Plant 51 HOA - Town Hall - Move In Move Out Fees

It's hard for residents who do not live here to understand how the situation has degraded to the point where we needed to prioritize this issue while also handling the paint remediation, the courtyard paver remediation, multiple contractor/vendor performance issues across the board (carpet cleaning, landscaping, pest control, fountain cleaning, etc).

Resident Behavior

- Disruptive Parking: Parked in prohibited areas and and blocked residents from exiting their parking spots, causing disruption and increased chances of injuries
- Illegal Dumping: Moving residents failing to properly dispose of trash and unwanted items. They have dumped furniture and large items in the garbage room against our policies, costing us money to haul away the junk
- Lack of Moves Compliance: Elevator pads, lining on the carpet are not being placed as expected by the existing move-in-move-out policy.
- Property Damage: Damage to our property degrading assets at a higher rate than budgeted, and the HOA has been paying for repairs out of reserves.
  - The front gate needs to be removed, taken off-site, stripped, rewelded, powder coated (we can sand and spray as a stopgap)
  - The stairwell handles (definitely dinged from all the moves) need to be repainted
  - The garage gates (springs keep breaking due to excessive use by pedestrians and somehow whenever a move happens, we've had to go out and reset the gate because it's stuck open)
  - The pedestrian doors (need to be rewelded in places)
  - The elevator cab panels (physical scratches and large chipping)
  - The concrete steps need to be repaired from heavy items going up and down the staircase (also from delivery folks, but the mover items are much heavier)

Administrative Burden

- An administrative burden on the property management company and more so the Board when it comes to Latch processing. Weekends are getting spent handling the back and forth.

Insurance Premiums

- Home insurers are leaving California, and it's critical that we drive inspections and best practices to prevent damages, particularly flooding and fire.

Protecting Our Reserves

- We need to spend the time on oversight and ensuring any damages are billed either to the individual moving or the moving company, not our collective assessment contribution. Why should you as an owner pay for unmonitored untracked damage caused from a move? We are seeing on average 30-40 moves yearly.

Why were we not charged before?

This was a lapse by the prior HOA property management companies. Our original charter and welcome packet had the same $350 charge 15 years ago, and we are currently reinstating what had always been there and allowed within the CC&R.

What options have the HOA Board considered?

To drive some clarity around roles and responsibilities, this is 100% the Board's decision - it's why you elected us, to make tough choices in service of the greater community. We are here to listen to input before the final decision.

Original POV: Do Nothing

- Pros:
  - Less work for the HOA Board
  - No cost to the community
- Cons:
  - Does not align with our CC&R
  - Damage cannot be tracked and accountability is not being driven

OPTION 1: The Board uses White Magic's bid

- Pros:
  - Nearly no work for the HOA Board
- Cons:
  - Residents are charged 450 on weekends, with a 4 hour window, whole-time supervision, and a $75/hour

OPTION 1: The Board decides to institute a move-in/move-out fee with a pre/post move review

- Pros:
  - More damage accountability - billed to owner, owner may opt to file claim with mover.
  - Shores up reserves to support fixes that are not detected or accounted for
- Cons:
  - Residents are charged a fee
  - Administrative hassle

OPTION 2: The Board decides to institute a move-in/move-out fee without a pre/post move review

- Pros:
  - Everyone pays the fee with less oversight
- Cons:
  - No damage accountability
  - Administrative hassle

OPTION 3: Increase Dues Significantly

Pros:
- Less worrying about transactions
Cons:
- Inequity - unfair to residents who have lived here longer to shoulder the burden for those moving in and out
- Unfair to ask residents as a whole to pay for the carelessness of others

Do I get a say in this process?

HOA Board members are elected by Owners to make decisions, ones that are in the interest of the community that individuals may not always agree with. It's a representative democracy in that sense. Not every issue can be a ballot initiative or a straw poll.

A healthy Board will seek input, provide a clear explanation on the justification, and will ultimately call the shot.
A dictatorial Board will not seek input and opinion from the community, share justifications, and will call the shot.
A dysfunctional Board will not be able to make a decision on the matter and will be stuck spinning., unable to call the shot.

We believe we have done everything possible to seek input:

2 Board meetings as of late discussing this topic (5 Board meetings total in the last 2 years discussing this issue).
An input/solicitation period of emails sent to Tony and passed to the Board.
A town hall, that was attended by folks who were passionate about the topic (12 / 265 units) with responses to most of the concerns raised.

Can you explain the fee breakdown?

