Q). F.1 What is next year's HOA Assessment ?
A). Towards November end and Early December, the $$$ value for next year's HOA Assessment is usually posted on the front page/Home page of this website. Prior to this posting, you will also receive notification with the assessment $$$ value on the next year's budget statement, that is proposed to be taken up for voting. This notification through USPS (Postal Service) arrives approximately 2 weeks prior to the last Board of Director's meeting scheduled for the year. This budget meeting happens along with 2 other meetings - Membership meeting and Organizational meeting. All 3 meetings happen back to back. There are different quorum requirements for each of this meeting. If quorum is not achieved for a meeting, then, that meeting is not held. Quorum for Membership meeting of this HOA is 32. Homeowner Agenda is usually taken up in the Budget meeting and the organizational meeting.

Q). F.2 Where can I find the Meeting Agenda ?
A). On the Meetings page of this website.

Q). F.3 What colors can I choose for painting the exterior of my home?
A). The subdivision is on Version 2 of the Paint book. There are 2 ways to get to the paint book - 1) through the Sherwin Williams Website and 2) through the management company website.
The link to the Sherwin Williams Website is available on the Guidelines page of this website - refer point G.2.8
The extract of the Sherwin Williams website is on the management company website.
Login into the management company website ( https://vanguard.cincwebaxis.com/ ) with your ID.
On the Horizontal Menu, go to "About us" -> "Documents"



























Click on Paint Books / Color Schemes, it should show 2 files as shown in the photo clip below

The 2 files has all the information that you need to make an informed decision on your color choices for your painting request. To download the "Painting choices .....web.pdf file", click on the link here.

Q). F.4 How do I pay my HOA Assessment (adjacent question H.4 on How-To page )?
A). HOA Assessment for this subdivision is annual, one time payment, unless you have made an arrangement with the management company. The fee for an installment basis payment is highly personalized and between you and the management company and may involve a fee and may involve other 3rd parties. The Association may or may not be involved in such arrangement and may or may not see the full assessment due at the beginning of the year. The Assessments are due on the first of the year. There is a 1 month grace period. The grace period is meant to account for the various methods and modes in which the payment can be made and may arrive. After Jan 31, your account is overdue if the payment has not been received. The Late fees and the service fees that are tagged on to your account from there on - goes directly to the Management company. After a certain period typically 60 to 90 days, the account will be automatically forwarded by the Management company to the Association attorney for recovery of dues.

The Association has no control once the account becomes overdue. The fees owed to the Management company and the Association attorney are part of the state regulated fee structures and the association cannot waive it, without the association reimbursing those costs to those entities. All homeowners are strongly encouraged to make timely payments and make those payments FULL considering any past balance they may have. Please refer the payment advice sheet from the Management company.

Here is an attempt to list all the various ways to pay the assessment -
1) Make a payment online on the Management company portal - https://vanguard.cincwebaxis.com/
- 1 time payment - either e-check or credit card, Different fees apply,
- Recurring payment - set it up to be annual - but check the $$$ amount every year in the month of November to match the assessment amount for that year.
2) Send a personal check or have your bank send a check through Bill pay. For details Please refer the payment advice sheet from the Management company.

Q). F.5 What is the suggested subject line when corresponding with the management company ?
A). Always design your subject line, the following way -
Sub - Buckingham at Tampa Palms - <your address> - <Subject Matter>
Examples - Buckingham at Tampa Palms - 16186 Brecon Palms Dr. - Violation
- Buckingham at Tampa Palms - 6612 Newport Palms - ACC
- Buckingham at Tampa Palms - 16160 Colchester Palms Dr. - Payment
In the body of your email, please do not forget to write your name and phone number if you want faster service.

For ACC applications and Gate Key access requests, if you are receiving "Request declined" emails or US Postal mails, Please feel free to copy the Board of Directors.

Q). F.6 What are the expectations of a homeowner ?
A). Every homeowner unless they are disabled are expected to be civic minded. Civic minded such as if a streetlight goes out, report the ID of the streetlight to the electric company. If there is a stray plastic or litter or a small palm frond flying around near your home, please pick it up and dispose it. Please be mindful that we do not have people waiting to pick up as soon as something happens, such as trash on the road or a dead Palm flying around. Each homeowner and renter is a volunteer when they agreed to live in a HOA. This expectation is true of all able-bodied residents.

Please take pride in your home and the subdivision.

Q). F.7 When and where does the Association work take place ?
A). Association Work is done by the board of directors, the committee members and the Management Company. Since the Management Company handles several associations and subdivisions, each property manager is assigned about a 1000 homes. The monthly and annual payment to the Management Company is for them to perform a variety of tasks - several of them are backend and hence it is not visible. The tasks that are frontend and owner facing, are a lot less. The backend tasks are where the carrying costs/burden is higher. The front end tasks are where they get a bad rap for being out of touch with the subdivision and the owner. The knee jerk reaction is to change the manager and/or the management company or throw more money at the problem. There just isn't enough money that can be paid to buy a GREAT management company. There just isn't one GREAT management company. Also choosing a management company that bills the highest is not going to guarantee a loveable management company that does not leave a bad taste.

