The HOA pays for termite treatment!

Please remember, the HOA will pay for most termite control! We only ask that you first get a professional inspection, which most pest control companies will do for free. Three options are:
Bay Area Termite: bayareatermite.com / (408) 337-1694
Planet Orange: planetorange.com / (888) 979-6897
Terminix: terminix.com / (877) 837-6464
Once you have a report please send it to help@caminodelprado.org for review. (Please do not schedule any treatment before your report has been reviewed.)

If you do find termites or other pests, the Board encourages you to let your neighbors know as well. It is best for them to get inspected too.

Register leases now!

In accordance with the CC&Rs, owners of rental units must provide the HOA with a copy of the lease/rental agreement they have
made with their tenants within 14 days of entering into a lease.

While requirement this has been on the books since at least 2002, the HOA has not been very diligent in enforcing this requirement. However, we have finally set up a simple online form for registering leases: https://caminodelprado.org/unit-leases. Responses to this form are available only to the Board and our management company. As a one-time grace period, no fines will be issued to homeowners who complete this form by March 15th, 2025 for any existing lease.

Here are additional rules regarding rental and leased units:

  1. Owners of rental units shall provide the HOA with a copy of the lease/rental agreement they have made with their tenants by filling out a registration form within 14 days of entering into a lease: https://caminodelprado.org/unit-leases. All Tenants must also register their vehicle(s) with the HOA: https://caminodelprado.org/vehicles;
  2. Owners of rental units shall provide all tenants with a copy of the Rules and Regulations, CC&Rs, and Bylaws for the HOA prior to tenants moving into the owner’s unit;
  3. Screening of potential tenants shall be the sole responsibility of the Owner of the unit. Owners are responsible for tenants who do not comply with the Rules and Regulations, CC&Rs, and Bylaws;
  4. Owners of rental units shall inform tenants that a) the City of Sunnyvale has made it illegal to smoke within the public and private areas of an HOA and b) that tenants are living within 1000 feet of a school;
  5. All tenants shall be subject to the Fair Housing Laws and occupancy laws of the state of California 
  6. The HOA shall not allow tenant subleasing provisions in any lease or rental agreements.  The Owners of rental units agree to not allow tenants to sublet their units;
  7. No lease shall be for an initial term of less than 180 days. [Please note that this requirement has been in the CC&Rs since at least 2002.]

These rules apply when a person is permitted to occupy the unit for compensation of any kind while the owner is not in residence. 

See the community rules, and Sections 4.02 and 10.01(b) of the CC&Rs for additional information.

 

Register your vehicle now!

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.

Repairs & Maintenance “Cheat Sheet”

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.

Painting project complete!

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!



Painting Issues – last call!

We need you! Everyone, painting is now complete and the painters have indicated that they have addressed all previously reported issues. Inevitably, a few things will still not quite be correct. You have until Sunday Dec 8th to report issues for the painters to fix.

If you previously reported an issue, we need you to verify that it is addressed. If your issue was not addressed, please help us by re-reporting it in the form.

https://forms.gle/2mdtcNtgHRNLZXxc9

Fireplace inspection and dryer duct cleaning results

Thank you all for coordinating with us and having your fireplaces inspected and dryer ducts cleaned. Almost every unit passed inspection! Units which passed inspection can be found listed here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Jey9WWs2qb2d_sPcePV4V8B587Ji6BayT_jlO027l00/edit?usp=sharing
(We’ve also separately reached out to units which did not pass.) Please also note that the clubhouse fireplace should not be used at this time.
I am so happy that we have finally made real headway on this longstanding concern, just in time for the weather to start getting colder! 😁
If you have any feedback pertaining to the fireplace inspection or dryer duct cleaning, please let us know at help@caminodelprado.org.

How to Go Paperless

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.)

Paint Vote Winner

The voting has concluded and Color Scheme B has won! (To help refresh people’s memories I’ve attached below a photo I took, but note that this is not properly color calibrated at all.)

Thank you everyone who took the time to review the mockups and vote – we had 33 members participate. We really appreciate everyone ranking their preferences. For those who might be curious Ranked Choice Voting is also known as “Instant Runoff Voting”. It’s a way of running “primary” elections and the “final” election in a single go. Most elections boil down to 2 real candidates because that way you don’t “waste” your vote (e.g. voting for an independent for President – we know an independent won’t win). By gathering people’s ranked preferences, we instantly know the following:

  1. Color scheme E is people’s least favorite option overall, so we can eliminate it (moving those votes to their second choice).
  2. Of A, B, C, and D: A would be people’s least favorite option, so we can eliminate it too.
  3. Of B, C, and D: C would be people’s least favorite option, so we can also eliminate it.
  4. Then, between B and D: B wins. We know we could re-run the vote again, with just B vs D, and B would win.

A good video explainer of Ranked Choice Voting is here: https://youtu.be/gq7N2hmX9FI

And the full results for our color vote are here: https://www.rcv123.org/results/5SfPZs6GcGFUCE5mWFPDS7/ff8juhBbA2ETyzfUAtWWnG?_secure=xwxIoedJlD

As next steps the board will be selecting a matching color for the front gates, and updated door color options for each unit to choose from. Stay tuned!