November 30, 1981
Dear Sea Pines Homeowners;
Attached is your yearly issue of the Sea Pines Homeowners Directory. Those unit owners with an * beside their name have not given us current information so we have to assume the information previously given is still valid for them.
Having just missed the deadline for my holiday message to you in the Tidings, it is included herewith.
Thanksgiving has come again to Sea Pines and the joyous holiday season will soon be with us. Our thanks go to all those supportive and appreciative homeowners we would like to write individually, if only time would permit. To all, we wish the joys and peace you should expect of the upcoming holidays!
While we are writing in general about several subjects, we must remind you of an item or two.
WATER - Wherever you are, is your main water valve off, if you are not at Sea Pines? We've got to do better than last year to save our preferential insurance rates!
FIRE - Have you added that smoke detector or fire extinguisher yet? Maybe you should ask Santa to put one of each in your stocking! Our freeze-ups, floods, fire and blown-off roofs cost more than four times our premium in 1981.
BUDGET - Your Facilities Board is considering budget items at their November meeting and will vote 1982's budget in January. There is always so much to do that economy dictates staggering expenses. For instance, painting - painting will most likely be confined to Friendship and Hollows' 32 units for 1982. 1983 will probably have to cover painting Knolls, Overlook, Dunes and Bluff so that in 1984 we could get back to Phase 1 and 2 clusters 1 to 9 and the club house.
Don't think you are neglected because your neighborhood's turn hasn't come yet - or even next year.
IMPROVEMENTS vs MAINTENANCE - The question comes up commonly enough that we should clarify these two, in general terms.
MAINTENANCE is easiest to define - Your Grounds Committee recommends a level of maintenance for each year to your Facilities Board. The majority vote of that board establishes what will or will not be done as well as the budget within which it must be accomplished. Some compromise invariably is necessary. Certain owners want their own property to be manicured to look like a golf course. Other owners fervently want a natural look. Bushes and trees should be shaped for some or left to grow bigger and bushier for others. Since all areas apart from patios and those covered with buildings are common areas, your Grounds Committee has the unenviable task of deciding what should or should not be done with those areas. They obviously check with, and obtain their authority from the Facilities Board.
The Grounds Committee Chairman is the Board's liaison officer to the Managing Agent. The managing agent has to get the jobs selected by the board done within the amount budgeted.
Owners tend to think territorially, "what are they doing to my yard" or "why are they working on someone else's place and not mine?". In reality, owners have, like it or not, an undivided interest in all common areas and facilities. When maintenance is fixing a leak in the roof over Jones or Brown, maintenance is fixing your property in common with 150 other owners.
Maintenance priority is given to keeping all property weather-tight. Disasters such as our recent fire, last winters freeze-ups and windstorms that blow roofs off, top the list. During summer months, the heaviest load is protecting your investment in lawns. Pall, winter and spring turns time devoted to grass in summer into time to rebuild or repair fences, decks, siding and the like.
IMPROVEMENTS are another matter entirely. Under Sea Pines By-Laws, as well as Chapter 183A of the General Laws of this Commonwealth, your Facilities Board cannot add another swimming pool, expand the club house, make large capital investments, such as revising drainage systems or even, in our estimation, add quantities of grass, trees or shrubs without putting the question of such improvements to a vote of all homeowners affected.
Unlike maintenance of common areas, where the Board's vote is law and a homeowner can't avoid his or her share of the payments, Improvements can not be charged to all unit owners unless 75% vote for them. Conversely, when unit owners demand IMPROVEMENTS, they can only hope the Board will consider their request strongly enough to put it to a vote at annual meeting or consider it urgent enough to have a special vote by mail. IMPROVEMENTS, by simplest definition are - anything desired by most of the unit owners but not having been provided by the developer.
EXAMPLES - MAINTENANCE vs IMPROVEMENT
- More grass to beautify an area = Improvement.
- More grass on a slope to prevent washing of chips into catch basins, ultimately causing flooding = Maintenance.
- Upgrading siding from ship-lap to tongue and groove or shingles to prevent water damage to interiors of units = Maintenance.
- A totally new maintenance building = Improvement
Enough of this -- Enjoy your holidays.
With all best wishes,
Scott C. Jordan
Managing Agent
Sea Pines Condominiums
P.S. Additional directories available at $1 to cover costs.