I'm having problems with the home owners association in the community where I live. Here are the occurrances as of late:
Facts: I'm currently a college student who shares a house with two other girls in a gated housing community. The HOA has been very adamant about making sure lawns and parking are kept up to thier specifications. On Janurary 10, 2007 we recieved a letter from the property management company and I quote: "The following was noted at your residence, and we respectfully ask that you address the concern at your earliest convenience, at least within ten (10) days from the reciept of this letter. Your lawn is in need of maintenance (more specifically mowing, and weeding)..."
After this letter was recieved our yard was mowed and taken care of within two (2) days. Then, on January 23, 2007 we recieved another letter reqesting us to maintain our lawn as it is in need, and to "please notify our office by the end of business (5:00 pm) Thursday January 25. If you do not contact our office, your yard will be mowed on Friday January 26 and your account with the association will be charged accordingly". In effect, our yard was taken care of by a lawn service and our account was charged $35.00.
It is required that a house under this property management recieve three unsatisfactory observations before this charging for someone else to take on the responsibility can take place. Our observation dates as stated on the letters were 3/6/2006, 1/5/2007, and 1/23/2007.
Problems:
1. The first citation date of 3/6/2006 was three months before either three of current tenants were even occupying the house, how is it that this can be held against us? Did the management company just make a mistake?
2. We mowed our lawn within two days of recieving the first letter. It is the middle of January, and we had an ice storm afterwards which resulted in our grass becoming frozen over for three days (January 16-18). It is impossible for our lawn to have grown to such a deplorable condition in the amount of time between when it was mowed (January 12) and when we recieved the last warning letter (January 23).
3. We have an extremely small yard. I would say about 10' by 8' at the MOST. It usually takes about 10 minutes for me to mow/weed, and that is including preparing the lawn mower and putting it away. I believe $35.00 is an outrageous sum of money for this!
I suppose the bottom line is I do not feel like I should be charged for such a fiasco based on the three points stated above. If I outright refused to pay, would I have valid reasoning for why, if in case the property management company decided to sue me? I hardly think they would waste thier time on $35.00, but I would just like to know all the same for argument's sake. This has been an ongoing problem and it has taken to stressing me out even more than usual. I'm just trying to get through college at the moment, and I have so many other important bills, I do not need to be bothered by something as trivial as this.
Facts: I'm currently a college student who shares a house with two other girls in a gated housing community. The HOA has been very adamant about making sure lawns and parking are kept up to thier specifications. On Janurary 10, 2007 we recieved a letter from the property management company and I quote: "The following was noted at your residence, and we respectfully ask that you address the concern at your earliest convenience, at least within ten (10) days from the reciept of this letter. Your lawn is in need of maintenance (more specifically mowing, and weeding)..."
After this letter was recieved our yard was mowed and taken care of within two (2) days. Then, on January 23, 2007 we recieved another letter reqesting us to maintain our lawn as it is in need, and to "please notify our office by the end of business (5:00 pm) Thursday January 25. If you do not contact our office, your yard will be mowed on Friday January 26 and your account with the association will be charged accordingly". In effect, our yard was taken care of by a lawn service and our account was charged $35.00.
It is required that a house under this property management recieve three unsatisfactory observations before this charging for someone else to take on the responsibility can take place. Our observation dates as stated on the letters were 3/6/2006, 1/5/2007, and 1/23/2007.
Problems:
1. The first citation date of 3/6/2006 was three months before either three of current tenants were even occupying the house, how is it that this can be held against us? Did the management company just make a mistake?
2. We mowed our lawn within two days of recieving the first letter. It is the middle of January, and we had an ice storm afterwards which resulted in our grass becoming frozen over for three days (January 16-18). It is impossible for our lawn to have grown to such a deplorable condition in the amount of time between when it was mowed (January 12) and when we recieved the last warning letter (January 23).
3. We have an extremely small yard. I would say about 10' by 8' at the MOST. It usually takes about 10 minutes for me to mow/weed, and that is including preparing the lawn mower and putting it away. I believe $35.00 is an outrageous sum of money for this!
I suppose the bottom line is I do not feel like I should be charged for such a fiasco based on the three points stated above. If I outright refused to pay, would I have valid reasoning for why, if in case the property management company decided to sue me? I hardly think they would waste thier time on $35.00, but I would just like to know all the same for argument's sake. This has been an ongoing problem and it has taken to stressing me out even more than usual. I'm just trying to get through college at the moment, and I have so many other important bills, I do not need to be bothered by something as trivial as this.
