(Updated 30 June 2021)
I have argued to the Board that unit owners whose clothes dry in a reasonable time probably don't have ducts that need cleaning. Also, since the dryer ducts in our building were never cleaned end-to-end during the 15 years ending in 2019, how could our Directors now think the cleaning must be done every year? The every-year requirement is particularly egregious for unit owners whose clothes dryers are rarely used.
Approximately 12 years ago, the Board voted to spend Association funds to clean lint from inside the first 10 or 15 feet of the clothes dryer exhaust duct (at the dryer end) in each of our 333 residential units. For my unit, it seemed worse than a waste of money. Almost no lint was removed, and there was the risk of the cleaning apparatus breaking off in the duct, which would have created a problem where one didn't exist before. Also, what was the point of cleaning no-more-than-half of the 30 feet of duct that runs between my dryer and the vent at the outside of the building?
While my non-lawyer reading of our Declaration suggests to me that the unit owner should bear the cost of cleaning the duct IF SUCH CLEANING IS ACTUALLY NEEDED, it appears to me that cleaning the lint off the vent at the exhaust-end of the dryer ducts OUTSIDE the building is an Association responsibility.
Annual dryer-duct cleaning is required by Policy Resolution 17-18, which imposes annual in-unit maintenance inspections. I spoke against certain aspects of the proposal several times, but the Board ignored my comments, seeming to be hellbent on forging ahead.
