Condo Association Management Blog

Two mistakes were made here assuming that your Board of Directors has contracted with a landscaping company to maintain the property. First mistake: Normally a management company is not authorized to approve a unit owner of a condo HOA to unitaerally undertake landscaping activities. That is the responsibility of landscaping company that the Board of Directors has contracted with to provide those services. 
 
 
 
The second mistake was for you to undertake the maintenance of a "common area", which is the responsibility of the HOA collectively. 
 
 
 
Suggestion: Your interest in improving the landscaping of your association be better served by your lobbying the board, especially if you can get the support of a significant number of other unit owners. 
 
 
 
As it is, you are just throwing your money away, and yuu have no recourse to recover those costs.

Why doesn't the board take better care of the lawn and gardens? Maybe like ours they cannot afford to. There are too many poeple not paying their dues. Money only goes so far.

Find a time when you can speak to the landscaping company directly. It may just be a misunderstanding, or rather, lack of knowledge about the situation with your lawn in particular.

Interesting feedback you have gotten. However, the landscaping service provider has contracted with the Association, not with you. 
 
Your first step should be to review your documents. Your documents should be able to tell you what you can and can't do. 
 
The second step is to put in writing your issues and concerns and send it to the board of directors via the management company. Whenever you communicate, you should try to do so in writing and ask for a written response. This prevents the "he said/she said" arguments.  
 
Third, you should always know what you buy. You bought a condominium. Review the documents and meet with the assigned manager and/or the board if you have questions on what you can or can't do.  
 
You obviously care about landscaping. You may want to consider lending your opinions and experience to the community by either serving or heading on a landscaping committee.

One of the best statement made by those responding was made by Joe, who said: "Third, you should always kniow what you buy. You bought a condominium." 
 
 
 
Owners of condos do not own the property their unit sits on. You do not have the authority to do anything with the common areas (property your unit sits on) without the prior approval of the BOD. The manager was remiss in telling you that you could do anything you wanted to as long as you discussed it with a nursery. Apparently they didn't relay this to the landscaper! My advise to you is to stop trying to maintain the area around your unit; let the board's contracted landscaper do their job. If they don't maintain the area properly then take it up with the board. As others have said, sending a letter is much better than verbal communication. If you want some flowers perhaps you can put some in a planter and set it on your front porch or stoop.

 
 
Not all condominiums have the  same rules about maintenance. Some don't maintain all of the property. I rented a townhouse  condo when I first moved to California. It had a back yard, which was the responsibility of the owner (or renter in my case) to maintain. The fronts of the town houses and other common areas were maintained by a landscaping company.  Maybe the person who wrote the original question can work it out with the management company if he wants to maintain his own area without the gardener but he should get it in writing and talk to the gardener about not doing his area. The gardener may need to be reminded. Very often the gardening company uses different employees and they'll all have to be reminded on a regular basis. 
 
Donna A. said too many people are not paying their dues and maybe that's the reason for poor maintenance.   There is no excuse for this. Nobody should get away with not paying their dues. The condo board can foreclose on the condo if dues are not paid for a certain length of time,  and they should charge late fees every month the owner is in arrears. The HOA should not cut services because some people aren't paying dues. They need to enforce the payment of dues and always maintain the common areas.