What We Are and What We're Not

For some reason lately, maybe due to our change in propery management, there seems to be an abundance of questions that start out like this, “When is the Association going to take care of . . . ?”, or “Why didn’t someone (cut the trees, trim the bushes, mulch the beds, etc., etc.) at my house?” You get the drift.

We ARE a Homeowners Association of individually-owned town homes (fee simple properties, if you will) in which you and I own our little piece of heaven. The VOW Association owns some common property such as at McHenry Cove and in other locations around the VOW, such as the property at the entrances at both Winding Way and Bright Passage. The VOW does not own the buildings or the individual units . . . or the roofs . . . or the doors, or any other component item of the actual town homes.

We ARE NOT a Condominium Association. In a Condominium Association, in general, the Association “owns” the physical properties, such as the dwelling units, and is responsible for all upkeep, repairs, etc. As you can imagine and may have experienced yourselves, condo dues tend to be much higher than the HOA dues we pay at VOW. In many cases, these monthly fees can be $300 per month or greater, depending on the size of the development, the amenities provided, and the projected operational and maintenance costs for that development.

Over the years at the VOW, various Boards have elected to have our Association oversee certain aspects of the general maintenance across VOW, like snowplowing and grass cutting. If you take the time to study the by-laws and covenants we each accepted when we purchased a VOW unit, you will quickly see that grass cutting is one of your many individual homeowner responsibilities. Obviously, it is easier and probably in the best interest of all if the Association coordinates something like lawn mowing by hiring one contractor to do the job for all, funded through our monthly dues. By the same token, there are things we cannot do, such as re-roof or re-paint your units, trim your trees, fix your walkways or decks, fix your outside lights, install gutters, etc., etc. It is your personal property and your responsibility and, short of a court order or for a reason explicitly spelled out in our Association documents, we (your Board of Directors and our Property Managers) have no legal right to enter your property nor do we have the time or resources to provide services such as those common to a Condominium Association.

Basically, through our part-time property managers and the strategic use of the monthly dues we collect, your Board attempts to address “quality of life” issues such as snowplowing, trash removal, lawn care, boat docks, maintenance of the common areas, and an architectural consistency across the VOW in an effort to allow homeowners to maximize the enjoyment of their VOW homes. The rest is pretty much the responsibility of each of us as individual homeowners.