Why not renters?

In order to preserve the character of the Residential Units as predominantly owner-occupied, and to comply with the eligibility requirements for financing in the secondary mortgage market, leasing of Residential Units is regulated in our governing documents. 

If a unit owner wishes to lease their unit they must first obtain either a lease permit or a hardship lease permit.  A unit owner that holds either of these  permits allows them the right to enter into a lease with a third party for the duration of the lease permit.

At Skypoint, the number of lease permits are hard wired into our declaration at 25% or 95 units.  Once a lease permit is obtained it is held by the unit until either of the following occur: the unit is sold, the unit owner moves back into the unit, the unit has not been rented for a consecutive 180 period, or if the unit failed to maintain a consecutive tenant for at least 180 days. 

A unit that holds a lease permit may enter into a lease with a third party ONLY if their dues are current and according to the rules that were passed on 02.23.2011 no leased units shall be permitted to keep a pet without board approval. 

Also written into the declaration is a provision for a hardship lease permit.  The number of these permits is set by the Board of Directors and can be any number from 0-75%.  As of November 24, 2012 the hardship lease permit percentage is set at 14% or 53 units.  The resulting total leased percentage rate of Skypoint is now at 39% or 148 total units.

When I was appointed to the Board of Directors in May our hardship lease permit percentage was at 19% and climbing.  This resulted in 167 units being leased (44%).  This was the highest rental percentage since Skypoint opened in 2007.  At this rate, and factoring in lease turnover of around 50% and new sales Skypoint was moving 100 units per year.  When put in terms of wear and tear of the building each move required a move out AND a move in which brings the number closer to 200 moves per year or nearly 17 per month. 

Instead of a peaceful place to live Skypoint created an apartment like feel where competition for the service elevator became fierce.  Those of you with pets that follow the rules and try and use the service elevator just simply gave up and started using the residential elevators, because the freight elevators were always locked out for moves.  If you were a unit owner and wanted to schedule a furniture delivery often times it was nearly impossible without working a deal with the unit that was moving to allow for the delivery.  This is our home and we have allowed it to become an apartment building. 

Each new unit occupancy in the building requires a huge amount of manpower to process paperwork and to facilitate access control activation/deactivation.  I believe that our management team should not have to spend all their time on the processing of expiring and new leases.  Their time should be spent servicing the current residents - unit owners and renters alike. 

Time spent processing move in and move out of renters is time that management does not have to process unit alteration requests, to help with resident issues, or to provide a better living experience for all unit owners and renters. 

Then there is the pride in ownership argument.  Many of our summertime pool complaints were about renters.  I'm not making this up, these are the facts.  I am sure that I am not unlike most other unit owners when I say that when I am in the common areas I try and take care of those areas because ultimately the unit owners will share in the cost to replace or fix any common item.  Renters often (and the numbers back me up) do not feel the same way. 

Skypoint,  unlike Element was never built to be an apartment high rise.  I purchased in Skypoint to live with my wife and daughter.  I wanted to be surrounded by other unit owners that had a vested interest in keeping the building like the day it opened. 

Please do not get me wrong we have many fine renters in the building, some of whom aspire to be unit owners some day, those are not who I am talking about.  My argument simply rests on the sheer volume of renters and not any one renter in particular.  I believe that by reducing this volume will lead to a better quality of life for those that want to call Skypoint home.  

Board of Directors Meeting Recap for 04.25.2012

Hello neighbors. Tonight was the first night in years that the Board of directors meeting was held in the 8th floor clubroom.  There were approximately 11 residents that showed up in addition to our board members; Todd Williams, Vice President; Joel Burt, Secretary; Laurice Hachem, Retail Director; Karen Lillie, Commercial Parking Director.  Noticeably absent was Board President, Israel Diaz.

Mr. Diaz turned in his resignation earlier citing health reason and plans to put his condo up for sale and "re-retire"

 Assisting the Board members were our Greg Mark, of Homeowners Advantage (HOADV), Kathryn Pankow, HOADV administrative assistant, and Court Terrell, our legal council.

