Author: Chris Shull

The board has voted to require that residents’ vehicles be registered with the HOA. (Homeowners, please make sure your tenants also register their vehicles.)

All residents must have their vehicles registered with the HOA by filling out the form at https://caminodelprado.org/vehicles. This allows the HOA to reduce the need to tow resident’s vehicles, work to prevent non-residents from using up the HOA parking spaces, and other official business.

For example, if we have to address an urgent tree maintenance issue, we want to be able to contact the owners of any cars parked nearby if they need to be moved.

See also Section 10.5 of the CC&Rs for Parking and Vehicle Restrictions.

Ever want to know who’s responsible for patio fence repairs or garage door replacement?

Since 2017 the Board has maintained a “cheat sheet” for repair and maintenance responsibilities throughout the community, based on the Camino del Prado CC&Rs and legal advice. Check it out on the Repairs & Maintenance page.

And please remember:

• Repairs and maintenance must be pre-approved by the Board case-by-case to have their costs covered by the HOA.
• Each homeowner is responsible for any repair, replacement, or maintenance resulting from modifications not included in the original unit.

I’m pleased to share that our painting project has finally completed. Throughout the project I’ve been really happy with how well the community has engaged with the process, from everyone who trimmed back their trees and bushes, to the 33 homeowners participating in our color vote, to the 67 members who pre-selected their door color, and to the 16 people who reported painting issues that needed correction. It’s always my goal as a board member to solicit and share information with the community as much as I can, and I’m so proud of what we accomplished together. 

And here’s some of the best news – and news we so rarely get to share – the painting project has come in significantly under budget! The painting project consisted of 3 major components, each of which was estimated by an independent third party as a part of our reserve study: wood trim repair, wood trim painting, and stucco painting, for a total of $517,325 estimated. Our actual cost was only $290,540, or 44% under budget! (To be completely transparent, this isn’t some master stroke by board – the third party projection was simply overly pessimistic.)

I’m sure you’re wondering – what does this mean for the dues? It’s hard to say exactly, though we can certainly say that dues will be better than if we hadn’t been able to come in so well under budget. With the management and vendor changes that have happened this year there are several factors we need to assess the impact of. We’ve also just commissioned an entirely new reserve study, with the aim of producing a more accurate estimate of upcoming large expenses. Rest assured we’ll be evaluating these very carefully going into our 2025-2026 budgeting session, and all homeowners will have access to all the information in our annual report this summer (or even earlier if you tune in to board meetings).

Looking forward to a great 2025!

To all homeowners, please consider going paperless. Not only is this good for the environment, but it saves the HOA a little bit of money each month.

When you log into your account on the portal, on the left side is a menu: select “My Profile,” then “Profile Settings,” and then go to the “My Login” tab there you can set your general communication preferences and billing communication preferences.

(If you prefer paper communication, that’s perfectly fine – but we want to make sure everyone knows how to go paperless if they want.)