Responsibility for Maintenance of Unit Doors

         Although owners usually are responsible for maintaining what they own, there are important exceptions in condominiums.

          For example, in our Market Street at Town Center Condominium, unit owners own the entry door of their unit, that door being part of their unit; but the painting of the exterior of that door--the surface of the unit entry door that faces the corridor--is the responsibility of our Unit Owners Association, and is to be paid for as a Common Expense of our Association.

         To what extent are individual unit owners responsible for maintenance of the doors of their units that open to corridors or to the outdoors?   To what extent is our Market Street at Town Center Condominium Unit Owners Association responsible for maintenance of those unit doors?  In other words, what is the split of responsibility for maintenance of unit doors that open to a corridor or to the outdoors?

         The Chart of Maintenance Responsibilities that is Exhibit "A" to our Bylaws helps answer these questions.   That Chart specifically addresses items described as "Unit entry doors, window wall sliding glass doors and French doors (if any)."  In Column IV, “Unit Components Under Unit Owners Association Responsibility,” it includes “Painting of exterior of Unit entry door and portions of door and door frame which are exterior.”  Column V of that Chart holds the individual unit owner responsible for "Interior of Unit entry door, all door hardware, weather stripping, door sill.  Routine maintenance of window wall sliding glass, french doors and sliding glass door screens."

         I believe Article XII of our Declaration also helps answer the above questions.  I quote that Article XII in its entirety:  "EXTERIOR  MAINTENANCE:  There is reserved to the Unit Owners Association of the Condominium the exclusive right to provide for all painting and maintenance of the exterior of all of the Units and structures in the Condominium and such maintenance of the exterior of the Units and structures in the Condominium shall be a Common Expense to be paid for as part of the expense of upkeep of the Unit Owners Association."

         I interpret the reservation of the exclusive right to the Association to mean that our Board of Directors gets to decide what exterior maintenance is required and when.  But I don't think those reservation words would permit our Board of Directors to say that the Association isn't going to do certain exterior maintenance, but then require individual unit owners to do that same exterior maintenance that our Board decided the Association wouldn't do.

        The Chart of Maintenance Responsibilities I referred to above is recorded at pages 2078 through 2081 in Deed Book 16608 of the Fairfax County Land Records, and can be viewed online at this link:  http://www.marketstreetattowncenter.com/docs/MaintenanceSchedule.PDF

        The EXTERIOR MAINTENANCE article of our Declaration is recorded at page 2002 of that same Deed Book 16608, and can be viewed online at page 48 of 51 at this link: http://www.marketstreetattowncenter.com/docs/CMC.pdf

         If you wish to comment on this or any matter of concern to our Market Street at Town Center Condominium Unit Owners Association, please join my forum at http://mstcuoa.proboards.com and post your comment there.  Or/and, email me at rasmussen305@gmail.com.

Water from the Sky

         I believe our Unit Owners Association must make sure that no water from rain, snow or sleet gets into our building.  I further believe that, if such water damages our building or anything in our building, our Association is required to repair any such damage.

         I can see a few exceptions where an individual Unit Owner might reasonably be held responsible for water that enters our building, and not our Association.  One example would be a broken window pane that a Unit Owner was responsible for repairing, but had failed to repair within a reasonable time.  Another example would be a cracked (leaking) window frame that the responsible unit owner had similarly failed to repair.  But, lacking clear indications of individual Unit Owner responsibility, the assumption should be that our Association is responsible for preventing and repairing damage caused by water entering our building.

         I came to this conclusion because our condominium instruments appear to hold our Association responsible for all painting and maintenance outside our building--including the exterior of all of the Units in our Condominium.  See my post at the following link--and follow the links in that post--for further information that supports this view.  http://mstc-uoa.blogspot.com/2011/08/exterior-caulking-around-window-frames.html

         I realize that some of our Unit Owners (perhaps especially those Unit Owners who compose our Board of Directors) may not agree with the viewpoint I have expressed in this post.  I urge all owners of Units in our Market Street at Town Center Condominium to express yourselves on this issue.  I would prefer that you join my forum at this link and post there:   http://mstcuoa.proboards.com/index.cgi

         But whether you do that or not, I would be delighted if you would email your thoughts to me at  rasmussen305@gmail.com

Annual Meeting Voting Procedures

To ensure a fair election that reflects the preference of the Unit Owners, I would like to see the following procedures applied in any contested Director election.  Most of these procedures are required either by our condominium instruments or Robert's Rules of Order.

       Proxies that have neither the votes for the candidates nor the name of the person who is to vote on the behalf of the absent unit owner are to be voted proportionately for the candidates based on the proportions each candidate received of the other votes cast.

       The total number of votes cast and the number of votes each candidate received are to be reported to the attendees of the annual meeting as soon as the vote counting is final.

       To be elected, a candidate must receive a majority of the votes cast.  The voting must be repeated as necessary until all vacancies are filled by majority votes.

       Each unit's vote is to be weighted according to the par value of the unit.

       Candidates are to be allowed to observe the vote counting and tabulation, or to have a representative of their choice do that observation.

Annual Meeting of Unit Owners 9 November 2011

Our Board of Directors has selected Wednesday, 9 November 2011, as the date of the annual meeting of our Market Street at Town Center Condominium Unit Owners Association.

I have several matters that, because I have been unable to get satisfactory resolution through the monthly Board meetings, I will try to get on the agenda for our annual Unit Owners Association meeting.  I have previously addressed some of these topics in this blog, in Bob's leasing blog at http://msa-towncenter.blogspot.com/ and in my forum at http://mstcuoa.proboards.com/


  Here is my current list of matters I think should be considered at our annual meeting:
 

Caulking outside the building around unit windows

Use of leaf blowing machines on Condominium property

Yellow curb at back of parking space on Saint Francis Street

Rules for unit owner comments at Board of Directors meetings

Percentage of units leased or rented

Tobacco smoke entering corridors and units of non-smokers

If more than two candidates for the two open BOD seats:  Procedure for counting and announcing the votes

Exterior Caulking Around Window Frames

The windows of our Market Street at Town Center Condominium Units are components of those Units. Accordingly, if window assemblies of a Unit must be replaced, the Unit Owner must pay for those window replacements.

On the other hand, painting and maintenance of the portions of Unit window assemblies outside the building are the exclusive right of our Unit Owners Association, according to Article XII of our Declaration. Article XII also states that "such maintenance of the exterior of the Units and structures in the Condominium shall be a Common Expense to be paid for as part of the expense of upkeep of the Unit Owners Association." This Article XII is located at page 2002 of deed book 16608 of the land records of Fairfax County, and can be viewed online at page 48 of 51 at this link: http://www.marketstreetattowncenter.com/docs/CMC.pdf

What are the implications of this divided responsibility? One implication is that the Reserve Study recently drafted for our Association should make clear that the Association must and will budget for and accomplish exterior painting and maintenance of Unit window assemblies and maintenance of the caulking around the exterior of the window frames.

Another implication is that the Unit Owners Association possibly should develop a caulking standard that installers of replacement Unit window assemblies must follow with regard to caulking done in conjunction with installation of new Unit window assemblies. Possibly the Association should also implement a procedure for the Association to check new Unit window assemblies immediately after installation to insure all Association standards are met.

For more on this topic, see my post at http://mstcuoa.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=30&page=1#1314297020