The first thing we recommend that you do is register for an account on the community website! This is the official method of communication for the HOA and it is the most effective way for us to manage homeowner requests and questions. Go to Help.VillagesHOA.org and click the “Need to register?” link to get started. Here you can find past newsletters for the HOA, important documents such as financials, meeting minutes and governing policies for the community.

**Please note that after registering there is a short validation process wherein we ensure you are a homeowner before giving you full access to the community’s records.

If we do not have an email address on file for you, we will send you a paper statement and add a $2 paper and postage reimbursement charge to your monthly invoice. If you would like to be added to the email list, simply register on the community website with the email address you’d like us to send statements to. Our system will pull your email address and begin sending your monthly statements to the email address you provide.

If you would like to opt out of this email service, please post an “Action Item” to the community website letting us know that you’d prefer to receive paper statements.

The $35 per month covers grounds maintenance of the common areas (this includes landscaping and snow removal at the parks and neighborhood walkways), repairs and maintenance costs for the HOA’s facilities equipment and neighborhood parks, future improvements to the parks, and administrative costs such as insurance, accounting, management, and various community events.

Each HOA community has a set of documents and policies that govern the HOA. By purchasing a home in the community, you are legally bound to abide by these documents and the policies they set forth. Part of these documents outlines enforcement policies and guidelines that each lot owner must follow.

The most common policies that we normally see broken are:
1) trailers must be parked behind the front corner of the home AND must be screened by a fence so it is not visible from the street, and
2) unkempt yards (this could be overgrown grass, excessive weeds, or dead lawns).

The overall goal with enforcement is to keep the appearance of the community well maintained which helps maintain high property values and increases saleability.

This is to protect you, the new homeowner. If for some reason there is an outstanding balance on the lot you are purchasing, and it is not paid through closing, you will become responsible for the amount owed after your purchase.

For this reason, it is important that a “Payoff Statement” be requested through www.HomeWiseDocs.com to ensure that the home’s title is clear of any encumbrances before the purchase is final.

To finalize your account setup, you’ll want to register for an account on the community website at Help.VillagesHOA.org. This will allow you to stay up to date with any important community news, updates, view the community calendar, documents, make HOA payments, and much more!

**Please note that after registering there is a short validation process wherein we ensure you are a homeowner before giving you full access to the community’s records.

If your yards do not have any landscaping yet, more than likely you do not have a landscape plan on file and will need to complete one along with a drawn plan that shows where and what type of trees along with any other materials. It is recommended to submit both the front and back yards in one application. You can always amend your plan by submitting Variance Request forms.

A Variance Request form is used when you are amending your plan at any time in the future with changes or additions.

To allow for more time to the new residents, the HOA Board had adopted to match the HOA yard due dates to be the same as the city’s (the HOA documents originally had it as 90-days as the deadline).

When the HOA was created by the original developers (before any residents lived in this neighborhood), they established the rules of the HOA. In the landscaping portion, it was determined that a certain number of trees and shrubs had to be planted. The quantity depended upon the size of the lot, but did not clearly outline where they needed to be installed on the lot.

In attempts to simplify and clarify that portion of the code, the HOA Board has determined that a minimum of 2 trees and 3 shrubs need to be planted in the front yard with the rest of the minimum requirement for the lot size to be fulfilled in the back or side yards.

This minimum quantity is required by the CC&Rs and Master Design Guidelines, however you are allowed and encouraged to plant more than the minimum requirement.

The best way to contact someone from the HOA or the management company is through the community website at Help.VillagesHOA.org. Once you’ve logged in, navigate to the “Action Items” page to create a post outlining your question.

Our management team is most effective when all requests come through the website because this allows us, the HOA, to provide oversight and ensure accountability from ACS. Emails are inefficient and difficult to track. With the Action Item system everything is time/date stamped, followed up on, and more importantly these are visible to our entire management team which allows for the most effective level of collaboration and communication by all.

Once you have been approved as a homeowner, you will have access to the community’s official records which are located under Documents/Homeowner Documents.

**Please note that if you only recently registered for a homeowner account, it could take up to 2 business days to verify that you are a homeowner before gaining access to this section.

Inspections are done at various times of the month depending on the management company’s schedule, holidays, etc.

The most common policies that we normally see broken are:
1) trailers must be parked behind the front corner of the home AND must be screened by a fence so it is not visible from the street, and
2) unkempt yards (this could be overgrown grass, excessive weeds, or dead lawns).

The overall goal with enforcement is to keep the appearance of the community well maintained which helps maintain high property values and increases saleability.

Please follow the instructions contained in the notice and if you have any questions, please feel free to contact the management company.

Currently the City of Saratoga Springs prohibits residents from irrigating their yards during 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., however this restriction is for residents only unless they are establishing new grass or performing maintenance on their system (see Saratoga Springs Website for more details). Other non-residential organizations can request the ability to water during these restricted times due to necessity, if the city approves it.

With sprinkler systems designed to have only a certain number of heads per zone (for optimal water pressure) and due to the shear size and quantities of open space throughout the HOA, it is not possible for the HOA to complete all their watering cycles during the night. Also large open areas require more watering than small residential yards. Due to the number of zones within our HOA, we have been given permission by the City of Saratoga Springs to cycle through all of our watering zones in the order the landscaper best sees fit, regardless of time of day.

It takes about 24-hours to complete one cycle of all the zones throughout the entire HOA. Some areas are watered twice within the same day which may seem like they are on all day, but if you do see the same sprinklers on for over an hour or any other issues, please contact the HOA so that the landscaper can come out to fix it.