HOA Meetings

Meetings are usually held in either the McDonald’s or Publix break room, both located at Curry Ford and Young Pine, at 7:00 PM EST.

Next: August 15th, 2013 at McDonald’s.

Notes from the Board President

Here are a few things that may be of interest to Hibiscus Bay homeowners…

Water Leaks
If you believe there is a leak in your roof, you (the homeowner) must have it investigated and prove it is coming from the roof structure itself. Once Sentry Management and the HOA Board receive a copy of the letter from your expert, the Board will ask our roofing company to inspect, report and fix the leak per the HOA documents. Any and all plumbing issues are the owners’ responsibility, not the HOA's.

Pinecastle Jeep Range
Our lawyer has been working with the Army, and this issue appears to have been resolved. If you would like more information please see the Pinecastle Jeep Range website.

HOA Budget
We know that these are tough economic times and everyone is looking to save money wherever possible. The HOA is also doing everything we can to save money in the HOA budget. We are only paying for things that we are required to provide by the HOA documents. We inherited these documents, and therefore the requirements, from the builder of the neighborhood and we are legally bound to adhere to them. If you would like a copy of the budget, please send an e-mail to Tony Languzzi at Sentry Management. The budget covers the following items:

• Insurance on buildings and common areas: this covers only the exterior of the building up to, but not including, the drywall. Homeowners are responsible to have insurance from the drywall-in including fixtures, etc. The HOA insurance agent has said that homeowners should make sure that they have an ‘H06’ type of policy.
• Maintenance of common areas: recently, we had to power-wash a portion of the brick-wall because someone had painted graffiti on it.
• Lawn maintenance: we must use a licensed and bonded lawn maintenance company. We changed companies a couple of years ago and we believe we have the best deal we can get for now.
• Lawn irrigation: this includes checking and repairing the irrigation system plus the electricity and water for irrigation.
• Termite bond on all buildings: in Florida, this is a necessity.
• Exterior painting of buildings: this fund is designed for painting the buildings every 7-10 years. As many of you know, we found out over the summer that that our builder didn’t do the best job painting the first time so we were forced to dig in to the fund to paint the buildings. Luckily, we found a paint company who understood our predicament and worked with us to get the painting done within budget. We believe we are in much better shape now. For more information about this, see the January 16 Hibiscus Bay Painting Update document.
• Roof maintenance and replacement: we keep a fund for roof repairs and regular roof-replacement every 10-15 years. This does not include maintenance or replacement of gutters.
• Basic cable TV for all units: We have looked into removing this but we inherited a 10-year contract with Comcast and would have to pay a stiff penalty to drop it.
• Administrative and legal fees: This includes legal fees for liens and other means to address homeowners who are not paying their dues.

Several homeowners researched the monthly expense of the HOA dues versus the same expenses in a single-family home and found it to be comparable. In other words, if you lived in a single-family house, you would be paying for most of these things yourself and the monthly cost would be similar --or in many cases higher-- than the HOA dues.