Prepping for the Holidays: Inviting Guests
While we’re not quite to the holiday season, it’s a good time to start planning for having guests over. Each association’s rules vary, so check in with your board about the rules surrounding guests. If your townhome or condo has reserved parking spots, let your visitor know where the unreserved spots are. If your building does not have any reserved areas, an overcrowded parking lot can quickly become a problem, especially if visitors are staying for more than one day. Ask your board about parking procedures far in advance so that a solution can be worked out. Community areas can be great spaces to host events, but you’ll need to reserve it in advance. Also, be respectful of your neighbors. Having friends and family over can be fun, but it can often times get a little too loud. Be conscious of your noise level, and quiet down if your neighbors ask you to. Sharper Management hopes you have fun this upcoming holiday season! We’re dedicated to making your HOA an enjoyable place to live.
Property Walk-Throughs
Summer is a great time to do a walk-through of your properties—the weather is nice, and the green landscape allows you to clearly see what needs work or improvement. When doing a walk-through, pay attention to the following parts of the landscape: Shrubs—do they need trimming? Are they uniform? Grass—is there an irrigation system in place to keep it green? Plants—are they looking healthy or are they dying? Is there too much of them? Flowers—are there various bright colors around the property, or do you need more? Bed spaces—are there empty pockets around the property that can be filled? We suggest including your contractor on these property walks so they can create a plan to service your property and work with you on your budget. Property walk-throughs are also good for noting what is working well and what needs work. You may have a great system in place that just needs a bit of updating since your property is always going through changes. If you’re unsure of where to start, your landscaping contractor will have plenty of suggestions on how to get your property looking great. They’ll also know what species of plants can survive and bloom in the spring after a harsh Minnesota winter. Don’t put in the time and money for flowers and plants that won’t make it through the snowy season! Now is the time to schedule a walk-through with board members and your landscaping contractor before the cooler months come.
Snow Removal and Trigger Depths
We have already had some snowfalls this winter, meaning most of us are already back in the swing of driving in the snow. Understanding your HOAs contract for snow removal is key to knowing when you can expect your lot and drives to be cleared. A trigger depth is the minimum amount of accumulation a snow-removal company requires before they will plow the streets. The average trigger depth is between 1-2”, and most contracts say this much snow needs to fall in a single event. A “single event” policy means that the minimum trigger depth must be reached during one snowfall; if you reach the trigger depth in 2-3 snowfalls, they will not plow. Most snow-removal contracts also specify the timing of snow removal, as well as “open-ups” for heavy snowfalls. Timing is the amount of time the company has after snowfall ends to finish clearing the roads; in most contracts this is between 6 and 12 hours depending on how much snow accumulation there is. Open-ups are single passes plows make through the roads when it is still snowing but accumulation has already hit high levels, which makes it easier for people to get in and out of the HOA community, especially if there is an emergency.