Welcome to Casa del Rey! We hope you will enjoy your new home. This web site is intended to answer many of the questions you will likely have about your new home and neighborhood. We welcome suggestions about how to improve it. If you can’t find the information you are looking for on this web site, please contact the HOA’s management company.
Those that have never lived in a townhouse complex may be confused about their rights and obligations, especially after getting a thick pile of documentation written by lawyers. Although the HOA’s governing documents are the legal definition of many of your rights and obligations, a great deal of that can be simplified into:
1) Be considerate of your neighbors. Much of the legalese simply restates common sense and the Golden Rule. Treat your neighbors the way you would want them to treat you. Treat the common areas with the same respect that you would expect others to treat your own home. We have no paid staff to clean up messes, so we need everyone’s help to prevent them. Consider that noise travels more easily in attached housing than in detached units.
2) Pay your HOA bills, such as your monthly assessment, on time. The management company can explain how you can authorize the HOA to automatically take the amount of the monthly assessment from your checking account each month, simplifying your life and significantly reducing the risk of late fees. We encourage unit owners to take advantage of this free, mutuallly-beneficial service, as over 80% of our owners currently do.
3) Be sure to follow the noise, parking, pool and trash rules. Violations of these are among the most common reasons that the HOA gets complaints. Trash spikes when residents move in or out are a frequent problem.
4) The HOA has architectural control restrictions that limit modifications to your unit and lot, including things like replacement of windows or the installation of skylights, dish antenna systems or any form of exterior wiring. If you want to make changes to the exterior of your unit, please ask the management company to explain how HOA requirements apply to your situation.
5) If you’re not sure what is permitted or expected, don’t be bashful about asking the management company or any member of the Board of Directors. We will gladly explain the HOA rules and the reasons for them and can often suggest practical ways to comply with them. We would much rather have these discussions before there is a problem than after.
Getting Connected
This section gives an overview of the process for establishing utiity service and explains which utilities and services are provided by the HOA.
Contact Information
For both routine and emergency communications, it is important that the HOA has current contact information for our owners and residents, including tenants. In the event of a fire, plumbing emergency, medical emergency, etc. it can be very important to be able to quickly contact appropriate parties. Please help us by providing the HOA with the names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses for residents of your unit. This information is used only by the HOA’s management company and board of directors. The HOA does not sell or lease this information to telemarketers, junk mailers, spammers, etc.
Insurance
The HOA maintains limited insurance to help protect the HOA and its members from damage to the buildings of our complex in the event of fire, earthquake, etc. It is important to understand that this insurance does not generally cover personal property and that deductibles on the HOA policy may reduce any payments for covered losses. Owners and residents are strongly encouraged to consider purchasing additional insurance to help protect them from losses not covered by the HOA’s insurance policy. For detailed information about what the HOA’s insurance covers, please contact our insurance agent. If you are refinancing your home, you may also need to contact our agent to obtain evidence of insurance coverage to provide to your lender.
Parking
For safety reasons, including emergency vehicle access, we do not permit vehicles to park on the private streets of our complex (Karmen Ct. and Gazdar Ct.), other than briefly for exceptional cases like moving vans or delivery trucks. Residents have two parking spaces in their garage and two spaces in their driveway. They may also park on any of the public streets surrounding our complex.
There are 8 guest parking spaces in the complex (three in front of the clubhouse, two between 1308 and 1310, one near 1376, one near 1386 and one near 1398). These spaces are not for the use of unit residents, but may be used by occasional guests.
Please note that the area next to 1317 is not a guest parking space. As denoted by the red painted curb, that area is a fire zone and may not be used as a parking space.
Landscaping and Irrigation
The landscaping of the common areas and front yards of the complex is generally maintained by the HOA. Our landscaping contractor is generally on site one or two days a week. Unit owners are responsible for maintaining any landscaping in the rear of their units.
The sprinkler system for the common areas of the complex runs automatically several times a week, typically between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. Unit owners are responsible for any sprinkler systems that may exist in the back yards of units.
Please notify HOA management if you see trees growing too close to buildings, plants that are not getting the correct amount of water, gushing sprinklers or other landscaping or irrigation problems.
