Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Westmoreland doorbells costs about $7k/year

The Westmoreland Condo Association has mailed out the proposed condo budget to be adopted at the annual meeting on April 26 at 7pm.  For a one-bedroom condo, Westmoreland condo fees are about $252 per month.  The budget describes where condo fees and other income (mainly laundry income) goes.

Some interesting budget facts:
  • Laundry machine income generates $17,000 per year.  Help your condo association finances by doing your laundry more often!
  • Water and sewage costs $41,000 per year, which is almost three times as much as electricity costs ($14,400 per year).   Perhaps the cost for water includes the costs of heating water for the hot water.
  • Renegotiation of our refuse collection contract has lowered our annual cost from $30,252 to $16,104.  That was some excellent bargaining.
  • Snow removal is budgeted at $3,000.  This past snowy winter costs us ten times that much.
  • Under administrative expenses is a subcategory administrative expenses, $2,484.  Not clear what that is.
  • Our phone-entry system is budgeted at $6,840 per year.  At the July 2008 condo board meeting (see note 4), phone-entry system costs were described as $20/month/building.  That works out to $2,400 per year for the whole complex.  Door calls to mobile phones cost extra, but it's hard to see how they would cost that much extra.  In any case, we've got a very expense doorbell system.  Maybe someone can come up with an idea for a cheaper doorbell system. 

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