News
Reclaimed water has been unavailable since March 28. Check the Hillsborough County web site for the latest update. [April 7 news release]
The 2004 Annual Meeting Agenda, scheduled for December 1, 2004, and the President's Annual Report have been posted.
The Annual Membership Meeting is scheduled for December 1, 2004. Please attend and lend your voice to our community.
Damaged trees
During the past few weeks and due to the wind force from hurricane or tropical storms that affected the area many trees within the lots of our association members were bent or uprooted. Many members called the Property Manager or the President of the Association asking when the association would repair the damaged trees. They believed that this task was covered under the “maintenance free” covenant which we all have.
Article IV of our Declaration of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions, which is titled “RICHTS AND OBLIGATIONS OF THE ASSOCIATION” under its Section 1 (b) – Responsibility of Owner—clearly states that “The Owner shall provide exterior maintenance as follows, the cost for which each Owner shall be individually responsible for: (iv) maintenance, repair, or replacement resulting from any fire, wind, flood, tornado, hurricane or other casualty damage within the Lot of an Owner;”
It is clear from such language that it is up to every individual owner who had some trees damaged, whether they were only bent or were uprooted, to proceed without delay to repair such damage at their own cost. The Association tried to work with Raymow, our lawn-maintenance company, a system where they would do all the repairs and then bill the Association which in turn would pass the cost to the individual owners for the work done. After telling us the approximate cost of fixing the trees, Raymow decided they would rather charge the Association at a rate of $110.00 per hour which we thought it was excessive and decided not to continue the talks with them.
We request every homeowner that has a damaged tree to find someone as soon as possible to fix their tree or trees. If you wait for to long the tree might die and then the situation will become more complex. If a tree dies the owner is responsible for planting a new tree similar to the one that had to be removed. If the owner wishes to plant a different type of tree then the owner must file a modification request with the WCA Modification Committee, wait until their request is approved and then buy the tree and hire someone to plant it. All cost incurred in the removal of the dead tree and the planting of a new tree will be at the owners expense.
We hope and expect all owners that had a tree or trees damaged will act immediately to remedy the situation.
Carlos S. Quiros
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