This handbook is offered to familiarize you with the Declaration of Covenants and Bylaws for Walden Townes that the Board of Directors is bound by and charged with enforcing. It is offered as a user-friendly guide to highlight key areas in language as free of legalese as possible. All of you received copies of both these documents when you bought your homes. We have posted them here so that you can refer to them as necessary to verify that the material in this handbook is wholly consistent with and reflective of those documents.

Who are we?

Walden Townes is filled with people of all ages, drawn from all over the world. Some come here to launch careers, others to start families, others to retire. All desire a high quality of living for whatever their stage of life, and many seek to achieve it by living in a safe, clean, close-knit community where people know and look after each other. The Walden Townes Homeowners Association exists to assist in that effort, through cooperation when possible, and when necessary by regulations designed to put first the wellbeing of the community as a whole.

What is the history of the association?

The Walden Townes Homeowners Association is the legal entity formed in November 1996 for the purpose of enhancing and protecting the value, desirability and attractiveness of all properties. All property owners, by virtue of owning property, are members.

Walden Townes now consists of 112 units built over two phases in the intervening years. Phase One, which was built in the late 1990s, consists of 46 units in nine buildings.  It is distinguishable from Phase Two units by their white-brick exteriors with green shutters and doors. Common areas and front lawns in Phase One are irrigated through city water service paid for the association.

Phase Two consists of 66 units in 16 buildings. These units feature several different designs as well as exteriors of red brick matched with various colors of vinyl siding. Unlike Phase One, common areas and lawns are irrigated with water pumped from the community lake, with the costs of maintaining the pump and the lines also paid by the association. This irrigation system was employed during a period when the town of Apex would not issue water permits for irrigation systems because of water supply concerns.

What is the Walden Townes Homeowners’ Association?

Walden Townes Homeowners’ Association is a non-profit corporation that, according to its by-laws, exists for the purpose of promoting the health, safety and welfare of the total community. A central charge is to preserve the values and amenities of the properties. The by-laws call for the corporation to seek ways to “promote fellowship and friendship among its members” and to “provide a forum for the expression of ideas and plans” to improve the quality of life.

What are your rights, privileges and obligations as homeowners?

Every person who owns a townhouse in Walden Townes is a member of the Association. The rights of membership include the right to elect the Board of Directors at the annual meeting as well as the use of common properties for your personal enjoyment.
Similarly, every owner is required to pay assessments, at a rate to be determined by the Board of Directors. Assessments past due beyond 30 days become lien upon a property subject to 10 percent interest charges on unpaid balances. The rights of membership can be suspended for failure to pay assessments, with membership restored fully when balances are paid in full.

Why do we employ a management company?

R. S. Fincher and Co. LLC is the management company that works with the board of directors to ensure smooth operation of our neighborhood. The company collects homeowners’ dues, coordinates landscape and maintenance contractors, and responds directly to individual repair requests from residents.

What does the Board of Directors do?

Duties: A central charge of the board is to set the rate of assessments each year, to ensure those funds are collected promptly and properly spent to address both short-term and long-term needs.  For learn more about assessments, go to Article V of the Declaration of Covenants and Restrictions.

Elections: New board members are unpaid volunteers who serve for a term of three years. Association members elect officers at the annual meeting. The 2007 meeting will be held in June at the Apex Chamber of Commerce Building on South Salem Street.

Board meetings: Meetings of the Board of Directors are held every two months. If you would like to bring an issue before the board, join an existing committee or start a new one to address an unmet need, please call the management office at 919) 362-1460. The company address is:  R. S. Fincher and Co. LLC, 315 South Salem St., #500 Suite B, Apex, NC 27502.

Committees: Committees are established by the Board of Directors to manage ongoing procedures and address specific issues as needed. Committee members are appointed annually.  Current active committees are:

The Architectural Review Committee reviews initial construction and modification requests to the exterior of homes and lots in order to ensure uniformity within each section of the development. You must fill out a request form, available at the management company, to get a project approved before work can begin.

 The Landscape Committee oversees the addition or removal of trees, shrubs and plants. You must fill out a request form, available at the management company, before you make any changes.

The Maintenance Committee has assumed the responsibility of maintaining the sprinkler systems and the irrigation pump and plumbing in order to save the association the expense of hiring a professional plumber. Committee members also monitor outside contractors in their performance of work and check for erosion control and the condition of streets and parking pads.

The three-member Beautification Committee was created in fall of 2007
for the purpose of gaining community input on projects that the HOA
might fund to enhance the use and beauty of our common areas. In 2008,
it spearheaded the effort to beautify the front entrances. In 2009, it
developed a three-phase project to enhance the common area around the
community bulletin board that will be completed in spring of 2010.

Why do we need a website?

In short, to share information about board decisions, respond to feedback and criticism, to invite new ideas on how to encourage greater participation and interest in the civic and social life of our community. In “Neighborhood News,” we hope to share stories of some of the people who have contributed in some special way to our community. We want Walden Townes to be more than a collection of people living next to each other, bound together only by shared financial interest and legal obligations. We want to help you to find ways to get to know more of the people around you, so they can become more like your neighbors, so we together can feel more like a neighborhood. The website, while controlled by the Board of Director and used by the board to establish an open and easily accessible record of its “official” business, is offered as a means to bring us closer together as a neighborhood.