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