First off, this fee is the same one that owners 15 years ago were required to pay. $350. Adjust for inflation it'd be $500.

Plant 51 is the only HOA in a 10 mile radius that does not have a move-in-move-out fee. This is our comps and research on nearby HOAs:

HOA Comps

Administrative onboarding (Latch) - 1 hour @ $150/hr = $150

- 20 minutes --> 4 hours per year: Training and Auditing Seabreeze by Board on Latch, corrections
- 20 minutes: Customer interactions (assumption: 3 emails / 2 phonecalls)
- 10 minutes: Filing and cataloging rental agreement/owner agreement
- 10 minutes: Data entry in Latch (5 minutes per user)

Moving Coordinator - $40/hr (will include travel cost) = $200 (most likely, the HOA Board will lose $ on this front, but if we do recoup any it's back in the general repair fund)

- 15 minutes - elevator pad prep
- 20 minutes - mover pathway inspection (pre)
- 30 minutes - unit inspection (pre)
- ----- Movers do their thing. The Moving Coordinator will not stay the whole time to oversee the movers, but will ensure door security compliance.
- 20 minutes - mover pathway inspection (post)
- 15 minutes - elevator pad removal

But Latch processing times can't be that long!

If I were to add you in the system today yes that's a 10 minute transaction best case, but it's the tip of the iceberg on the amount of time spent, most of it is in the interactions. There are the impatient folks who procrastinated on getting their lease agreement forms in to us (you all know who you are) and want it done now, which ends up getting escalated to Board members, or owners and tenants who provide incomplete or inaccurate information that require multiple correspondences to fix (email correspondences, phonecalls, etc take so much time). It's bogging down Seabreeze and us when we could be working on more strategic maintenance projects. So there's a double whammy.

Wait can't someone else do the inspections?

Can Victor our on-site maintenance manager do the work? --> it's not in his scope nor should it be how we use his time when there are more pressing needs in the community. Also Victor's hours are 6-3, which are not conducive to move slots even if we were to utilize him.

We can't have neighbors/a committee do the work --> it's not a good experience to have someone you live with have to have difficult conversation if damages are discovered - and could lead to bias. We need someone objective to ensure evidence is documented.

We can't have Board members do the work --> Board members are volunteers and have spent way too many hours as is supporting our community.

Why can't you just use security cameras to monitor for damages?

We do not have AI or the resources to review 5+ hours of moving footage for potential damage areas
We do not have stairwell/hallway cameras, nor do we have the funds to install them all just to monitor a move
If/as we identified damages securing payment could be a challenge

Should you consider a deposit?

We could do a $1000 deposit, however we believe there's no need unless actual damage occurs, then we'd bill the unit owner. Typically damage may exceed any deposit amount, and it would not make sense to simply charge an amount under what could be recuperated.

Where does the non-refundable amount go?

We aren't out to make money, the HOA is a non-profit organization with volunteer Board members. The fees go towards administration costs to subsidize the lost productivity of the property management company and what we would've otherwise allocated time for them to work on to better our community. It will go towards paying for a moving coordinator. It is likely this process will not result in a break-even, of which the HOA Board will be using reserves to supplement. Any residual amounts will be used to reinvest in our property's renewal and general maintenance.

How do you define a "move"?

A Move:

A resident moves in or moves out of a unit, requiring Latch access modification (addition or removal)
- e.g. an owner moving in/out of a unit
- e.g. a tenant moving in/out of a unit
- e.g. a roommate who moves out or moves in.

Undecided:

Contractors used for renovations based off of architectural requests
Real Estate Staging

Not a Move:

Family or friends who stay over for a week
You have delivered or move a piece of furniture/appliance into your unit after having resided there

What's the timeslot?

Still to be determined, Building B has a challenge of moving because the pathways are longer, so we are taking that into consideration when revising the timeslots. Self-moves may take even longer, so we may split mover time limits with self-move time limits. What ultimately needs to happen in longer self-move is if there's a damage discovered the burden of proof will be on the individuals moving that it's not caused by them.

Moves typically don't cause damage, right?

Wrong, most moves do end up dinging the property or worse. We have significant damage at this point to indicate that most moves do impact the common space.

What if there is damage?

The administrative fee will not cover actual damages, we will work to bill owners and they can seek reimbursement from their movers.

I'm a tenant, what guidance do I need?

Tenants are a key part of the P51 community, several owners are prior tenants here as well. That being said, tenants and their property management companies do not contract with the HOA, they contract with Owners and Owners must determine in the lease agreement whether this cost is passed on to the tenant.

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