Please keep trees in the rear yard of your unit trimmed well clear of the roofs and gutters. Also, please check periodically that your trees are not unreasonably encroaching on the lots of other owners. Often such problems are more visible from other locations than they are from your own yard.
Repairs
The HOA tries hard to keep our complex properly maintained, but some problems are only apparent at certain times or from certain angles. If you see an exterior maintenance problem such as a burned out light bulb, water leak or broken sprinkler head, please promptly notify the management company. .
Owners and residents are often confused about which items are maintained by the HOA. One of the key factors to consider in determining this responsibility is that our HOA is legally structured as a planned unit development, rather than as a condominium complex. This means that individual owners are responsible for more than they might be in other complexes, but it also reduces the amount the HOA has to raise by regular or special assessments.
Generally speaking, the HOA is responsible for maintaining the exterior surfaces of the buildings as well as the parts of the complex that are of shared benefit to multiple owners, while unit owners are responsible for maintaining the structural parts of their home, the unit interiors and the fenced areas of their lots. The details are not always intuitive. For example, the HOA is generally responsible for garage doors, but owners are responsible for things that attach to them, such as tracks, springs and motors. Fences that do not border the common area are usually the shared responsibility of all owners whose lot a fence borders, but special rules apply to the fences that form the western boundary of the complex. The HOA maintains fences that border the common areas and water and sewer lines within the common areas. Owners are also responsible for maintenance of the rear balconies of units.
Unit owners are generally responsible for repairs of their unit due to termites or other wood-destroying pests, as provided in California Civil Code Section 4780(b).
If in doubt, please ask and we will gladly explain how a particular situation applies to you.
Owners sometimes need touch-up paint in between scheduled painting of the exterior of the complex, such as after repairing termite damage. The HOA will provide reasonable quantities of exterior paint to owners for repairs of this type.
HOA Assessments
The owner of every unit in our complex is obligated to pay the HOA a monthly assessment ($475 per unit per month for 2018). Keep in mind that much of this covers things that you’d also have to pay for in a regular home. A bill for the following month’s assessment is distributed to each owner at the start of each month.
Owners are encouraged to sign up for a free, mutually beneficial service that allows the HOA to automatically transfer each monthly assessment from the owner’s checking account. Over 80% of our owners pay their assessments this way, reducing the risk of late charges and simplifying accounting for the HOA. The authorization form is available upon request to the management company.
Part of the monthly assessment covers ongoing management and operational costs of the HOA such as:
administrative, tax and legal expenses
insurance of the building structures (but not contents), including earthquake insurance
water and sewer service for units
electricity and natural gas for the common area
centralized collection of trash and recycling
ongoing maintenance of the clubhouse, pool and common areas
landscaping and irrigation of the common areas
About 31% of the monthly assessment currently goes toward longer-term maintenance obligations of the HOA, such as painting of the exterior of the complex, maintenance and eventual eplacement of roofs, gutters, building exterior surfaces, garage doors, front doors, trees, asphalt roads, concrete driveways and walkways, the clubhouse, the pool, light poles and the fences that border the common area.
The descriptions above are only intended to be a very general statement of what the monthly assessment covers and should not be relied upon as a formal commitment. Refer to the governing documents for a more formal description of the HOA’s maintenance obligations. The actual funding of reserves varies from year to year as new information becomes available.
Based on currently available information, the HOA does not anticipate the need to impose any special assessments.
HOA Communications
The HOA publishes, in both paper and electronic form, periodic (typically monthly) newsletters to owners and residents. They announce future meetings of the Board of Directors, HOA events, current or planned maintenance projects and any special actions required of owners and residents.
As noted above, please notify the HOA if your phone number(s) or e-mail address(es) change so we can reliably communicate with you.
In February of each year, owners will be notified of the date of the HOA’s annual meeting, which typically occurs in the second half of March. This mailing also includes a ballot to fill any openings on the Board of Directors and to vote on any other matters that require approval of the membership. To ensure a legal quorum for the meeting, it is important that owners promptly return these ballots.
