Letter to the Board [date: 08-2005]

"The Kenthill Townhomes revised House Rules were voted on and were passed by the Association on July 27, 2005. It is now August, and we must begin the task of examining our governing documents to revise them. When this is complete, our documents will have the necessary provisions in them to address our many needs, as well as the power to carry out them out. Then we will go back and revise our House Rules again, this time putting back several items which had to be deleted, because the Declarations as they now stand make no mention of them (such as towing, Building Reps, etc.).

In the interest of getting this project started, on August 1, 2005, I wrote the following letter to the office of Kris Sundberg, the Attorney for the Association. I wrote:"

Dear Mr. Sundberg,

On March 22, 2005 you sent a letter to the Kenthill Townhomes Homeowners Association. In the letter you answered five questions that the Board posed. In answering question number three, you stated that in accordance with our Declarations, the House Rules and Regulations of Kenthill Townhomes needed to be approved by all of the homeowners.

The Kenthill Townhomes Board was not able to conduct this vote at the Annual meeting March 31. The board carefully reviewed the House Rules for any corrections that need to be made. They also provided a copy to Mr. Dean Pody who also reviewed the document and made his suggestions and comments. The revised and corrected House Rules were sent out to homeowners in early June, and a Special Meeting was called for on June 27th to approve the House Rules. A 51 percent majority was not achieved at that time. A second Special Meeting was called for on July 25th (using Article II Section 6 of our Bylaws). This time the House Rules were approved by the membership by 37 percent majority.

While reviewing the House Rules, Mr. Pody discovered many items that needed to be deleted. Some of these items were not objectionable, but because they were not in our Declarations or because they conflicted with our Bylaws they could not be included in our revised House Rules. During the past several months many homeowners have expressed ideas and suggestions that they would like the board to consider when preparing the final draft of our House Rules (to occur sometime in the future). In order to accomplish this, and keeping in mind the comments of Mr. Pody, the Board is considering revising the Kenthill Townhomes Declarations and Bylaws. When this is completed, they want to revisit the House Rules and revise them a second time (all this hopefully by the end of the year).

We would like you to counsel us as to how to proceed at this time. A former property manager from our old property management company advised us that there are pre- formatted forms for Declarations and for Bylaws that Homeowners Association Boards can use as a guide when revising their official documents. Is this true and would these forms even apply or be of use to Kenthill Townhomes? In your letter to us on March 22nd, you pointed out that Kenthill Townhomes is not a “New Act” condominium. In other words, it is not subject to the law which was written by the Washington State Legislature in 1990. Would it be advisable to attempt to bring the Kenthill Townhomes Declarations and Bylaws into compliance with the law as it's now stands in 2005? Or is that even possible? Would be advisable for the board to attempt to amend our Declarations and Bylaws, keeping those rules and sections which might be best for us to keep intact?
The current Kenthill Townhomes Board is comprised of four members with limited experience and one member who has years of experience but who will be leaving shortly. Therefore we look forward to any advice and counsel you may give us.

Sincerely,

Thomas Flynn

President
Kenthill Townhomes Homeowners Association

Reason not often discussed

The following is an excerpt from the book, “Financial Management of Condominium and Homeowners Associations, by the C.A.U. (Community Associations Institute), entitled, “Capital Reserves Policies”.

“The development of a sound capital reserve policy requires the Association's Board of Directors to be familiar in detail with the overwhelming importance of Reserves and the implications of not placing sufficient monies into the Reserves Fund for long term periodic major repair and replacement. To do nothing must inevitable the lead to a decline in everyone's home values.

“Arguments for maintaining adequate reserves are many. One reason not often discussed or mentioned would include the fact that if an Association waits until the year that a certain cost must be addressed before raising the necessary additional funds, then those who lived in the community in the preceding years, but moved out prior to the raising of the Special Assessment funds will have contributed to the wear and tear of the communities assets, without contributing to the regeneration and replacement of those assets.

Reminder

[Posted on the mailboxes]:

"Dear Kenthill Townhomes Homeowners,
As we approach the winter months, we would like to remind all homeowners and their tenants to keep the heat on in their units to an adequate temperature level to prevent any pipes from freezing during the cold weather (this is especially important with respect to unoccupied units). Kenthill Townhomes is insured by C.A.U. (Community Association Underwriters, Inc.). C.A.U. provides Kenthill Townhomes with its master insurance policy for our condominium complex. Please review the excerpts from the two page fact sheet from our 2005 policy sent to all homeowners on 10-27-2005. Please note the statements highlighted in bold regarding possible leaks".

Problems with roofs

This is an excerpt from one of the reports given to us by one of the roofing contractors who inspected our buildings (in 2003):

"We inspected the roofing on all the buildings at the subject property and are submitting following report with recommendations. Various issues of concern that we observed are as follows:

1. Delaminated plywood substrate.
2. Rotten siding and fascia boards.
3. Staples and fasteners protruding up through the shingles.
4. Wind damage repairs.
5. Dryer vent problems.

We observed a number of locations where the dryer vent ductwork has become disconnected from the discharge vent. This allows the warm moist air to enter the attic space. This is a probable cause for much of the serious plywood de-lamination in the buildings. There many areas where the siding between roof levels is extended too far down and is in contact with the composition roofing. This allows water to wick up into the siding causing de-lamination and dry rot to occur. There are also many areas where the composition shingles do not overhang the fascia board, which can cause premature deterioration of these areas between the two roofs levels."

Monthly meetings

Kenthill Townhomes Homeowners Association monthly meetings are held on the 4th Monday of every month in the Cabana (homeowners time is from 6:00-6:30PM). Useful information may be obtained by going to the link on the left hand toolbar (under "Links") on this web page entitled, "talkkenthill" (click only once).