President’s Corner
During a recent conversation, a homeowner expressed doubts about the need to adopt new governing documents that will restore the SMA’s eroded authority. He said it didn’t seem neighborly to give our HOA more power to enforce rules in our community.It reminded me of a recent essay in the Wall Street Journal titled, “Welcome to Homeowners Hell”, which warned home buyers to avoid those evil HOAs. The writer’s experience was with condo boards, but many of her criticisms have been laid at the feet of all types of HOAs, including those for townhomes. Among other things, she said larger HOAs “mean more mercurial, invasive rules, up to and including those governing home paint colors, hedge height, the number of cars you may have, and when you have to put out and take in your garbage cans.”
Rules on taking out the garbage didn’t strike me as overly strict. I intended to write a letter to the editor suggesting that the writer obviously had a poor understanding of the real damage that poorly run HOAs can do. But I got busy and failed to write. It didn’t matter. The following week the newspaper devoted a half-page section to letters from other readers, many of whom cited the benefits of well-managed HOAs.
Here’s one: “Drive into a nice, well-maintained suburban neighborhood and think, ‘I’d like to live here.’ But ask yourself why the neighborhood is so nice and you must come to grips with the existence of covenants and the HOA. “ Some rules are needed, the reader argued, or disorder occurs and your property values begin to decline.
My own brother told me, “Moving into an HOA
community is the dumbest thing you could do.” When I became President some 3 ½
years ago, I feared that it was punishment for a misspent youth. But the more
time I spent dealing with our Association’s issues, the more I realized that an
HOA’s purpose isn’t to make rules to limit member activities. Its true purpose
is to ensure that each resident can enjoy the community free from the
disruptive or harmful behavior of others, while seeing their property values
rise in a seller’s market.
I learned that developing rules for the sake of having rules is unnecessary. We must make sure that we are adopting policies that have a purpose; policies that are fair, reasonable, and enforceable.
I believe that’s what your current Board has been doing, but you be the judge. If you believe a rule fails the “reasonable” test, come before the Board and tell us why. We will listen to your complaint, and consider how we can improve the rule. Better yet, run for a seat on the Board and work with us to make improvements where they are needed. We will need to fill at least one seat at November’s annual meeting, and so far no one has agreed to fill it.
We are always looking for new faces. Consider being one of them.
--John Gullett, President
Bids sought for paving, curbs, etc.
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The Infrastructure Maintenance Committee is currently seeking bids for road repaving and sidewalk and curb repairs, and hopes to award its first contract soon.
John (Bob) Lucas, chairman of the committee, said TAM, the engineering company hired by the SMA board to help with this major project, has completed development of the bid documents and is now contacting prospective contractors on the SMA’s behalf. “We have received a handful of bids,” said Mr. Lucas. “But we still need to get a few more so we can properly evaluate all of them.”
He said that the committee wants to get the curb and sidewalk work under way first, followed by the repaving. “Paving contractors won’t start their work until the curbs are repaired,” said Mr. Lucas. He noted that only the damaged or sinking portions of the curbing and sidewalks will be repaired, but the repaving will include all of the roads and parking lots.
To help avoid having to impose a special assessment on owners, replacing our perimeter fencing may have to wait, even though bids are being sought for that work as well. “We spent a lot on fence repairs over the past couple of years,” said President John Gullett. “By getting another year or two out of our current fencing we can afford to go ahead with fixing the roads and parking lots, as well as repairing the sidewalks and curbs.”
Mr. Gullett noted that once the committee selects
its preferred vendors, the full board will have an opportunity to review the
proposals before authorizing any work.
Board asks owners to adopt new core document on rules
Owners in Stratford Manor are being asked to adopt a new Amended and Restated Declaration—the core legal document that allows the SMA to utilize a variety of tools used in prior years to manage our community. “The Declaration’s redraft was made necessary because our governing documents, which date back to the ‘80s, are out of date,” said SMA President John Gullett in a June 2 letter to owners.