Toward the end of April of each year we get a report from the HOA’s CPA, showing the results of his review of the HOA’s financial results for the preceding year. Unit owners are entitled to a copy of that review.
During the last half of November each year, the HOA sends unit owners the HOA budget for the next year, an announcement of any change in the monthly assessment for the following year and a number of other financial and regulatory disclosures required by law.
HOA Finances
The HOA’s Board of Directors believes in transparent management except in cases that would affect the privacy of individual owners or where otherwise restricted by law or common sense. Because funding for HOA operations originates from owners of individual units, we strongly believe in the rights of owners to know about the HOA’s financial condition. We will gladly explain details of the HOA budget, our financial condition or our longer-term financial estimates and plans.
We welcome constructive comments about how we can do a better job of meeting the HOA’s obligations or about how to make the reports we provide you more useful and understandable.
California law requires HOAs to plan up to 30 years ahead to help ensure that funding for the HOA’s maintenance obligations is available when needed. Any such plans depend heavily on estimates of lifetimes, future replacement costs and other factors that often cannot be predicted with great accuracy. We continually update and refine these estimates to reflect newly available information about costs and condition. The Board of Directors makes a good-faith effort to anticipate future funding needs and to plan conservatively. To aid in this planning, we periodically have a specialist inspect our site and prepare a detailed report, known as a reserve study, that gives an independent assessment of our current and anticipated future financial condition. We are very comfortable with the HOA’s financial condition based on the currently available information.
Architectural Control Restrictions
To help maintain the safety and appearance of the complex, the HOA’s CC&Rs contain architectural control restrictions regarding modifications to the exterior of units in our complex. For example, we restrict changes in windows, doors, balconies, exterior paint color and the installation of telephone, cable TV or satellite dish wiring on the outside of units. Before making any changes to the exterior of a unit, owners are required to get permission from the HOA. The HOA’s concerns are generally that changes are safe, weatherproof, legal and do not detract from the appearance of the complex. Unit owners are responsible for obtaning any City permits required for changes they make. We encourage owners to check the license status of contractors before hiring them.
In many cases we can advise owners about how similar changes were previously done, problems that were encountered, etc. The HOA does not endorse or require owners to use specific contractors, but we can often provide examples of contractors that have done acceptable work of a particular type.
To reduce delays in projects, we strongly encourage owners to contact the Board of Directors as soon as possible to start discussing changes owners are considering. Keep in mind that these approvals are generally done at formal meetings of the Board of Directors, which only occur every month or two.
Clubhouse
The HOA clubhouse is located at 1303 Karmen Ct. Meetings of the HOA’s Board of Directors are held in the clubhouse. The meeting schedule is announced in the HOA newsletter and on the home page of this web site.
Residents may reserve the clubhouse for meetings, parties and other events upon payment of a $100 refundable deposit and agreement to the terms of the clubhouse use agreement. In general, this means not using the clubhouse for commercial purposes, not disturbing other residents, leaving the clubhouse at least as clean as you found it and properly securing it after use. By law, we cannot allow smoking in the clubhouse. Reserving the clubhouse does not convey any rights to deny others their normal rights to use of the pool area.
Swimming Pool
The HOA maintains a swimming pool, located behind the clubhouse, for the use of our owners, residents and their guests. The owner of each unit has a key for the pool area gate and the door to the clubhouse rest rooms. Please read and follow the pool rules that are posted in the pool area. For safety reasons it is especially important to keep glass outside of the pool area.
The pool is typically heated from Memorial Day weekend to shortly after Labor Day, but is professionally maintained throughout the year. Residents that don’t mind the cooler water are welcome to use the pool even when it is not heated.
Unfortunately, ducks like our pool as much as our residents do. Although we don’t want to hurt them, for sanitation reasons we can’t permit ducks to feel welcome around the pool. Please do not feed the ducks or otherwise make them feel welcome here.
Pets
Pets may generally reside in our community as long as they are properly controlled, owners clean up after them, the pets do not disturb others and pet owners follow City animal ordinances. Owners of rental units may impose their own additional restrictions on pets in their leases.
