Thatchmont Condominium

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This page describes the role of the trustees at Thatchmont and contains some information that may be useful to unit owners serving as a trustee.

Overview

Thatchmont Condominium is organized as a legal entity known as a Trust, which owns the common area spaces of the condo complex and controls the accumulation and spending of money associated with the upkeep and cleaning of these common areas.

The Trust has a Board of Trustees that are responsible for high-level decision making and that oversee longer-term planning for the condominium trust.

Why be a Trustee?

In a busy world, it is often hard to find trustees willing and able to work diligently for the condo. However, a strong Board is critical to the condo's operation and to the cost effective and timely maintenance of our buildings and grounds. Past experience has shown us just how critical this is.

Here are the main benefits of being a trustee:

Solve problems or help make improvements you would like to see
Save yourself from unnecessary condo fee increases (a very real threat)
Meet your neighbors
See how others have made use of the same space you own (this can be very interesting)
Share snacks and drinks at meetings

Make up for the Board

At any given time there are seven trustees, one from each building and one additional "trustee at large" selected from among the buildings. Each trustee is elected at the annual meeting (usually in November) and serves for two years, with up to two consecutive terms. The terms are staggered so that at most four trustees come up for re-election each year. This helps to preserve continuity in management of the condominium.

Note: The bylaws actually allow for as few as three trustees and do not enforce term limits, but generally trustees should step down after four years unless no replacement can be found.

Some of the trustees hold offices, including Chairman, Treasurer, and Secretary:

The Chairman presides over the meetings and is responsible for drawing up the agenda before each meeting and making sure that the agenda is distributed to unit owners or posted in hallways at least a week before each meeting (posting may be delegated to the management company or another trustee).
The Treasurer reviews and presents the financial statement that is mailed by the management company before each meeting. The most important aspect of this role is to chart the condo's progress on its longer-term financial goals, and to remind other trustees when their planning is impacting this goal. Taking a proactive role to money management is the best way to make sure the condo is using its resources wisely. It also helps to maximize the long-term value of your property.
The Secretary records the business of the meeting and writes up the meeting minutes that are subsequently distributed to all unit owners. The minutes act as the formal record of the meetings, so should contain a detailed and accurate representation of all business that took place at the meeting. Minutes are currently also being posted here on this website.

These officers are chosen by the trustees themselves, the first time they meet after they are elected.

Trustee Meetings

The trustees meet every month or two in one of the trustees' units, on a rotating basis. Meetings are generally about two hours in length, including some time for socializing. The representative from the condo management company also attends these meetings.

All meetings start with a time that is available for unit owners to bring their concerns or questions to the trustees.

The rest of the meetings is according to the bylaws also open for all unit owners to attend, although there are rare exceptions to this rule, for example if the trustees need to discuss a lawsuit against the Trust or other sensitive issues that need to be held private.

At each meeting, the Chairman is responsible for facilitating discussion and making sure that the meeting stays on topic according to the agenda that he or she prepared before the meeting. Most agendas contain the following sections:

Unit owners' time
New business / new projects
Status/update on old business and projects
Review of financial statement
Open discussion / social hour

Current hot topics such as "Landscaping Design", "Parking Lot Repaving", or "Water Savings Plan" can generally be added as sub-topics within the above framework. Since the agenda is posted for unit owners to see, adding the most important items to be discussed is useful in helping them decide whether or not they wish to attend the meeting.

Powers of the Trustees

The condominium's bylaws give the trustees relatively broad powers to run the condo. This includes ability to raise and spend money; obtain loans; maintain, add to, or alter common area space; rent out apartments, parking spaces, and other property of the Trust; and so forth.

Trustees also have the power to fine unit owners that are violating condo bylaws (up to $100/day in 2005 dollars, adjusted for inflation) and they may force entry to a unit in order to effect repairs if a unit owner is either unavailable or unwilling to repair a problem that is affecting common area or other unit owners.

