education courses as well as other educational forums. The landscape company can become a great source of advice and consultation. UF/IFAS has excellent publications that can provide the CAM with information on a broad range of landscape- related topics. Professional employees of County Extensions are exceptionally knowledgeable and available for consultation. Tim learned a lot through the years. When he began his career, the landscape crew showed up with several large mowers and large crews to handle them. Now the association’s landscape company uses robots to mow, and the irrigation system is tested remotely. Acceptable plants, regulation, services, and equipment all have gone through dynamic changes. Other responsibilities CAMs must allocate time to the property on a regular basis, as well as the work performed by employees and vendors. They may choose to do this in conjunction with the maintenance supervisor, committee chair, and/or service provider, or by themselves. As a CAM it’s important that I provide regular status reports to the board on the implementation of the basic contract, as well as any ongoing routine and specialized landscaping projects. A good CAM is a resourceful CAM. Despite job pressures and time constraints, the CAM must find a way to ensure that the landscaping meets the standards set by the board of directors, the president, and/or the committee chairperson. Tim didn’t offer legal advice, which would have been in violation of the Florida Supreme Court Advisory Opinion #SC 13-889 (known as UPL) relating to practicing law without a license. Instead, he provided guidance to the board for their consideration based on his specialized knowledge and management skills. Competitive bidding Additionally, for large projects, boards may need to be reminded that state statutes require competitive bidding for any project costing more than 5% of a condominium or cooperative’s annual budget and 10% of an HOA annual budget. To properly bid out a landscaping project, a landscape architect or landscape designer is required to create the design, write up the bid specifications, determine whether the bid proposals are comparable, and manage the project to ensure compliance with the specifications.
The CAM is frequently involved in the bidding process and may be required to provide a summary of the proposals, check references, and inspect properties the competing companies are currently maintaining. The CAM should base any recommendation they may offer on quality rather than price. Landscape teams To effectively facilitate the accomplishment of the association’s landscape goals, the CAM must coordinate with all the participants in the process. They must, in effect, create and manage a landscape team consisting of the vendors or employees providing landscaping, pest control, irrigation, and tree trimming services, lake or shoreline services (if applicable), and landscape design (when utilized), as well as the maintenance supervisor and landscape committee chairperson. Regardless of the existence of a landscape committee or highly competent maintenance supervisor, the CAM will typically be held accountable for the quality of landscaping and vendor compliance with contracts. Remember, not all community associations are alike. While many have a full staff on site, including administrative, janitorial, maintenance, and a CAM; other associations do not have such personnel. A CAM may be more like the lone ranger. In situations like this, the CAM is typically still held accountable for the quality of services and vendor compliance with the contracts! Ongoing education CAMs should continuously be engaged in improving their knowledge of landscaping, as well as other specialized services. They can accomplish this by attending continuing Governing documents and landscaping projects Issues with the governing documents, as well as state statutes, often emerge when the board determines to create a “new look” to their landscaping, frequently including hardscape structures. Such changes may constitute a material alteration to the property. A material alteration may, depending on the association’s documents and/or Florida statutes, require an affirmative vote of a specific percentage of the TVI of the association at a membership meeting. The documents may also require approval of the membership to spend in excess of a specific dollar amount for a capital project . The CAM must be thoroughly familiar with their association’s documents and be prepared to inform the board when a legal consultation is needed to avoid the potential negative consequences of a violation. In the spring, the board decided to change the entire look of the entrance and along the front wall. If I had not mentioned to the board that they might want to consider contacting the town first, they would have had to tear everything out! As it turned out, they were required to have a landscape architect draw up the plans, submit a request to the building department to make the changes, and comply with the materials used along the front wall. Conclusion The objective of this course, Landscape Maintenance Responsibilities in Community Associations, is to provide managers with an understanding of the basic principles of landscaping, the landscape maintenance contract, and the role of the community association manager. Frequently,
a course on the basics of any subject leaves the student with more questions than answers. If, in addition to accomplishing the course objectives, students are motivated to seek more in-depth knowledge of the subject matter, all the better for the CAM and the associations they manage. It
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