Covenant enforement proposal

At the summer meeting of the board of directors, the Architectual Review Committee, submitted a proposal to setup a process for covenant enforcement. Typically, covenant problems are easily resolved through contact, and in some cases, a written letter. However, there are rare circumstances where delinquent homeowners become stubborn in their refusal to comply with our covenants.

Currently, when a violation exists, the CCandR's authorize the committee to '...enter upon the property to make inspections, repairs, and maintenance at reasonable times and to charge the lot owner.' However, we feel that this is a drastic measure that could expose the HOA to legal liability should this course of action ever be taken. Imagine the problems if the HOA removed an illegal chain link fence, or towed a junk vehicle in someones yard. As the HOA's primary mission is to protect property values through the enforcement of our covenants, this proposed system would provide another process, which allows for small fines to be issued after all other options (contact, letters, etc) are exhausted.

The process requires a written notice of violation to be issued by the architectual review committee following an attempted intial contact either in person or by phone, and allows for the violator to request a hearing with the board of directors to explain and contest the violation. If the problem still exists after 30 days and the board has not intervened, a second notice of violation is sent via certified mail. If the problem still exists after another 30 days, the Architectual Review Committee can request that the Board of Directors approve the issuance of a fine, according to a preapproved schedule. If a fine is approved by the board, a notice of fine is sent via certified mail. If the fine is not paid within 30 days, it will double. Additional fines can be issued each calendar month up to 12 times per year, per instance, if the problem is still uncorrected and no action is being taken to correct it. Accumulated fines in excess of $100 will be placed as a lien on the property.

We are also considering an 'extraordinary circumstances' exception to the 60 day period, when the board of directors and architectual review committee unanimously agree to take expedited action. This would be applied in extreme cases, such as a landlord evicting tenants, and moving all their belongs to the front yard, leaving junk in the front yard for weeks on end... In cases like this, we feel that the community expects the HOA to take prompt action, and not nessecarily wait 60 days before compelling the homeowner to comply. In these cases, the 60 day period would be reduced to 10 days as prescribed in the CCandR's (section 31).

The amount of fines will vary on the covenant being violated, and the proposed schedule is;
Trash cans/debris in yards: $10
Nuisance (noise, animals, etc): $20
Vehicle parking/storage: $25
Unapproved modifications/tree removal: $50
Exterior Maintence: $50

Basically, if a notice of violation is issued, and the homeowner makes a good faith effort to correct the problem, comply with the covenant, or requests a hearing with the board, that will stop the process. Since Architectual Review Committee members serve indefinintely, we have given final authority to the board, who are elected for 3 year terms, to decide if a fine is appropriate. The entire process takes a minimum of 60 days, allowing a homeowner plenty of opportunity to correct the problem, or submit a plan of action for mitigating the problem.

You can review a previous post, http://coniferpark6.blogspot.com/2007/03/hoa-state-law.html, for information on the state law that grants authority to the board of directors to approve such a system.

The board has tabled the proposal until the fall meeting to provide for community feedback and a comment period. You may e-mail your comments to webmaster@coniferpark6.com, mail them to the P.O. Box 763, Port Orchard, WA 98366, or post them as a comment in this thread. If you post using 'anonymous' please include you name in the text of your comment, so they may be entered into the HOA record.

We understand that the prospect of fines being issued for covenant violations brings up the image of the architectual committee members walking around with ticket books, and want to assure the community that great care has been taken to ensure that this is not the case. This process has been designed to be a 'last resort', short of entering a property to correct a problem, and billing homeowners.

This issue will also be discussed at the summer meeting, and a consensus vote will likely occur to gauge the communities sentiment. Additionally, there is one open spot on the Architectual Review Committee, and the president, vice-president, secretary, treasure, and one member of the board of directors will be elected.

Community Garage Sale!!

The HOA garage sale is this weekend, Saturday, from 9 till 3. So gather up all your stuff and get setup for saturday morning. Signs will be up advertising the area, but you may want to put up an additional sign for your sale if it's not obvious from the street. Also, the sale is being advertised in the paper, so there should be plenty of people coming by. I hope to be out strolling the neighborhood, armed with my camera to get some pictures!

We just sorted through our bookshelves, and I'll have a big ol' box of books, as well as some old CD's for cheap, and some misc dishes that we need to get rid of. Oh, and I've got an old 1955 5.5hp motor, that I've gotten torn down, but lost the motivation to rebuild... I think I might ask a whole $5 for it.

Gasoline Thefts

A recent homeowner has experienced Gasoline thefts!

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Last night someone apparently siphoned $25 of gas out of my gas tank of my truck parked right in our driveway on Conifer Park.
Please keep your eyes out for any suspicious activity.
Dave
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Please keep your eyes open, and report any suspicious activity. This blog post will be updated as more information becomes available. If you have any additional information, please use the comment thread.

Also, I recently had to rewrite the HOA alert e-mail list. I used an old archived list I got from the Fergussons, and there are several e-mail addresses on it that are no longer current. If you did not recieve the alert e-mail, and would like to recieve them in the future, please e-mail me at webmaster@coniferpark6.com

Newsletter published

Nice work Richelle on getting the spring newsletter out! I've started this tread so that anyone can ask questions about anything in the newsletter, or provide feedback on any issues that werer brought up.

On another note, my street reflectors have been staying up. Except last week, I noticed that two of them were getting knocked down again. I figured they were the same bored kids, but since I had talked to them, it didn't seem like it had been much of a problem. So I went to go put them back up, and low and behold, I have a new vandal to deal with... this time it's a mole! He's been digging around, and likes to pop up right below the bricks... probably lots of tasty grubs hiding right there. Oh well, I guess it's always gotta be something. The good news is, I'm finally getting grass to grow along the road since people aren't driving on it anymore!

On another nore, Dandelions are becoming a problem on many lots. The old standby Weed and Feed works ok as a temporary fix, but the best solution is really to pull them using a weed puller that gets the whole root. Ace hardware and Fred Meyer both carry a really nice 'step and pull' model for about $25. It takes some time, especially if your yard is big, but it's a great way to get some fresh air, and there are some kids around that would love to do it for you for a few bucks.

Spring Board Meeting coming up

Dawn annouced last week that we'd be holding the quarterly board meeting next week. If anyone has issues or concerns that they'd like to have brought up for discussion, please let Dawn or any other board member know.

I guess someone has been asking about speed bumps on fircrest again. I looked into this issue with the county about a year ago, and learned that it's not a feasable solution for a variety of reasons, primarily because the section of Fircrest north of Conifer is an emergency response route. There are some other options though that we can utilize to slow down traffic though, including adding paint stripes, a stop sign at Dover ct, or putting some well placed 'kinks' in the road. In order to get the counties 'buy in' we need to first have people volunteer to sit radar so we have proof that people are speeding. If you'd like to help, let me know.