finishes by 5:45,
ran a little long this time.
For one thing, “Pyewacket”, one of our Board members, had another
meeting of her own to get to, so we started an hour early.
That would have been just peachy if it meant ending early.
But we had a
couple of “hearings” this month.
This is what happens when the association sends a resident/owner
notice of a complaint, or something, that will result in a fine if they
don’t cut out doing whatever it is that they’re doing.
The hearing is their opportunity to respond.
One was a couple
who replaced their carpeting with “hardwood” flooring.
This would not be a problem unless the unit involved was
upstairs, which this one was.
Then it resulted in a whole lot of noise for the people
downstairs. The couple with
the upstairs unit hadn’t even thought about it.
When they replaced the old carpet because someone had allergies,
the flooring company recommended something like “hardwood”, or a
laminate that looks (and sounds) like real hardwood.
No one thought to look in the Association Rules.
Now they have to
replace the new flooring with real (and one hopes
hypoallergenic)
carpeting. They were
apologetic, as was the property manager who explained The Rules to them.
Next up was The
Guy with the Little Barking Dog.
Numerous complaints from neighbors about this guy’s dog, which he
keeps out on the patio all day long, while the guy is at work.
The little dog barks.
All day long. Actually,
being a little dog, it yaps, constantly.
Neighbor
complained to her landlord who just happens to be “Riley”, one of our
association Board. He went
to investigate, to the point of using his cell phone to record, both
video and sound, of the little dog barking its little head off.
Letter to Dog Owner.
Dog Owner came to
the “hearing”. Fortunately
for all, the unit owner, “Riley,” couldn’t make the meeting.
Dog Owner was antagonistic, without being actively belligerent,
but that would have been enough to set “Riley” off.
Property Manager
(PM): You can’t keep a pet
on the patio all day.
Dog Owner (DO):
It’s a “rescue dog”.
Implication: I don’t know
where this dog learned its manners, so it’s not my fault.
I keep it outside so it won’t chew up the carpet and all the
furniture if I leave it inside.
PM:
Where the dog came from is not the issue.
The Rules state “no keeping animals on the patio all day” (or
words to that effect.)
DO:
I don’t know what else I can do.
Unspoken Implication:
I don’t know what to do that won’t require any effort or expense on my
part.
PM:
Contact your
veterinarian.
Implication: If you
don’t take care of the problem the fines will continue and/or increase.
And that certainly will involve expense on your part.
Which is one
reason why the meeting ran on for over three hours.
Busy week.
As for the
CRM
Workshop? That will be in
next week’s Letter. In the
meantime, everybody pray for rain and lots of snow in the mountains.
Love, as always,
Pete
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