However, any major changes to the condominium that would either result in reduction of existing services to unit owners, that would result in substantial fee increases, or that would cause other substantial changes to the services or quality of life of unit owners does require a vote by all unit owners before they can be authorized by the trustees.

Trustees must also be sensitive to the potential for conflict of interest that might arise from spending condo resources in ways that might benefit only a subset of unit owners (such as themselves).

As long as trustees are acting in good faith and not violating any laws, they cannot be prosecuted as individuals for actions they took as trustees. If a lawsuit is brought against any of the trustees, any settlement or legal fees payable as part of the lawsuit is paid by the Trust and not by the individual.

Role of the Management Company

The Trustees' role is one of advising and providing oversight, and only seldom do trustees actually take care of projects themselves.

Most condo business is actually carried out by the condo's management company, which is authorized by the trustees to spend specific monies in the completion of specific projects, and who manage the contracting of day to day cleaning and routine services required by the condo.

The management company also keeps all records for the condominium, collects unit owner fees, manages condo bank accounts, pays bills and taxes, manages rental of our apartments and spare parking spaces, obtains insurance, ensures that routine maintenance tasks occur as needed, and so forth.

Except in emergencies, the management company cannot make its own decisions about which maintenance projects should be pursued, how much money to allocate to them, or how to perform them. These are the things that the trustees must decide on and authorize.

In practice some projects may be undertaken by enterprising trustees or unit owners, and are not really appropriate for assignment to the management company. Examples of these include organizing the annual picnic, participating in a landscaping redesign process, researching options for complex projects such as redesign of the parking lot, dealing with neighborhood issues such as noise or trash on Egmont Street, running the website, or reworking the unit owners' handbook.

Best Practices

These are some tips based on past experience:

Let the management company handle conflicts -- When the trustees need to confront a unit owner, fine a unit owner, or engage in otherwise unpleasant enforcement of the condo rules, this should be delegated to the condo management company. There are two reasons for this: (1) trustees should be neighbors first and trustees second (although this doesn't absolve them of obligation to enforce rules!), and (2) if litigation results from a problem, it is clearer that the trustees were acting on the part of the trust and not as individuals.
Be good natured -- As a trustee, you may be subjected to the frustration owners feel when things go wrong. Be good natured about this and comiserate with them. The Trustee / Management Company system is an imperfect one that often benefits from friendly reminders, and suffers if owners get into conflicts with trustees or each other. If you feel someone is being particularly rude or aggressive, it may be appropriate to remind them that you are a volunteer and/or refer them to the management company as the most appropriate contact for actually getting things done (which is after all their role!).
Follow-up Follow-up Follow-up -- Trustees are busy volunteers. The management company is a business that runs many other condos. Meetings can be long with many details covered. All of these are reasons for careful record keeping and follow-up to make sure that projects that are authorized are also completed. This can be done using the minutes of the meetings, or it can be done by keeping a seperate project list that is reviewed periodically.
Be fiscally conservative -- It's easy to spend money, especially if only 1/37 of it is yours. But trustees need to be very careful about how they spend the condo's resources. With huge projects like the parking lot looming in our future, it is critical to build and preserve the reserves and to engage in careful planning rather than compulsive spending. The alternative is huge special assessments that may come at a time when you can least afford them. Also, lack of reserves, a record of previous special assessments, and the existence of pending large and expensive maintenance projects all substantially lower the value of your condo.
Plan ahead -- For much of its history, Thatchmont has reacted from year to year rather than planning ahead. This is one of the reasons our parking lot is in the state that it is in, and it explains how in one year our reserves plummeted unexpectedly from $130K to zero. With planning and a bit of discipline, we can substantially improve our facilities and reduce financial uncertainty. Use this website or similar records to build and maintain a five-year project and financial plan, and communicate this plan to future trustees (who will further edit and maintain it). See for example the five year plan spreadsheet (MS Excel format).
Take Action -- Don't expect the management company to do literally everything that is needed to run the condo. They are often a very good resource of information and can help make suggestions for improvements and projects that are planned by the trustees, but they cannot replace direct initiative on the part of motivated unit owners or trustees looking for a better solution to a problem. Good examples include researching options for complex or unusual projects (like our recent change to bonsai style pruning of the yews on Thatcher St or the low-cost irrigation system used on Egmont St), updating and maintaining the condo unit owners guide and materials like this website, or planning the annual picnic. These are all things that won't happen unless you make them happen.

