Condo Association Questions

[YoFuggedaboutit]

For every dumb ass rle, there's 30 pissed off residents bitching about people who break them.  I'll give an example:

I am the vice=president of my associations board of directors.  Due to a city screw up, we ended up having no means of trash collection.  So, I was put in charge of developing a system for waste removal for 196 condo unit residents.  We hired a company called Valet Waste (some of you might know them) to come 5 days a week and remove trash from everyone's door.

The month after Valet Waste started their service, people showed up at meeting bitching about trash cans out all the time.  "Why do we need 5 days a week?" they said.  That's the service, deal with it.  Its simple, tell your neigbors to bring their trash can in.

So, now, the property manager is forced (by the 30 complaining residents) to give people violation notices and $25 fines for leaving their trash cans out during "non-approved hours"   We've waived a bunch of them so far, and we don't want to do it, but our hand is forced by the complainers.

So, before you complain about the stupid rules, realize that they're probably there because on of your neighbors, at some point, complained about it. 

Wouldn't it be best to ignore the complainers in this type of scenario?

[Brian Fein]

you can't just ignore them -

(a) they have a point, the place looks a mess. 
(b) they will continue to badger until it looks like you're doing something to fix it.

if its one or two people, we will ignore them easily.  If its 30 people, you can't just ignore them.

[Buddhagirl]

You guys are scaring me with the horror stories. I wonder if I'm even allowed to put plants on my patio.

[SportsChick]

Check the docs....

We have two plants outside our front door (tomato and pepper) so it depends on the association and their rules

[Brian Fein]

I'd advise you to do a few things:

(a) - read the docs, find out what you are and are not allowed to do
(b) - find someone who's on the board and under age 50 and make friends with them.  You don't have to go the the club with them, but waving "hi" on the sidewalk goes a long way
(c) - go to the monthly board meetings.  They suck and can run hours, but contain a ton of worthwhile information.
(d) - pay your fees on time

As for the financials, if you're happy with the amount of monthly dues, then great!  But, you should know what's included in those dues.  Typically its Water, Cable, and maintenance, but sometimes it includes insurance, which is huge.

[Buddhagirl]

I'd advise you to do a few things:

(a) - read the docs, find out what you are and are not allowed to do
(b) - find someone who's on the board and under age 50 and make friends with them.  You don't have to go the the club with them, but waving "hi" on the sidewalk goes a long way
(c) - go to the monthly board meetings.  They suck and can run hours, but contain a ton of worthwhile information.
(d) - pay your fees on time

As for the financials, if you're happy with the amount of monthly dues, then great!  But, you should know what's included in those dues.  Typically its Water, Cable, and maintenance, but sometimes it includes insurance, which is huge.

Great. I'm going to drop off my application today. My fees do include water, cable, maintenance and insurance. So, I guess that is good.

Honestly, I'll be glad when all of his is over. I still have to wait for my condo to be HUD approved, too.

[Dave Gray]

I don't think that reading the docs will really help you all that much, because there are things you'd never have thought of.  ...like "storing" plants on your porch.  Things are worded in a way that seem reasonable, but they play to the letter of the law to the point that it's ridiculous.

Just get used to the idea that your going to get hassled by stupid crap at some point.

[Brian Fein]

Dave, in your case, I am betting that someone complained (or maybe one of the nosey board members themselves) that either they didn't like your plants, or they thought it looked messy, or they're allergic, or something personal, that they loosely interpreted an existing rule to force you to remove them.   That seems super lame. 

By law they have to grant you an appeal if they levy a fine, you should go and scream at them.

[Dave Gray]

The plants were not visible.  The condo association did a walk-around.  They weren't removed because they were an eyesore, but the front stoop is considered public property and it was something about having to have the space open in front of the stairs or something.

My individual situation isn't the point.  My neighbors have all had unrelated (but equally stupid) things happen.

Don't get scared of condo living.  It's great not to have a yard or to have to mow grass.  It's costly, though, and you're limited.  If you're able to conform and other people don't bother you too much, it'll be fine.

[Brian Fein]

...you're limited.  If you're able to conform and other people don't bother you too much, it'll be fine.

This is the bottom line, and its true.  You have to put the community first, because everything outside your front door is "community property" and the association's job is to make sure that you don't mess it up.