Amberly Community Association Inc

What Amberly Community Association Inc's governing documents say

Amberly Community Association, Inc. governs the Lexington Park, Arlington Park and Washington Square neighborhoods inside Amberly, a master-planned community in Cary, North Carolina. Its declaration was recorded in Wake County on 30 August 2005 by the developer, KB Home Raleigh-Durham LLC, and covers both single-family lots and townhomes. The association sits beneath a master association — Amberly Master Property Owners Association — whose declaration controls wherever the two disagree, so owners here are subject to two sets of covenants and pay a master assessment as a line item in this association's budget. Day-to-day, the documents are typical of a 2000s North Carolina planned community: broad architectural review over anything visible from outside, an assessment set annually by the board rather than fixed in the covenants, and enforcement that runs from a noticed hearing through fines, self-help and, ultimately, foreclosure of an assessment lien.

• What you pay: There is no dollar amount in the covenants. The board writes an annual budget, and the assessment it contains takes effect automatically unless 75% of the entire membership votes it down at a ratification meeting — a high bar, so in practice the board sets the dues. It is billed equally across similar units, normally once a year. A special assessment is different: it needs two-thirds of the total association vote plus the developer's consent, except for repairs after an insured disaster, which the board can assess with no vote at all. Buyers of a townhome pay a one-off $250 working-capital fee at their first closing.
• If you fall behind: A late payment costs the greater of $10 or 10%, plus interest the board sets up to 18% a year. After 30 days the board can accelerate the whole year's assessment and suspend your vote and your use of the common areas; after 60 days it can sue or foreclose on the lien against your home in the same way as a power-of-sale mortgage. The debt follows you personally as well as the property, and you cannot escape it by not using the amenities.
• Changing anything outside: Practically every exterior change needs written approval first — building, additions, repainting a different color, adding impervious surface, even planting or removing landscaping. A three-member Architectural Control Committee decides, and it may refuse on purely aesthetic grounds. The one protection for owners is a clock: if the committee does not answer complete plans within 30 days, approval is automatic. An approval lapses if you have not started within 12 months. Anything you build without approval can be removed at your expense. Note that the master association's approval may be needed on top of this one.
• Fences, solar and the specific rules: Fences need approval and chain-link and barbed wire can never be approved; once you fence part of your yard, its upkeep becomes yours rather than the association's, with no reduction in dues. Solar panels are allowed only if they read as an integral, harmonious part of the roof design, which leaves the committee wide discretion. Also written into the covenants: no window air conditioners, no exterior clotheslines, no above-ground pools, no artificial plants, window coverings must look white or neutral from the street, and removing a tree over four inches thick needs approval. Satellite dishes of one meter or less are exempt, and should go on the rear of the house where reception allows.
• Pets, parking and renting: Dogs, cats and ordinary household pets are fine in reasonable numbers the board decides; livestock, poultry and commercial breeding are not, and an outdoor pen needs approval. Cars belong in the garage, with the driveway only for the overflow beyond your garage spaces, and garage doors are meant to stay shut. Commercial vehicles — anything with a logo, ladder rack or visible work gear — cannot be visibly parked at all. Boats, RVs, campers and trailers left out more than 24 hours can be removed, as can an unlicensed or broken-down car left more than five days. Renting is allowed, but for at least six months at a time, and your tenant must be given the rules and be bound by them.
• How decisions get made: One vote per unit. Only 10% of the votes need to show up, in person or by proxy, to make a members' meeting valid — and if even that fails, the next meeting needs half as many. Proxies are expressly allowed: any written, dated appointment filed with whoever chairs the meeting before it starts, revocable at any time and good for eleven months. Members can also act by written ballot with no meeting. The board is three or five directors serving staggered two-year terms, each neighborhood electing at least one, and members can remove a director with or without cause by majority vote. Changing the declaration takes 67% of all votes; the covenants themselves run indefinitely unless 80% of owners end them.
• Enforcement and your right to be heard: Before any fine, the association must mail notice naming the violation, the amount, an effective date at least 15 days out, and your right to demand a hearing within 10 days — and no fine bites until five days after that hearing. Unapproved signs are the harsh exception: 24 hours' notice and $150 a day. Beyond fines, the association can enter your lot after ten days' notice to fix a violation itself and bill you, tow vehicles, record a public notice of violation against your property, or sue for an injunction and its attorneys' fees. The association itself, though, cannot start most lawsuits without 75% of the membership behind it.
• Who maintains what: The association looks after common property, entry features, open space, walking paths, stormwater ponds and community landscaping; owners of detached homes look after everything on their own lot, down to mowing, weeding and repainting. Townhomes are the exception: there the association also maintains roofs, gutters, exterior walls, garage-door faces, driveways and walkways, while decks, patios, HVAC units, doors, windows, foundations and single-unit pipes stay with the owner. Every owner must insure their own home for full replacement cost — the association's policy does not cover it — and repair damage within 75 days.
• Ponds, paths and the shared spaces: The lakes and ponds are drainage and scenery, not recreation: fishing, boating, swimming and skating all need the board's written consent, and owners have no water rights. The pedestrian paths are for walking only — no bikes, skateboards, scooters or go-carts unless the board says otherwise — though that does not apply to the ordinary sidewalks along the streets, and never to a wheelchair or mobility device.

Plain-language summary generated from the governing documents on file for this community. It may be incomplete and is not legal advice — read the full documents below or consult the official recorded versions.