Gardening - or lack thereof.

It's now a month since my original post and while my lawn has been mowed twice in that time, I still haven't received any trimming services which means we're now going on 3 months since my yard was last trimmed.  

I no longer feel that SHA should revisit the gardening contract, at this point I would urge them to cancel it and stop wasting our money.  A few days ago I received notice that my maintenance fee is due but frankly since, for the third month in a row, I'm receiving zero value for the percentage that goes to yard maintenance, I really don't see why I should have to pay it in full.

We are the only gated development in Nassau who are forced to accept and pay for, what is an inefficient and very poor, landscaping service.  The homeowners of the other gated developments pay for their own landscapers and as such, get to decide when and what they have done to their yard, who does it and more importantly, they have the option to fire a company if they are not doing a good job.  Since we've been in Sandyport this is the third company that has been awarded this very lucrative contract, and while Caribbean offers the worst service yet, I would not have kept any of the those companies on had I had a choice in the matter and it's ridiculous that I don't have that choice.  For those homeowners who wish to opt out, the private property landscaping fee needs to be deducted from our maintenance fee and we should be allowed to manage our own properties in the way we would like it done by whom we'd like it done by.  

On a similar vein and for the same reasons, the house painting needs to be deducted from our fees also and left in the hands of the homeowners.  I've researched online what the recommended time frame is between exterior house paintings and 5 - 10 years is the general recommendation.  Every 3 years is excessive and wasteful and the only reason there's peeling and sagging within that time frame is because the job is not done properly.  Again this is because of outsourcing to a contractor who has little to no oversight and who is on a tight schedule.  

It's time to stop treating us like children and allow us to manage our own properties.