UPDATED January 13th

At the Board Meeting on Monday January 9th, a $500 fine was passed related to the discovery of another unit with running water, due to a faulty faucet.

The unit was vacant, and the Owner had not visited or inspected for an extended period of time. The circumstances were a bit different than some past events, and the Board did not agree to apply the full $1000 fine that resulted in other cases. However, it was considered serious enough for the agreed fine of $500.

Owners and residents should be proactive and either address or report any such maintenance problems as soon as possible. Owners whose units are vacant or occupied by renters should not be taking anything for granted. They should inspect regularly, and even encourage their residents to communicate any problems without delay. Report any such problems to us at parktowercondo-mgmt@habitat.com.

ORIGINAL POSTS 2021:

April 16th

At the Monday April 12th Board of Directors Meeting, the PTCA Board passed a fine of $1000 for negligence and wasteful water usage, related to the following matter originally posted on March 25th.

Not only that, just last week, a second unit was found with similar conditions, and a Notice Of Violation has been issued in that matter as well.

ORIGINAL POST March 25th

Just this week, our team was called to a unit after learning running water was discovered unattended in a bathroom sink and bathtub. The fixtures appear to be original and the cartridges in the faucets were found to have failed. The water apparently could not be turned off, and neither the Owner nor the occupant had reported the problem who knows for how long.

Water was running and running and running. And in the sink, it was the hot water. The loss is impossible to quantify because we were not measuring the water obviously, just trying to get it to stop. But also, who knows how long these conditions were present. Our staff does estimate the sink alone was probably losing more than 2 gallons per minute.

The PTCA Rules and Declaration require Owners and Residents to maintain the Units and fixtures therein in a good state of repair, and this is a good example of why. This impacts all Owners and Residents. It is a waste of water, which is the most expensive utility right now if you look at the budget, and it is a waste of energy with the hot water running and running in the sink. Therefore, this type of negligence impacts everyone throught the cost of assessments and rent!

The lesson? It is critical, if you have faulty fixtures, to make sure you report them to our staff immediately. Most of the work related to repairs for situations such as this, IS FREE.

To answer an obvious question – YES! We are taking action. Our team repaired the condition, though the fixtures may need to be replaced. And that is something the Owner needs to do. However, the Condo Association has also issued a “Notice Of Violation” and the matter will be considered for enforcement action by the Association’s Rules Commission and Board of Directors.

Water is presently the costliest utility on an annualized basis. The combination of the volume being used as well as the rates and tax increases over the past decade, has moved it in front of both electricity and gas. The cost of utilities impacts everyone, and of course the community. Owners and ultimately renters will pay more to compensate for the increases. Therefore Owners and residents complicit in wasted water and energy as we found above, are making it that much worse.

Learn more about situations such as this and what you can do to help, in the following past post we drafted following the passage of this years PTCA budget:

RECORD DROP IN WATER USE SEEMS STEADY