Perrenial Problems and Solutions (or Lack Thereof)

There are some issues that come up over and over again. Trustees should be aware of these:

Too Much / Too Little Heat -- Our units do not have individual thermostats as you would have in a modern building. This is the result of the fact that there is only one large boiler per block of three buildings, and not one heater per unit. In this system, it is impossible to control heat on a unit-wide basis using a thermostat, and there is no way to add thermostats without totally changing the heating system found in these buildings (at huge expense).
Instead, the system works by monitoring outside temperature and the temperature of steam pipes at key locations. This is used to get the heater to run enough to service all the units on each block (there is one heater per block of three buildings) with enough steam to heat the unit. Within-unit heat levels are then controlled by the adjustable bleed valves on the radiators. See this guide for more information on how to make radiators work properly.
Noisy Neighbors -- We have at times had complaints among neighbors about noise levels during sleeping hours. If you know do not know the person(s) involved or feel uncomfortable confronting them, please contact the Brookline police, who have specifically encouraged us on several occasions to call them with noise complaints. See the contact information.
Ugly Dumpster -- The dumpster is unsightly and unit owners sometimes do not place their trash properly inside the dumpster, fill the dumpster with large uncollapsed boxes or other materials, or place large items outside the dumpster where they will not be collected by the trash pickup service. This is sometimes also sometimes aggravated by use of the dumpster by contractors working in the area, or even contractors that aren't working here at all but know about our dumpster as a convenient place to leave trash without being challenged.
The dumpster is currently being moved to the top of the lot during the summers, which has reduced misuse of the dumpster. Unfortunately, it must be moved back to the bottom of the lot each winter, since the upper lot is sometimes needed for snow storage.

The alternative of using smaller trash recepticles behind each building has already been tried. It resulted in trash all over the complex rather than in just one location and led to an infestation of rats. Curbside removal of trash is only available from the town at exorbitant rates and is subject to the same potential for spreading trash and rodent infestation we saw with smaller recepticles in the past.

We have already posted signs that list acceptible types of trash (no hazardous waste, collapse large boxes, etc) on the dumpster and these are often ignored by unit owners. The best solution to this is to talk to people when you see them violating the posted rules and ask them nicely to please dispose of their trash properly. Most unit owners will get the message and will bow to gentle peer pressure. Those that do not can be fined by the trustees, and may be subject to larger fines for illegal dumping (e.g., for leaving a fridge or other appliance that contains toxic waste).

All unit owners have the right to confront contractors dumping renovation debris and similar trash in the dumpster, and no unit owners have the right to dump or to authorize the dumping of such materials in the dumpster. All contractors must remove debris as part of their contract with unit owners. Failure to do so can also result fines up to $10,000 and additional fees to recoup extra costs charged to the condominium by the trash removal company.
Wasted Water -- Water prices are very high locally due to the harbor cleanup -- visit the islands for a return on your investment! At home, it is particularly important to avoid running toilets, dripping or running faucets, and continuing use of old-style toilets. A running toilet costs about $4000/yr, dripping faucet about $500-1,000/yr, a dribbling or running faucet about $1,000-2,000/yr, and old-style toilets about $1,000/yr.
The best solution to this problem is to encourage unit owners to repair bad plumbing. Flushometer toilets can be fitted with 1.5 or 3.0 gallon flush regulators for very little money, and most other dripping or running faucet/toilet problems are also quite cheap to fix. The management company can recommend plumbers on request.

