Common Areas & You
- Los Lagos Vistas
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
What is common area, and why should I care?
Living in a condo community means residents must understand common areas. Common areas are shared spaces and amenities within Los Lagos Vistas that are owned collectively by all unit owners. That means owners and tenants can’t just change things on a whim.
The purpose of the HOA’s Architectural Review Board is to ensure desired changes in appearance, landscaping, or other modifications don’t cause operational or aesthetic problems for neighbors or the HOA. Architectural Review goals are to preserve property values, ensure fairness among residents, promote safety and comfort, and ensure the property’s financial stability and sustainability.
The review process ensures desired changes meet legal, aesthetic, and operational requirements. The process is not designed to be punitive but to be supportive of improvements and to benefit the community.
The HOA appreciates residents who want to invest in community improvements. The review process helps prevent problematic projects and avoid added costs, changes or unexpected project removals.
Key issues in this area involve encroachment, aesthetics, and operational impacts.
Key Issues
Encroachment: A problem that has been emerging is common-area encroachment. Residents want to expand their area by absorbing nearby common areas into a patio or landscaping design that cuts off use or access to common areas. This could include wall or fence construction, design integration, or other modification that would reduce common area size or use.
Aesthetics: Everyone has personal tastes and preferences, but in communal situations paint colors, materials, landscaping and other choices can be offensive to others. The HOA has worked to create standards in colors, materials, and design to ensure the community is attractive and well-maintained. Architectural reviews aim to maintain these standards and quality.
Operations: Property modifications that cost more money or time for the HOA to maintain are not in anyone’s interest. The architectural review helps ensure changes are manageable and don’t cause added expense or complexity to homeowners or the HOA.
When to Get a Review
Any modification that involves structure changes, such as patio expansion or walls, must be reviewed and approved. Modifications that might affect quality, color, or design should also be reviewed. Changes inside your unit don’t require an architectural review, but windows and doors should be reviewed for color and quality.
What’s Yours?
Your home is everything inside the walls of your condo, from the slab floor to the ceiling, including all the interior walls and finished surfaces. There are four such units in each building, except the townhomes.
A unit includes the heating & air conditioning unit, appliances, water heaters, and driveways.
What’s Not Yours?
Bearing walls, columns, vertical supports, roofs, cement slab subfloors, foundations, exterior pipes, ducts, flues, conduit, wires and any utility installations (but you own the outlets in your interior walls).
The patios are a common area but they’re designated for exclusive use of the unit homeowner.
What’s the HOA’s?
The HOA is responsible for the common area, that is, everything that’s not an individual home as described above and in the CC&Rs. However, each owner has a fractional interest in the entire complex, set forth at 1/231th share.
Everything other than individual units in Los Lagos Vistas is managed by the HOA, including the land, buildings, walls, columns, floors, roofs, slabs, recreation facilities and equipment. Owners can’t partition or divide com
mon areas or infringe on HOA rights relative to common area operation and management.
Your monthly and annual assessments enable the HOA to fulfill its duties of managing, maintaining, and operating the complex.
