getting rid of comitment with openband?

Hi,

As most of the members must be knowing, people in the Broadlands South have to pay a higher HOA dues to include the openband services like internet, phone and cable among other things. Needless to say, this has kept the HOA dues higher compared to HOA in other communities without the additional services.
However, this necessarily means that you can not try out any other service, except with additional cost. In today's competitive market, we feel that we could get better things with the same amount that we have to pay for additional services.
Plus, this commitment discourages the potential buyers of our home as they would like to have the freedom of chossing their own service(internet,cable,phone) provider.
ANy word on how to get rid of commitment with the openband to bring down the HOA representing the phone,cable and internet?
Thanks

 

Nope, Openband is part of SouthernWalk and will be for the next 16 years or so. It was an understanding that everyone had when they purchased in the neighborhood that it was a "smart neighborhood".

Sorry but you will have to find a buyer that wants the services at this price (which will probably go up next year)

 

Having locked down to one provider is one side of the coin. The other side is, very low quality services provided by openband. If they provide excellent service, it will have a possitive impact on potential buyers. The way things are at present, buyers will be discouraged the fact that they HAVE to go with openband and have to enjoy the low quality services they provide.

Van Metre should provide more info about openband to their potential buyers. They do not do that. I was trapped.

 

Again, I have to make the statement:

the Broadlands HOA is the HOA that provides the bulk of services for the subdivision. Common area maintenance, trash/recyclable pickup, snow removal on HOA streets and townhouse areas, etc. This fee is paid by all residents of Broadlands both north and south.

The Southern Walk HOA is only concerned with the OpenBand contract, and collection of fees for the Southern Walk phone/TV/Broadband. This fee is only paid by Southern Walk residents.

The only connection the Broadland's HOA has with the SWHOA, is that many of the same developer members of the BHOA server on the SWHOA.

The fees and the budgets are entirely separate.



Neil Z.
Resident since 1999

 

ashley-
Actually, almost all of the newer large communities have service contracts like Openband's. Lansdowne, Belmont Country Club, and Brambleton all have them. Some of thes communities have HOA dues approaching $400/month.
I'm with you, though. I despise monopolies!!!

 

Having lived in different places in the DC area all my life, and using different cable/internet/phone providers, all I can say is I am going to fight hard to keep Openband as our provider. We have experienced the best service of anywhere we've lived in the metropolitan area. I for one, would hate to lose it.

 

Vacliff,
A Brambletonian here: I pay $190 per month (including the tech fee) for my single-family home. Some of the single-family homes pay a slightly higher fee because they are on HOA maintained roads or have alleys behind their houses. I think the townhomes pay a higher fee as well.