Exterior Window Cleaning

Article XII of our Declaration requires that our Market Street at Town Center Condominium Unit Owners Association maintain the exterior of our units, and pay for such exterior maintenance out of the Association budget. Exhibit A to our Bylaws shows one of the “Maintenance Responsibilities” of our Association to be "Exterior window cleaning."

Our Board of Directors has the authority to decide how often (or if ever?) our Association should clean the exterior of our windows. I don’t think our Association has ever cleaned the exterior of all the windows in our building. It may be that the exterior of our windows will stay clean enough from rain to avoid spending Association funds to clean the outdoor surfaces of the windows in our building, I don’t know; that is for our Board to decide. But, in my view, it would be contrary to our condominium instruments for our Association to push any particular unit owners to clean any exterior windows at the expense of only those particular unit owners. If our Board should believe that at least some exterior window surfaces of some units need cleaning, then, in my opinion, our Board of Directors should have all the exterior windows (at least the exterior window surfaces not covered by screens) of our whole building cleaned at Association expense, in accordance with our condominium instruments.

A year or two ago, our Association found a window cleaning company that cleaned the exterior of the windows of only those units for which the unit owner chose to pay the cost of such cleaning. I believe the company that cleaned those window exteriors did so from the inside of the units. The lower pane can only be cleaned from the outside of the building if the lower screen has first been removed from inside the unit, and the lower half of the window must first be removed from inside the unit to allow the screen to be removed. If a window cleaning company were engaged by our Association to clean the exterior window surfaces without entering units, that company could clean all the upper panes from outside the building, but wouldn't be able to clean lower panes covered by screens from outside the building.

Since the units that have more windows are units that have higher par values and thus pay higher condominium assessments, the exterior window cleaning expense will be shared relatively fairly if our Board of Directors decides to have the exterior of all the windows (or the windows not covered by screens) in our building cleaned at Association expense in accordance with Article XII of our Declaration. If the Board does decide to do that, the Board should also decide how often such cleaning of the exterior of all the windows (or the windows not covered by screens) in our building should occur--perhaps once a year? To make a good decision on this matter, the Board should find out the relative costs of (a) cleaning--from outside the building--only those exterior window surfaces not covered by screens, versus (b) cleaning all outside window surfaces, but from inside the building (with a few exceptions for ground-level windows that don't open to give access from inside the building).

If you have any comments or questions regarding exterior window cleaning, I urge you to join my forum at http://mstcuoa.proboards.com/index.cgi? and post your comment or question there, so other of our unit owners can know your thoughts on this matter. Or, if you prefer to direct your question or comment just to me, please email me at: rasmussen305@gmail.com

Association Master Insurance Policy vs. Unit Owner Policy

My post of 28 Feb 09 on this blog--just before this post you are reading now--extensively quoted provisions of our Market Street at Town Center Condominium bylaws pertaining to casualty (property) insurance coverage for the particular unit we happen to own. I find some of those bylaw provisions confusing. I have more questions now than when I started looking into this insurance issue. To intelligently purchase a property insurance policy for one’s unit, a unit owner needs answers to many of these questions. I believe our Board of Directors should formulate a policy resolution that addresses the following questions.

What is the amount of the master insurance policy deductible?

For unit damage covered by the Association master insurance policy, does the unit owner or Association pay the deductible amount?

If the amount of damage to a unit from a casualty is less than Association master insurance policy deductible, is the unit owner or the Association responsible for the cost of the repairs to the unit?

Does the Association master insurance policy cover water damage? If so, what types of water damage? What about water damage where the source of the water that caused the damage is unknown?

What exactly are the specific perils the Association master insurance policy covers?

What is the procedure for a unit owner to read or get copy of Association master insurance policy?

What insurance company provides the Association master insurance policy? What are the name and phone number and email address of the agent of that company that handles questions and claims against our Association’s master insurance policy?

If there is a casualty to a unit, is the unit owner supposed to contact the Association or the Association’s insurance agent regarding the claim?

If you wish to comment regarding this insurance issue, please do so on my forum at http://mstcuoa.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=stillrelevant&action=display&thread=57

Or, if you prefer, email your comment to rasmussen305@gmail.com