Pembroke Farms

According to the posting on this web site, neighborhood services might be cut back if 3 homeowners do not pay their back dues? Who are they??? Any chance of getting those homeowners to cut the grass or maintain the gate? Since the majority of us, namely 43 of 46 homeowners, DO pay their assessments, why not apply some real peer pressure and post the names of those who have paid! We can figure out the rest.

I don't know of any good reason why these folks shouldn't be flushed out into the open. Cutting services, letting the grass grow high in the common areas, and leaving the gates open in these uncertain times is a travesty!

I am not willing to suffer because of any one, two, or three homeowners. I say either pay up or move out! What is the attorney's name and what is his/her excuse for letting this go for so long? Obvious neglect, particulary at the front gate area, i.e., gates open, grass not trimmed, will have a very negative effect on our all of our property values. Keep Farmin, Al

Frustrated!!!

I appreciate your speaking out. We have been very disgusted with the rediculous rise in homeowner's dues especially for what we are getting (as you mentoined in your note). It is terrible that when I drive into our street off Babcok, I can't even find the street because there are no lights working!!! If I knew who was not paying, I would personally do something about it!! No one is going to want to live in this neighborhood if all this continues. Who would want to pay $300-400 per year for a faulty entry gate, ugly and unkept landscaping (dying trees and bushes), unpaved street and nothing extra in the common area besides picnic tables.

Reply to Cutbck Services

Al,

As I wrote in a personal e-mail to you earlier, there are no homeowners owing back assessments. If you will note, the original memo was dated 2001, and I was remiss in getting it off this web site when all assessments were paid in 2001. All assessments have been paid for 2002, however, there is one outstanding lien fee still owed from a lien that was filed against a homeowner who had not paid the 2002 assessment. The homeowner did pay the assessment after receiving notice that a lien had been filed against the property, but we have not collected the lien filing fee. The lien against the property will not be released until the lien fee has been paid to the Pembroke Farms Homeowners Assiciation by the property owner, and the home owner has been notified of this.

As far as ''flushing'' the home owners out in the open, we, the members of the BOD, were advised by our management company that in doing something like that, we could open ourselves up to a law suit, and they advised against that. I was the person who brought that up, and actually wanted to publish this at last year's annual Homeowners Meeting.

As you and have also discussed, it was with a lot of thought that I recommended an increase in the 2003 assessment, over and above the 10% the BOD voted on. The budget will be passed out at the annual meeting, and I will not hesitate to recommend the additional increase to the entire membership so we can begin to build up a reserve fund to take care of future needs of the community, like street maintenance, grounds and landscape upkeep (common area), entry lighting, etc.

Hope you and/or Trish will be able to attend the meetng Thursday evening. As in past years, we will be lucky to have a simple majority present.

Frustrated Reply

I appreciate the concerns raised in your reply to Al Hill's memo. My response to you is from my being personally involved in this subdivision as a member of your Board of Directors, currently president of the board, as well as being a resident of almost 6 years.

I will try to briefly address most of your concerns, and will be glad to discuss them in more detail at the annual meeting Thursday evening.

First, the entry lighting has been a problem for at least a year, and I have re-set the timers time and time again, only to have the circuit breaker trip after a couple of days. Unfortunately, there is no money available at the present time to pay the prices charged by electricians, and that is what we need to get a permanent fix to the problem.

To my knowledge, every time the entry gate has malfunctioned, it has been put back in working order in a reasonable period of time. I have been told that the system we have is not top of the line, and I feel we have been lucky to have had as few problems as we have.

As far as the landscaping, there has been a group of residents looking at replacing some of the dead and dying shrubs, but again, there is just no extra money available at the present time. The BOD did set aside $200.00 for landscaping, and that will probably not be done until Spring.

As far as the ''unpaved street'' you mention, I would like to know more details, and where this street is in the subdivision. If you are talking about the cracking in the asphalt, that is normal wear and tear, and we were told by one of the residents, who is an engineer, that the we could expect to have to re-surface the street in 10 to 12 years, and that is not too far in the future, the street being opened in 1994.

We have been trying to get something going in the common area for at least four years, and again, there is no money available for what the residents seem to want. If you were not at the annual meeting last year, a poll had been taken by Cheryl Seay, and as I recall, the main things people wanted were playground equipment, a sports court of some sort, and a covered area.

As far as letting you know where we are on money, if we do not have any major, unplanned repairs before the end of the year, we will actually end the year $32.38 in the black. The BOD did take $2,000.00 out of the operations account earlier in the year to start a reserve fund. With the 10% increase in assessment ($25.00) approved by the BOD, we will end 2003 $103.00 in the black. The additional increase of $50.00 will all go into the reserve fund.

Again, I appreciate your input about your concerns for the neighborhood. I will mention that this web site does not get too many hits, and I unfortunately am one of those who does not go to it as oftern as I should. The meeings of the Board of Directors are always open to residents, and for the present, we meet the first Thursday of the month, every other month. We met this month, so the next BOD meeting will be in November.

I look forward to your attendance at the annual Homeowners Meeting Thursday evening.

John Thompson
President (for two more days)
Pembroke Farms Board of Directors