The management company isn't local to get to know the owners. So any management company will rub the owners the wrong way. What makes a great association is the people in the Board of Directors. The work that the directors do, requires sacrifice. There is 100 times more work that happens 7 days a week, than what appears at the Board of Directors meeting. The CAM manager is copied on every single piece of work and communication that happens. So even if they are not conversant with the details, they have the contents. The owners are welcome to be a meaningful part of this communication and work. Just let the directors know if you have those desires. Of course, every perk and entitlement comes with its responsibility. All this work is totally voluntary and not compensated. It is what makes this HOA vastly superior to the other 99% of the HOA's out there.

In this Association, some directors do the most of the heavy lifting. Please thank them for their service.

Q). F.8 Why don't we change the management company ?
A). They are all the same. Each person in the company handles a 1000 owners. It is simply impossible for a human to comprehend, absorb, and provide good service to all those owners. There are so many differences between the owners and a single brush cannot be used. There simply isn't enough mental bandwidth, time bandwidth and the return on time invested to serve them all to their satisfaction.

Now about the transfer of management companies - First of all, transfer takes a huge toll of the Board of Directors, second the company we move to, will provide good service only for a limited amount of time and that will come at the expense of the new company's existing customers. Eventually the new company's older customers will demand time from the new company, which is when we will unquestionably see poor service.

Also the transfer will provide an excuse for the new company and the old company to place a heavy burden and all of the blame for everything unexpected and unforeseen on the board of Directors. The act of Transfer is the relief valve the management companies are waiting for. Besides there are higher fixed monthly costs and unknown variable costs for the shorter term and escalating costs for the longer term. The Act of transferring starts the process of erosion of our fiscal strength.

We rather work wisely with the existing management company.

Q). F.9 What should a homeowner do when they receive a violation notice from the management company ?
A). Routine Inspection of the homes in a HOA by the management company/ Association are a legal requirement per the documents signed and agreed to upon by the homeowner at the time of purchase / inheritance of the home. The legality of the whole aspect is governed by multiple entities - the governing docs created by the developer when the homes were built, the county and city law and then finally Statute 720 and the Department of Business and Professional Regulation of the state government.

The language on these notice of violations are admittedly a little rude. The board has worked multiple times to soften the language on these letters. Changes have happened and sometimes they mysteriously revert back. It has to do with the turnover of personnel who work at the management company and the administrative nature of these things. Without paying too much attention to the tone or grammar of these letters, Please treat these notices as a gentle reminder that something has taken a back seat with respect to the the maintenance of your home. If the occasional inspector noticed the lack of maintenance or failure of something on your home, that failure was probably noticed by many others who live here.

When you receive such a notice, please make a plan to remedy the violation. Plan a date to remedy the violation and update your record on the Vanguard website (https://vanguard.cincwebaxis.com/). If you cannot update electronically, please call the phone number on the letter and speak or leave a voicemail. When leaving a voicemail, please clearly mention the subdivision name, your home address and your name and contact details. If the violation cannot be addressed in full within 60 days of the receipt of the letter, it is highly recommended that you request an extension of time to fix the violation. This request can be made on the violation in your account on the CAM website or through clear directions to a CAM employee that you managed to get in touch with. Please verify in a few days, if your request, made directly (on the website) or indirectly ( through an employee or through voicemail) made its way to the details of your violation.

Not getting in touch with the Community Association Management (CAM) company (Vanguard) and not fixing the violation will only advance the violation through the next stages based on the Rules and Regulations adopted by the Association. If neither (communication with CAM and recording/update) nor remedying the violation, happens, the violation will eventually end up with the Association Attorney. When Association Attorney is involved, there are associated costs for the Association and the Homeowner. When Association Attorney is involved, the board of directors is legally required not to entertain any conversation or empathy with the homeowner. The Law and Industry (HOA) standard Contracts between the Association and the Association Attorney use a model that compensates the Association Attorney when the violation ends up with the Association Attorney for enforcement.

It is more expensive to postpone resolution / action on a violation. Postponing resolution / action adds unnecessary costs to the Association and the homeowner. Adding costs to the Association defeats the objective to keep the Annual HOA assessments low.

Your Board of Directors work very hard to keep the HOA assessments low. Please do your end of the bargain to keep the HOA assessments low. Thanks.

Q). F.10 What is the email address of the various persons named in this website ?
A). If the email address is not openly listed on this website, such as manager's email, the email address is partially hidden and easily readable if you try. The directors and other folks are private homeowners and we do not want internet based screen scrapes/screen captures/crawlers/spiders capture their email and spam them. The private folks do not have the corporate based firewalls/systems to fight internet based attack.

If you are viewing this website in Google Chrome browser, you can also right click on the soft link/their names, and choose "copy email address"

Please do not use email addresses that you may have come across the internet for these folks. The directors and folks will address only those mails that arrive in their designated addresses, which are described above.

Q). F.11 Why designated representative/homeowner must submit ACC applications / perform legal steps, not someone else ? Why is it important not to skip legally required steps ?
A). Management Companies are held liable in lawsuits and pay claims for lax standards. There is a whole ecosystem and law that requires record keeping, bookkeeping, and prescribes strict punishments. The Florida legislature is constantly at work on this.
Others cannot substitute for the homeowner for the following reasons.
1) the completed application with your signature. etc. has to originate from the homeowner account with the management company.
2) All the follow ups need to happen from the homeowner's email address
3) The trail of how the application is received is just as important as the contents of the application itself.
If any homeowner needs handholding, please reach out to a director.