Fire Extinguishers
Although we encourage residents to buy their own fire extinguishers, the HOA also maintains 13 fire extinguishers, usually mounted inside the utility closets where the electric meters are located. Stickers on the doors identify which utility closets contain fire extinguishers. If you use one of these fire extinguishers, please promptly notify the management company so we can get it recharged.
Utilitities and City Services
The rest of this web page explains how to establish and use various utilities and City services. References to specific companies are intended to show the most common vendors of services for our complex, not to endorse any particular vendor.
Please note that the HOA’s architectural control restrictions do not permit the installation of wiring on the exterior of units. New wiring must be run through the interior of units.
Cable TV and Internet Service
Comcast provides cable TV and/or high speed Internet service to our area. Contact them if you wish to subscribe.
Cable TV lines for units on Karmen Ct. and Gazdar Ct. generally enter units through the attic. Contact any member of the board of directors if you need more information about the cable TV wiring for the complex. Beware that cables for other units may also run through your attic.
Electricity
Silicon Valley Power, the City of Santa Clara’s electric utility, provides electricity to our complex at rates that are far cheaper than in neighboring communities.
If you are moving from a nearby community, it is critical that you not ask Pacific Gas and Electric to transfer your service to your new address. They do not control electric service to our complex.
To transfer electric service for your new home from the previous owner’s name into your name, contact Silicon Valley Power at (408) 615-2300. You can have your bill automatically paid from your checking account.
The electric meter and main electricity shutoff for each unit is located in a utility closet near the garage door of each unit. Individual circuit breakers are located in a panel inside each unit.
Natural Gas
With the exception of the clubhouse and 1398 Gazdar Ct. there is no natural gas service in our complex. Please beware of this when purchasing or moving appliances.
Satellite Dishes
Satellite dishes are subject to the HOA’s architectural control restrictions. Residents need prior approval from the HOA before installing one. In general, we expect that any dishes be installed in the least objectionable location that will still permit good reception and that the wiring be done inside the walls, not tacked to the outside. For more information about what is acceptable, please contact any member of the Board of Directors well in advance of a planned installation.
Telephone and DSL Service
Land line telephone service to most units is provided by AT&T. Phone lines enter each unit inside the utility closet that is located near the garage door of each unit and typically run to the attic before running to individual rooms.
Unfortunately our complex is located too far from the telephone company central office to provide acceptable DSL service. Most residents use Comcast cable modem service instead. Refer to the Cable TV and Internet Service section of this page for information on how to set up Comcast service.
Trash and Recycling
The HOA provides dumpsters for residents to use for trash and recycling. Do not sign up for this service individually. Green dumpsters are for trash. White dumpsters are for recyclable materials, typically clean paper, cans and bottles. The City’s recycling contractor has provided a document that details the types of materials that are and are not acceptable to them for recycling. Cardboard contaminated with food residue or grease, such as take-out pizza boxes, should be treated as trash, not recycled. Our recycling contractor cannot recycle Styrofoam.
There are three dumpster areas in the complex; one in front of the clubhouse, one near 1387 Gazdar Ct. and one near 1386 Gazdar Ct. Please try to use the area closest to your home, but if in doubt, please use an area other than the one by 1387. This area tends to fill up fastest.
Note that these dumpsters are shared resources. It is a violation of HOA rules to monopolize them, to fill them beyond the point where the lids can fully close, to leave items or debris on the ground around them, or to place contractor-generated materials such as construction waste in them. Contractors are responsible for removing from the complex any construction or delivery debris they generate.
One of the most common reasons for dumpsters to overflow is when someone moves in or out of the complex. Please plan ahead and dispose of unusual volumes of trash over a period of several weeks.
Residents sometimes ask how much is “too much†trash and what they should do if they need to dispose of more than that amount. The HOA pays for total dumpster capacity, whether used or not. While each unit is theoretically entitled to use 1/40th of the total available dumpster space at any given moment, the amount disposed of varies over time. From the HOA’s point of view, the main concerns are that the dumpsters do not overflow, that they do not contain illegal items such as hazardous waste and that the actions of residents of one unit do not unreasonably impair the rights of the residents of the other units to use reasonable amounts of dumpster space.