Trying to get people to waste less water, e.g. by not running water while shaving, is not only intrusive but also nowhere near as effective; it takes a heck of a long shower to waste anywhere near as much water as is used by a single dripping faucet.
Selling the Rental Apartments -- Thatchmont has two rental apartments owned by the Trust, that are rented out for extra income. Unit owners often suggest selling these units for today's high prices and using the proceeds to build the reserves, pay for expensive projects, etc. This is a bad idea because the income generated by these apartments would be lost, the money would most likely be spent within a few years at most, and fees would have to go up by about $100/month per unit. By running a number of scenarios in the five year planning spreadsheet (MS Excel format) it becomes quite clear that the best long-term fiscal choice is to retain and continue renting these apartments indefinately.
Landscaping -- There has been some strife and disagreement about what should be done with the landscaped areas in front of our buildings. Issues have included volunteerism vs. no volunteerism, spending lots and lots of money or being happy with what we have, what is and is not aesthetically pleasing, whether or not to "waste" water on plants, and much more. Often disagreement in these areas has led to paralysis resulting in failure to perform any maintenance, or payment of huge sums of money to landscapers for a "cleanup" that has little or no lasting value (important lesson: do not assume landscapers know what they are doing; they can rake and mulch but many lack even a basic understanding of gardening and plants).
To make things simpler, the two sides (Egmont and Thatcher) are now making landscaping decisions independently. Currently, volunteers are working on some aspects of maintenance and design over the longer term, but professionals are used for larger jobs such as raking out leaves in the late fall or early spring and mulching when that is desired.

In making landscaping decisions, trustees should be sure to consult the people that have been involved in the landscaping for many years, as this helps to avoid remaking previous mistakes and/or causing damage to the plantings we do have (there are perenials that may not be evident at all times of years). For this reason, most landscaping decisions have been made by unit owners interested in joining a landscaping committee, within the scope of the budget, and not by the trustees themselves.

See also the Project List, which includes a listing of routine landscaping tasks according to time of year.
Superintendent -- Thatchmont used to have a live-in superintendent. Alas, for a condo the size of ours this is no longer a cost effective option. Using a commercial cleaning service and contractors for small repairs costs us about half of the previous cost for hiring a superintendent.

Other Useful Info

Property Line -- This is only partially researched from the "as built" plot plan. Thatchmont has a 12 1/2 foot boundary on the sides of our buildings for a passageway (both east and west ends of the buildings). The Amory St condos similarly have a 12 1/2 foot passageway shown next to ours. This makes the passageway 25 feet wide which must be kept clear at all times. We may grant permission to park on a portion of the passageway while retaining our right to revoke this permission.
On the St. Paul (west) side, there is a parking space on the neighbor's property that is accessed via our driveway. We have agreed to allow them to park there and retain the right to revoke this permission
Parking Lot -- There are 54 parking spaces in our parking lot (numbered from 0 to 53). 37 of these (one per unit) are allocated as deeded spaces (units don't get a specific space, only the right to having one for free). The remaining 17 spaces are rented to unit owners for $75/month and at higher prices, according to the market, to outsiders. Deeded spaces are all spaces that have room for a tandem parked car behind them (although this is for guest and temporary use only, due to snow removal and other considerations). For rented units, owners always take precedence over outsiders, and all such spaces are rented on month to month leases so they can be reallocated if necessary to an owner. Unit owners have the right to rent their own deeded space, if they don't use it, at any rate if they wish. However, renting the tandem area of a space, temporarily or otherwise, is not allowed.
Storage Bins -- There are a total of 57 storage bins in the basements (7 at 14 Egmont, 11 at 20 Egmont, 9 at 26 Egmont, 8 at 15 Thatcher, 13 at 19 Thatcher, 9 at 25 Thatcher). 37 of these (one per unit) are allocated as deeded bins (units don't get a specific bin, only the right to having one for free). The remaining 20 are rented at $20/month to unit owners. The management company has to keep track of who is using which bins in order to make sure that the trust is getting paid for the rental bins.