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Amenities
Associations and Aging Owners
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- Category: Amenities
As the population ages, your home owner association will likely face new challenges. What should your HOA board know about maintaining elderly owners' rights and privacy if they begin suffering from dementia, physical incapacitation, or inadequate support while preserving the rights of those owners' neighbors? Here, we provide guidance to help you begin addressing the age–old questions you'll face.
Does your HOA have a role in addressing challenges that arise from an aging population? "Absolutely," says Elizabeth White, a shareholder and head of the community associations practice at the law firm of LeClairRyan in Williamsburg, Va., who recently spoke at an industry event on the issue. "We're starting to experience the issues related to an aging population. Baby boomers are turning 65 at enormous rate—as of Jan. 1, 2011, 10,000 people in this country are turning 65 every day."
Save on Landscaping
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- Category: Amenities
It's summertime! In many areas of the country, that means it's time for seasonal gardens. Here, we offer tips from HOA members and landscaping experts on saving money on seasonal gardens, along with money-saving tips for year-round landscaping.
1. Do a request for proposal from landscapers. "Our greatest savings came from creating a four–page request for proposal for lawn care and snow removal," says Patrick Hohman, a 23–year HOA president at the 40–unit Seneca Park Condominium Association in Louisville, Ky. "It helps, too, for the owners and residents to know there's a tight plan since grounds maintenance is such a high–visibility issue. For example, we may get a few calls about the shrubs needing to be trimmed. But in the plan, shrubs are trimmed every April and September, so it's 'under control.' Knowing of the written schedule helps keep owners happy."
Toxic Remains
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- Category: Amenities
Toxic Remains
Smoke Free is Catching Fire
Every day, more public spaces become off limits to smokers. Some smokers-if they’re lucky-can find designated outdoor smoking areas. So we’ve nearly eliminated the problem of secondhand smoke. Great. Except now we have to contend with third hand smoke. What?
WHAT IS THIRD HAND SMOKE?
The odor of a smoker’s most recent cigarette can remain for a few minutes or much longer. It lingers because chemicals emitted in the smoke have settled on the person’s clothes and hair. Those chemicals transfer from the smoker to upholstery, draperies, carpeting and rugs, wallpaper, lampshades, wood cabinetry and other furnishings. In any room or vehicle, or even elevators and stairwells, where smokers enter, reside, move about or sit regularly, the amount of chemical residue from their just-smoked cigarettes or other nicotine products accumulates. This residue, which can adhere for months to almost every surface, is what scientists call third-hand smoke. Managers of communities that have party rooms, lobbies and other enclosed spaces with designated-or even formerly designated-smoking areas should be aware that third-hand smoke can be lethal.
On the Fence
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- Category: Amenities
Fences provide privacy, boost safety and security and can add just the right aesthetic touch to the landscape. But they also require maintenance, repair and replacement.
Fencing can be an ongoing problem for all associations, especially as communities and their features begin to age. Associations must budget for the care of these integral structures. Deciding when and how to repair your fencing, replace worn down or rotting parts or hire someone to handle maintenance can mean the difference between meeting or exceeding your annual budget. 
When faced with aging fencing and the high costs of replacement, community associations have to form a strategic plan of action to ensure a cost effective use of operating funds, while at the same time employing an effective use of reserve funds. The case study that follows demonstrates how investigation into a current maintenance process can result in better service for residents, cost savings, improved budget forecasting and an increase in reserve funding levels.
FINDING A FIX
A community of approximately 700 single-family homes located in North San Diego, Calif, was recently faced with the challenge of developing a long-term strategy for managing its fences. Like many communities, this association had been allocating resources for fencing only through reserve funds, and solely on the basis of major component replacement and repair. The existing wrought iron fence was installed in 1990, and originally was painted with two-part epoxy paint that lasted about nine years. Subsequently, the fence was painted in 1999 with Frazee Am-Plate paint, which did not last as long and is currently deteriorating.
Drought-Tolerant Landscaping
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- Category: Amenities
Are you being “Smart” in your landscaping?
If you have common area landscaping, your association budget usually has watering and landscape maintenance as two of the higher-budget items. Water is often seen as a “fixed” expense that cannot be controlled, yet it is one of the areas that you can significantly reduce based on your sprinkler systems and type of landscape plantings.
