Diamond farm(Potomac Oaks) in Gaithersburg (HOA, condominiums, neighborhood)

[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]

[JRoss23]

The nasty grams would not be so bad if they were always written in a nasty tone, with random capitalizations, terrible grammar, and in non sensical english. Perhaps people would take them more seriously if they didnt read like they had been written by an illiterate 4th grader.

The location is probably the best thing about this condo community, it is convenient to everything. That being said, the buildings are old, so they are not that great. They are also very noisy, you can hear everything that goes on in the hallways, and if your neighbors have a beeping alarm system or walk on their floors you can hear it in your condo. There are also some very questionable people living around here. I would look elsewhere if I were you.

[skilightning]

Has anyone in Potomac Oaks had or still has a pest problem in your laundry room?

[hlevy912]

do they allow pets there?

[GougingHater]

I have lived at the Potomac Oaks now for 3.5 years. I do think that there are good aspects to living there such as: tennis courts that can be lighted at night nearby, Whole Foods 1 mile away, swimming pool , which also allows for adult swim, and also has ,grills for cooking. Now here are the caveats: many units have 5 or 6 people living in them , and these are the 2BRs! This of course, along with the high foreclosure rates, keep the HOAs obscenely high, which is a vicious circle since that in turn also contributes greatly to the continual foreclosures, and the excess number of people living there, in short, the Management is turning the property into a Slum. I also seriously doubt that they are actually serious about taking secondary, or third party/company/contractor estimates for snow removal, much less for the plumbing maintenance. Simply put, the Management makes the place a money pit by NOT finding other competitive estimates...it is Cronyism at best, and profound corruption at worst. The Management is unresponsive, irresponsible, and downright rude, at least on the lower end of the chain of command(meaning reception). I have checked other Condo associations in Bethesda, that were built same year, and their HOAs are far less costly. When asked why, the vacuous response is "well, those properties are not as numerous as ours"...obviously the basic understanding of ratio or proportionality is an alien concept to this part of the management. What NEEDS to be done is an entire AUDIT of the HOA accounting ,and that the owners knows exactly how and why they are spending so much on what they claim to be the most expensive part of the HOA bills , which is water, and the water bursts, and whether or not they are getting other estimates from other Contractors to ensure , or at least deter, price gouging. Again, Bethesda Associations have props just as as old as Potomac Oaks, so the pipe bursts are NOT unique to that of Potomac Oaks. What is probably is unique to Potomac Oaks, is the High number of occupants/vagrants living in the Units, and or, the gouging of the selective Contractors that do the repairs and charge the Assn.and in turn, the Owners.

[GougingHater]

Originally Posted by JRoss23

The nasty grams would not be so bad if they were always written in a nasty tone, with random capitalizations, terrible grammar, and in non sensical english. Perhaps people would take them more seriously if they didnt read like they had been written by an illiterate 4th grader.

The location is probably the best thing about this condo community, it is convenient to everything. That being said, the buildings are old, so they are not that great. They are also very noisy, you can hear everything that goes on in the hallways, and if your neighbors have a beeping alarm system or walk on their floors you can hear it in your condo. There are also some very questionable people living around here. I would look elsewhere if I were you.

You are absolutely correct. "Questionable people living around here ", to say the least. You were/are completely correct regarding the Management. I strongly suspect it is the receptionist. She is rude, asinine, and clearly quasi literate. She should be terminated, but probably wont be due to "cronism", which means that she knows too much about what is happening regarding the decision to hire contractors, and also to the cost of the contract, or she is simply a very ignorant ogre.

[GougingHater]

Originally Posted by Owner at Potomac Oaks

[FONT=Times New Roman][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][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]We are over run with animals!!![/SIZE][/FONT]

read what I said please

[GougingHater]

Originally Posted by annM

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

That of course depends upon where the plumbing problem is. if it is w/ in a few feet (sorry I do not have the bi laws at hand) of the Condo Unit, than it is the Owner, if it is beyond that, the Assn. , but it is definitely the Assn. and NOT the owner for the pipes that go into the A/C.