Waikiki Banyan

Major Projects. Maintenance is in the process of rebuilding and renovating the Tower 2 compactor room, preparing the space for the new compactor that will be arriving in a few weeks. Our staff is tearing up the existing badly-worn concrete floor and will relocate the existing under-floor drain.

During their planning for the project, Maintenance discovered that the 8" main drain line from Tower 2 to the city sewer system was cracked; they have since replaced that drain line. Despite our notices advising residents not to put water down any Tower 2 drain lines, especially toilets, while the work was in progress, quite a few residents continued to flush toilets and use their drains. This naturally made an already tough job much harder and longer than it had to be.

As the building and its systems age, there will be more work that, inevitably, will cause inconvenience to many of our residents. When we ask residents not to use drains or some other building system, there is a good reason for us doing so. As owners and agents, you can help by ensuring that your tenants pay attention to the notices we post and comply with our requests.

American Coating plans to start recoating our rooftops in a few weeks. Their work and our staff’s conscientious upkeep of the rooftop coating has kept us from experiencing the major water leaks that were common before we had the rooftops coated with a waterproof elastomeric covering. With continued maintenance, the rooftops should remain leak free for the next twenty years.

Building painting and spall repair is on track to get started this year. Spalling is inevitable in a building like the Banyan in a climate like Hawai‘i’s; aggressive preventive maintenance is crucial in letting us stay ahead of the problem. Keeping Waikiki Banyan looking good is part of the equation, but our primary concern is the structural integrity of our building.

Water shutoffs to allow unit repairs or upgrades have become almost routine. We normally schedule a non-emergency shutoff for Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, as those are the days when we have a full maintenance staff on duty. We can’t just shut off water to a single unit: depending on the unit, anywhere from 10 to 40 units must be shut off in order to shut off the water for one unit. We post notices in the elevators and deliver notices to the units that will be affected.

We allow a 4-hour window, from 10 am to 2 pm, for work to be done; this is usually more than sufficient. When we know that a plumber is on property and ready to work, then we will initiate the shutoff. We restore water when the plumber notifies us that work is done.

If you need to have plumbing work done in your unit that will require a water shutoff, then you or your plumber should contact our Admin Office for scheduling. You should be aware that we will need to schedule a shutoff 2 to 3 weeks in advance.

We recommend that you review the minimum plumbing standards our building requires, and provide this information to your plumber. You can download and print a PDF version of this information.

Security. We are planning to upgrade our Security CCTV system with the addition of a camera at the garage booth, and the replacement of some older cameras. In the process of locating the best position for the new camera, we noticed that while Security could see the bicycle parking area at the top of the ramp, they could not see the adjacent moped parking area.

Given the relative values of bikes and mopeds, it seemed to make sense to switch the designated bicycle and moped parking areas to allow Security a clearer view of the moped area. Waikiki Banyan Maintenance will soon be changing the signage for the areas. We expect the switch to be fully in effect by the beginning of July.

Waikiki Banyan’s parking garage is a common element and we have unassigned parking. This allows the Association to use the garage for paid parking for the benefit of all owners. When individual tenants, agents or owners abuse the parking privilege for their own profit, they deprive all owners of income. Since paid parking income helps us keep your maintenance fees low, we take seriously any violation of our parking regulations.

Security is continuing to find instances of vehicles parking without proper authorization. In one case, a person with no connection to Waikiki Banyan purchased a parking permit from an owner, a direct violation of our House Rules. Chapter 514B, § 112 (c), Hawaii Revised Statutes, provides in part that

Each unit owner, tenants and employees of an owner, and other persons using the property shall comply strictly with the covenants, conditions, and restrictions set forth in the declaration, the bylaws, and the house rules adopted pursuant thereto.

This gives our House Rules the force of law. By violating the House Rules and depriving the Association of parking income, the owner in this case has committed an act of theft for which he could be prosecuted. The parking privilege for that unit has been revoked.

Please read our House Rules and ensure that your tenants and agents have also read the rules. If you do not have a hard copy, you can download and print out the PDF version.