Gutters in a Tri-Valley HOA: Who Pays and How to Get Approval

Why townhomes are the tricky one

A townhome is a building style, not a legal category. Some projects are recorded as condominiums, where the association maintains the roofline. Others are planned developments, where each owner holds their own lot and roof. Two townhome rows across the street from each other can follow different rules. Your declaration or your manager can tell you which one you live in.

Start with the declaration, then any architectural guidelines or approved color list your association has adopted. California also requires every association that needs approval for physical changes to send members an annual notice under Civil Code section 4765. That notice has to describe which changes need approval and include a copy of the review procedure.

• A maintenance section or chart that names roofs, gutters and downspouts, and says who handles each one.
• Whether gutters are listed as common area, exclusive use common area or part of your lot.
• Which exterior changes need architectural approval, and whether replacing like for like counts as a change.
• An approved color list for trim, fascia and metal, since gutters are read against the fascia from the street.
• The maximum response time for an application and how to ask the board to reconsider a decision.

If you live in a condominium and the gutters are the association’s, report overflow, sagging runs or water against the wall to the manager in writing, with dated photos taken from the ground during a storm. It creates a record if water damage shows up inside later.

Civil Code section 4760 says any change in the exterior appearance of your separate interest has to follow the governing documents. Section 4765 then tells the association how it must handle your request. The procedure has to be fair, reasonable and expeditious, it has to set prompt deadlines, and it has to state the maximum time for a response. The decision must be made in good faith. It must be in writing, and if a request is turned down, the letter has to explain why and describe how to ask the board to reconsider. That reconsideration happens at an open board meeting.

A gutter is a long horizontal line across the front of the house, so an application should answer the questions a neighbor would ask from the sidewalk: what color, what size, and where the water goes.

1. Pick the color against your fascia.Our colored aluminum gutters come in dozens of baked-on factory colors, with Royal Brown the most popular, and Copper Penny or Dark Bronze the shades we suggest for Spanish Revival homes under tile. We bring samples to compare.
2. Settle the size and profile.Plenty of original systems here were sized on the small side, especially under tile. If the roof needs a step up to 6 inch gutters, say so in the application, since a larger profile is a visible change.
3. Mark every downspout.Show where each one comes down and where its water lands. On narrow side yards, downspout extensions and redirects keep water off walkways and away from the neighbor’s fence.
4. List any guard.BroGuard comes in black, brown, copper, mill and white, so it can disappear into the gutter line. Include it now rather than filing a second request later.
5. Attach our spec sheet.We give you the color, size and material details for the submittal before we schedule the work, so the committee approves exactly what will be installed.

NOAA’s 1991 to 2020 climate normals put average rainfall at Livermore Municipal Airport at 15.18 inches a year, with most of it falling from November through March and February the wettest month. Gutters sit idle all summer, then handle the whole season in a few months.

Architectural review takes however long your documents allow, and you will not know that number until you look it up. Waiting until water pours over the front of the house in January leaves you choosing between a rushed application and a winter of overflow.

In the census tracts that cover Dougherty Valley, about 80 percent of homes were built in 2000 or later, according to U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey estimates, and many still carry their original gutters. In Dublin Ranch, the median home in ZIP 94568 was built in 2004, and the streets mix two and three story homes with townhome rows, many under tile roofs and with side yards only a few feet wide. Mountain House is younger still, with a median build year of 2011.

Blackhawk homes went up in the 1980s and 1990s with long tile rooflines, multiple gables and a lot of inside corners. Ruby Hill, the guard-gated golf community on the eastern edge of Pleasanton, has a median build year of 1994 in its census tract, with custom homes in French Country, Tuscan, Spanish and Mediterranean styles where copper often suits the architecture.

How we work inside an association

We coordinate gate access, show up in uniform on schedule and take before and after photos for your file. Every gutter is formed on our truck in your driveway to the exact length of the eave. We leave the property cleaner than we found it, and when the work is common area in a condominium or townhome project, we can quote and document it for the manager or the board the same way we do on our commercial gutter jobs, with a written scope and a photo record.

If you are not ready to replace anything yet, our maintenance program schedules cleanings and inspections through the year and includes downspout flushing and a condition report at each visit. For a full gutter installation, we work across San Ramon, Danville, Dublin, Pleasanton and the rest of the Tri-Valley.