For example, if you filled a dumpster 5 minutes after it was emptied, it would likely overflow when other residents each added even a tiny amount of trash and may stay full for as long as 4 days. Your actions would be considered unreasonable and the HOA would take action to protect the rights of the other residents. On the other hand, if you filled most of the remaining space in a dumpster an hour before it was emptied, nobody would likely be unreasonably inconvenienced and it would most likely be OK, even though you briefly used significantly more than your fair share of the available space.
Trash dumpsters are generally emptied on Monday and Thursday mornings. They are usually significantly less full for the Thursday pickups than for the Monday ones. If you have a choice of when to throw out an unusual volume of trash, it would help if you would dispose of it on a Wednesday evening when it is more apparent how much space you can use without infringing on the rights of other residents. Dumpsters are often fuller for the Monday pickups because of the 4-day delay since the previous pickup and because many residents do extra cleanup on weekends.
Recycle dumpsters are generally emptied on Wednesdays. These are less likely than the trash dumpsters to become full, but to allow efficient use of the available space we expect residents to flatten cardboard boxes and to stack boxes and other larger items intelligently. This may sound picky, but these simple actions make a huge difference in real life, especially as more residents get home deliveries of items purchased on the web.
To discourage bugs and rodents, the City requires dumpster lids to be kept fully closed. Please do not overfill the dumpsters and be sure to close the lids.
We have no paid staff to keep the dumpster areas clean. We would greatly appreciate your help in keeping these areas clean and in promptly cleaning up any messes you see. Please appropriately bag messy items, such as shredded paper. That can make a mess when the dumpsters are tipped.
If you have questions about the proper way to dispose of something, please contact the management company or any member of the Board of Directors.
Hazardous waste is not permitted in the dumpsters. If you have hazardous waste, such as fluorescent light bulbs, batteries, engine oil, computer monitors or TVs, please visit www.hhw.org for information on proper disposal. For a list of places that accept used engine oil, please click here. Surplus paint can be dropped off at a location on this list.
An alternative to discarding items is to donate them to charitable organizations or organizations that recycle them.
One spring weekend a year, likely in April or early May, the City sponsors a cleanup weekend where residents can legally dispose of a wide range of trash by leaving it on the sidewalk of the public streets that surround our complex (Burnley Way, Halford Ave. or Lillick Drive, not Karmen Ct. or Gazdar Ct.). Details about this annual event are distributed by the HOA shortly before the event. This is a great opportunity to legally dispose of bulky items such as appliances, mattresses or leaky water heaters, but it is important to carefully follow the published rules for this event. Please consider how wind, rain, etc. may affect items placed on the curb for this event and package them appropriately.
Water and Sewer
The HOA provides water and sewer service as part of your monthly assessment. You do not need to do anything to establish water and sewer service or to transfer it to a subsequent owner or tenant.
Please keep in mind that the HOA pays as much as $4000 a month for water and sewer service. We would greatly appreciate your help in preventing wasted water in your home so we can keep our monthly assessments reasonable.
There is a water shutoff valve (usually a lever) outside each unit, either near the garage door (for Karmen Ct. and Gazdar Ct. units) or near the front door (for Halford Ave. units). In the event of a plumbing emergency, unit owners can use this to quickly turn off the incoming water to their home. Unit owners are responsible for maintenance of this valve and all plumbing on the house side of it.
In the event that this shutoff valve fails to work properly, the next valve upstream requires special tools and interrupts the water supply to half of the complex. Such outages are a major inconvenience to other owners and residents. The HOA reserves the right to charge a significant fee for shutoffs that cause these outages and that could have been avoided by proper maintenance of the shutoff valve for an individual unit.
To reduce the risk of stuck shutoff valves in and around your home, exercise the valves for your unit a few times a year and leave shutoff valves slightly less than fully open. Plumbers also recommend that homeowners can extend the life of their water heaters by flushing them a few times a year to remove sediment that can collect in the tank.
To help reduce the risk of clogs in the sewer lines and related property damage, please follow the recommendations found at this page.