“This new Declaration will bring us into compliance with current law,” Said Donna Groller, chair of the Governing Documents Committee, “but we need owners to approve its adoption before it can go into effect. Until then, our only recourse in a dispute with any homeowner is to take them to court.”
The Committee is hosting a Saturday afternoon, June 19 outdoor event to collect owners’ ratification forms. The signatures have to be notarized, and the committee has arranged to have a notary public on hand to handle this part of the voting, at no direct cost to owners. The event will be held from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
To help board members explain this proposal, a question-and-answer document was developed. Below are excerpts from that document.
Questions and answers about updated Declaration
Q--Are
other Associations going through this process?
Is it common?
A—It is very common for Associations that were founded
back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, when HOAs were not regulated very well. Court
decisions and new laws were issued over the years that imposed strict standards
and discipline on all HOAs in Virginia. The Stratford Manor Association hasn’t
been accused of any abuse of power, but our attorney informed us that our
governing documents do not reflect current laws. Adopting the Amended and Restated Declaration
will bring us into compliance with those current laws.
Q--If this new Declaration is adopted by the
Owners, what else needs to be done to bring our governing documents up to date?
A—there will still be some more legal work done on
documents like the Bylaws. But our
attorney assures us that if this Declaration is adopted by the owners, the
Board‘s ability to utilize the variety of tools we used in prior years to
effectively manage our community will be restored.
Q--What will happen to Stratford
Manor’s HOA if this doesn’t pass?
A—Then the Board will have only the lawsuit option for
any dispute with a homeowner; that is, we would have to take them to court or
simply allow the homeowner to win the dispute.
In short, we will not be in a position to enforce the standards our owners
expect us to enforce. And our legal costs will rise substantially.
Q--Is there a time limit on when this
resolution has to be approved?
A—There is no time limit on obtaining the necessary
votes, but the longer the election remains open, the less likely enough votes
will be obtained.
Q--Exactly how many owners have to
approve this for it to pass?
A—We
need 75 percent of the owners to approve
it; that amounts to 101 units
out of 134.
Q--Is there anything in the revised
document that might make owners uncomfortable?
A—No. Stated simply, it’s a restoration of the authority we used to have; nothing more, nothing less.
Q—some owners think that this sounds too much like Big Government. Why can’t we just run our community in a neighborly way? If we all cooperate, there shouldn’t be any need for a powerful HOA.
A—I would submit to you that if we have any hope of upholding community standards, we need an HOA to manage the effort. And this Amended Declaration allows the Association to be more neighborly, if that’s the term we are talking about, by working with individual owners in a confidential way to resolve any disputes. Without the new Declaration, our only option is to take the owner to court. That doesn’t seem very neighborly to me.
Stratford Manor Briefs
New tree service hired—Landscaping Chair Nancy Allen reports the owner of the SMA’s longtime tree service, Squirrely Jack, has retired. After a search, she came up with R & K Tree Service, owned by Russ Kenwood. Mr. Kenwood has already completed his first job for the Association—the removal of three large trees that were invading the foundation of a home. Ms. Allen also reports that our YRL landscaping service has completed its spring mulching and has applied weed killer to get rid of the clover and other weeds. She also thanked owners Lorraine Winall, Betty Blackburn, and Sarah Krause for volunteering to water the annuals planted near the Stratford Manor signs.
Trash Pickup Schedule
June
15--— Trash only
June
22—Recycling, bulk pickup & trash
June
29— Trash only
July
7— Recycling, bulk pickup & trash
(Wednesday
pickup due to holiday).
July
13— Trash only
July
20—Recycling, bulk pickup & trash
July
27—Trash only
August
3--Recycling, bulk pickup & trash
August
10—Trash only
August
17—Recycling, bulk pickup & trash
August
24—Trash only
August
31—Recycling, bulk pickup & trash
If your container was missed during collection, call 757-933-2311 within 24 hours.
Trash and recycling receptacles should be curbside no earlier than the evening before scheduled collection day and removed from the street by the morning after collections.
Bulk trash, which is collected on the same
schedule as recycling, may be put out the weekend before scheduled collection.
