Diamond farm(Potomac Oaks) in Gaithersburg

[annM]

So who is responsible for the repairing of plumbing? The condo management or the owner.

[statisticschick]

Originally Posted by annM

So who is responsible for the repairing of plumbing? The condo management or the owner.

In all condos, the general rule is that if a pipe or plumbing fixture only services one unit, the responsibility falls on the owner. However, if a pipe or fixture services more than one unit (i.e., a pipe behind the wall that carries water to multiple units), it is the responsibility of the Association. If something is the responsibility of an individual unit owner and it causes damage to surrounding units, that unit owner must pay to repair the units that were impacted. For example, if your toilet breaks and floods the unit below you, you are responsible for fixing the unit downstairs.

I currently live at Potomac Oaks and have mixed feelings about the place. The surrounding community is fairly nice and it's a convenient location. I have lived all over the DC metro area (including in DC) and Potomac Oaks is about as safe as you'll get. Not to say you can't be careful - this is a major metropolitan area and thugs and thieves will travel. But if you use common sense (lock your doors, don't leave valuables in your car, etc), you'll be fine.

The condo fees here are high. The biggest problem is that utilities are not submetered and are included in your condo fee. This may seem nice, but it means that residents have no real incentive to conserve electricity and gas. This waste is passed on to owners via the condo fees. Our condo fees will keep going up dramatically because of this. Only when people are directly responsible for what they use each month will this change.

The rules here are also a tad on the restrictive side. We're one of the only condo developments around that restricts the number of dogs or cats per unit to 1. You need to consider things like this even if you don't have dogs or cats because it's detrimental to resale values in this very pet-friendly region. Some of us are really hoping that the Board will vote to change this rule and I think they are discussing it.

Despite the complaints you may have read, the management company is actually pretty good. We have on-site management and they run a tight ship. Yes, they do send nastygrams from time to time, but we have quite a few owners here who don't give a flying hoot about their units and this really drags down the neighborhood. The problem is that it is hard to enforce rules beyond the nastygrams.

Asethetically, the property looks pretty nice, especially the units that face the street. However, when you walk between buildings you can see where the problems are. We have quite a few vacant units here that are not being maintained. The management company has little control over this. But they do an excellent job at maintaining the common areas. The lawn is always beautifully manicured and problems are addressed very quickly. For me, the management staff here have been the best part of living here. I've lived in lots of condos and this is by far one of the BEST management companies I've dealt with.

Condos are a unique beast and I would really do your homework before buying. This is the last condo for us, mainly because we're tired of being so restricted by rules and Boards. The Board here isn't very pro-active and has become somewhat archaic in their way of doing business. In addition, we have a lot of rental units here. The management company will tell you it's about 25% rental here, but I think it's actually way higher (not everyone who rents out their units does so the legal and official way). We have some units that are being used as boarding houses for day laborers and others that are just slum units. But this happens in EVERY condo association.

[Owner at Potomac Oaks]

[SIZE=3]Potomac Oaks is a GARDEN style condo and is up there in years. The under ground piping system is old and requires water to be pushed under ground several feet before is arrives at the units. Sub-metering is not the answer! We should be looking into individual mechanical rooms per complex of 8 or more buildings. Perhaps using the storage areas attached to the complex of 8 or more buildings would help in reducing LONG term utility measures. Waste will never stop at Potomac Oaks! With sub-metering you would still be paying for all the waste due to people not paying their share. People seem to forget – we have only one utility bill and it has to be paid whether everyone shares or not. Someone still has to pay the final bill. So in the long and short of it ALL of our condo fees will go up! Also, with the economy being slow and lots of foreclosures at Potomac Oaks – a huge bonus was paid out in December 2008. Please attend the Board meetings and become informed as to the effect the rules have on ALL people on the property.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]We are over run with animals!!![/SIZE]