The meeting started promptly at 7pm with the call to order and determination of a Quorum (Minimum of 3 Board members, there were 5 present).  The proper meeting notice was confirmed (that by the way if you are interested has to happen 48 hours prior to the meeting and the posting is hung in the  mail room, in the case with all agenda items to be discussed).

The minutes from the last meeting were approved unanimously, and the board promptly went into closed session to discuss  these requests.  Ultimately the request from unit 1512 was approved, while the request from unit 3011 was denied (It was their third renewal request).

Lew Sibert kicked off the Resident open Forum with a question directed to Court Terrell, Association attorney to clarify that all board members, regardless of the class that they were elected from hold and EQUAL vote in all matters of the association.  Mike Miller, and myself, having submitted requests to speak two weeks ago prior to the agenda being made public, opted not to contribute anything to the forum.   Because I didn't record the meeting, but I will obtain a copy of the official recording, I am doing this update from memory and notes so I am unfortunately omitting some other resident comments, not on purpose, but just at the interest of getting this update out tonight.

Collections efforts since the beginning of the year have resulted in approximately $58,760 in lost revenue.  Unit 2508, a short sale could also be close to a sale, which will net even more past due association dues.

Many different combinations of rules and regulations changes were contemplated for the Clubroom and the Garden Terrace, but ultimately it was tabled for a later date as Court Terrell, council will be assisting in the legal wording of the new revised rules.

Our Master property insurance policy will be up near the end of May, giving us almost a month to solicit bids from competitors for an efficient insurance policy.  There are numerous companies, most of the Florida Companies, included in the proposed review.

Laurice, Retail Director asked management to please include her and Karen Lilly, Commercial parking Director in all mailings from the association that are addressed to the other three board members.  There was no opposition.

Joe Burt, Secretary proposed increasing the residential class directors from 3 to 5, therefore diluting the voting shares of the Retail Director and Commercial Parking Director.  Court Terrell, assn attorney stated that that could only be done as directed in our bylaws.  Those state that the owner of the Retail and Commercial parking would first have to agree to the change, and that they would be crazy to do so.  This denial would prevent the vote from being placed with the association members (unit owners) since it would be a moot point.

Our required 5 year reserve study was just in.  Skypoint is in a great position as far as reserves, roughly $57,000 over, but that could quickly change as the last hand over item from the developer was addressed.  This item, called the exterior slurry is a coating that would need to periodically be applied to the concrete portions of the exterior surface of the building, to prevent the crumbling of the concrete.  The cost could range from hundreds of thousands to over a million.  The cost of this preventative maintenance looks to be absorbed by the developer, but the final word is not set in stone.  This is a major item to keep an eye out for and has the most potential to impact the budget, hence causing higher monthly assessments in the future.

Two elliptical machines in the cardio room will need to be replaced.  A proposal by a local company is due tomorrow, and from that a decision will be made in the future.

RNC Report.  The Tampa Police submitted their recommendations in over 100 pages of what they think Skypoint should do in preparation for the upcoming RNC convention in August.  These items could be costly and federal/state/local grants as well as other funding sources were contemplated to offset the dollar amount of these recommended items.  Greg Mark will review this document and cost the items out.  The Board also created a RND preparedness Committee that will work to have the items implemented and to work with sources as the date approaches.  IF YOU ARE A RESIDENT UNIT OWNER AND YOU WOULD LIKE TO SERVE ON THE COMMITTEE PLEASE LET MANAGEMENT KNOW.

Greg Mark presented the management report and highlighted the improvements to our community website, BuildingLink.  If you haven't gotten your access to BuildingLink, you are missing out on so much.  Sign up with management to get your pass to explore this great source of information.

I did not hear the date of the next meeting.  Please stay tuned for that.  I hope you enjoyed this synopsis of tonight's board meeting.  For the audio of the meeting please check youtube.com/myskypoint or http://www.blogtalkradio.com/myskypoint.

Thanks for reading my blog, please consider subscribing to it so you don't miss anything or pass it along to another resident that you think may find it interesting, or need sleep!
Jeff