What is the
Fountains?

THE FOUNTAINS OF PALM BEACH

 

The purpose of this document is to educate owners of the Fountains about the community and the roles of the organizations involved with leading our courts.

FCO Community Websites and Telephone Numbers

Fountains owners and residents frequently look for resources available to help them take certain actions, obtain information, or share information.  The following contacts should help satisfy most information and action needs within the community.

Websites

There are two primary websites that are dedicated solely to the Fountains community.  One is the official FCO website and the other is run by residents and is intended primarily as a place where owners and residents communicate with each other or read about shared interests and current happenings in the community.  It is in all our interests to visit both websites frequently.

www.fcocondo.com  – The FCO Official Website that includes data about the FCO structure, contacts, official meeting schedules and minutes, and other important information.

www.fountainsnetwork.com – The Fountains Residents Network where owners and residents are kept current about and discuss current events and happenings at the Fountains or topics of particular interest.

Telephone Numbers

FCO Administrative & Accounting             (561) 964-3600

FCO Administrative & Accounting Fax      (561) 641-5631

FCO Maintenance                                      (561) 434-2480

Guest Entry                                                (561) 967-6126

Security Gate – Jog Road                          (561) 967-1339

Security Gate – Lake Worth Road              (561) 439-7887

Hotwire                                                        (800) 355-5668

Hotwire Onsite Representative                   (561) 612-0999

 

Fountains Overview

The Fountains consists of 19 courts and 1,767 households.  The courts and their locations are listed below.

The North has 9 courts and 1,258 households.  Their names and number of households are:

Gefion Court –              18 households

Trevi Court –               180 households

Luxemburg Court –     180 households

Esedra Court –           174 households

D’Este Court –            275 households

The Townhouses –       48 households

Tivoli Court –              175 households

Versailles Court –       167 households

Plaza Court –               41 households

The South has 10 courts and 509 households.  Their names and number of households are:

Marseilles Court –       72 households

Milan Court 1 –           24 households

Milan Court 2 –           24 households

Parisian Way –           60 households

Valencia Court 3A –   35 households

Valencia Court 3B –   35 households

Valencia Court 3C –   35 households

The Atriums –             62 households

San Marino Way –      44 households

Oakmont –                118 households

Each court is a non-profit corporation and led by a Board of Directors elected by the owners.  All persons who are owners of condominium parcels (households) within the court are automatically members of the corporation.

Each court has an agreement with Fountains Condominium Operations, Inc. (FCO).  The FCO is a non-profit corporation led by a Board of Directors.  Its members include all Fountains condominium and homeowner associations (courts 1 – 19) and the Fountains South Property Owners Association (POA).  Each court appoints or internally elects the person that will serve as a member of the FCO.  That person is typically the President of each court; however, the court may choose someone different.  The Village Association is another association at the Fountains.  However, it is not a member of the FCO and only pertains to the three Valencia courts.

The Boards of Directors for the courts and the FCO ARE VOLUNTEERS!  The time they devote to serving the community and owners they serve is done without compensation.  The work they perform is often thankless and unnoticed except when something occurs with which an owner disagrees.

 

Who Owns What Property

The types of property at the Fountains are diverse.  First, there is the real property within a court’s geographic area.  This includes the real property owned by a specific owner, e.g., condo, townhouse, villa, standalone house, etc., and the common areas owned collectively by all owners, e.g., parking lots, swimming pools, refuse collection areas, elevators, etc.  Each court also may own personal property, e.g., pool furniture, clothes washers and dryers, etc.  Every court is different.

The FCO does not own real property.  All the real property that the FCO occupies or maintains is leased and owned by others, i.e., Concert Golf and the Fountains South Property Owners Association.

Concert Golf owns the real property that is north of the bridge on Fountains Drive South including the roads, the North Gatehouse, golf cart paths along the roads.  It also owns the buildings known as Fountains Hall, Craft Hall, Maintenance Building, and the building housing the FCO Office.  The POA owns the real property south of the bridge on Fountains Drive South including the roads, South Gatehouse, and golf cart paths along the roads.

 

What the Courts and FCO Boards of Directors Do

***Note that the following is a summary of the roles and not an itemized list as may be found in the source documents.  Source documents include Articles of Incorporation, Master Agreements and Addenda, By-Laws, contracts, etc.  These documents are likely available at www.fcocondo.com.  Included are those services that owners and residents normally observe or are most noticeable.***

Courts

A court’s board of directors performs many activities necessary to support the services it provides the court.  The services are wide-ranging and include:

  1. Maintaining, repairing, and improving when necessary all real property belonging to the court.
  2. Maintaining, repairing, improving, and replacing as necessary all personal property owned by the court.
  3. Maintaining, repairing, and improving all landscaping on the property belonging to the court.
  4. Providing entertainment and social activities for court owners and residents.
  5. Maintaining the court’s buildings, ensuring that they remain in good operating condition and are in accordance with proper health regulations.
  6. Supervising proper maintenance and health regulations of pool and spa.
  7. Developing an annual budget for owners’ approval and managing approved budgets.
  8. Establishing rules, policies, and procedures applicable to the court, ensuring compliance, and as necessary taking appropriate enforcement actions.
  9. Hearing and resolving grievances and complaints from an owner against another owner or employee of the court. ***REMINDER: Your court officer is often only the messenger and not the complainant, and as the saying goes “don’t  shoot the messenger”.

 

FCO Board of Directors

The FCO performs many activities necessary to support the services it provides the Fountains community.  The services are wide-ranging and include:

The FCO services to the community include:

  1. Providing security services with guards.
  2. Maintaining, repairing, and improving the roads and streetlights on all common roads which shall exclude the roads and streetlights contained within the property boundaries of the various Fountains courts.
  3. Maintain, repairing, and improving all landscaping on Fountains Drive, Fountains Drive South and Fountains Circle, except those areas located within the property boundaries of the various Fountains courts which are the responsibility of the applicable court.
  4. Maintaining and repairing the portion of the maintenance barn and specified exterior apron areas of the space leased by FCO.
  5. Maintaining, repairing, and improving the golf cart paths that are part of the roads which are the maintenance responsibility of the FCO.
  6. Maintaining, repairing, improving, and replacing when necessary the entrance water fountains not located on Concert Club Facilities real property.
  7. Providing management company office space, insurance, and expenses.
  8. Maintenance of entrance gates at Lake Worth Road, Jog Road, and Melaleuca Lane.
  9. Maintaining Craft Hall and Fountains Hall.
  10. Providing property Insurance for the entire Fountains community.

FCO Manager

Because the FCO consists of community members that serve as volunteers, it utilizes a professional third-party management firm to help with carrying-out the FCO’s duties. Generally, the Manager offers guidance and consults with the FCO Board of Directors; executes FCO Board of Directors decisions, directives and policies approved by the FCO Board of Directors; and documents transactions, activities, and records of the FCO Board of Directors.  It is important to remember that the FCO Board of Directors is in charge of decision-making.

The Managers duties include:

  1. Providing administrative services including:
    1. Scheduling, attending, and documenting FCO Board meetings.
    2. Providing regular and periodic management reports.
    3. Enforcing FCO rules and regulations.
    4. Guiding the FCO in preparing an annual budget.
    5. Serving as the FCO primary point of contact with owners and residents.
    6. Vetting of outside contractors to make sure they have the proper licenses and insurance.
    7. Performing background checks and other paperwork for all new owners and tenants.
    8. Issuing barcodes.
    9. Assigning to each court a secretary, whose job it is to support the court president in writing letters, announcing meetings, sending out Zoom links, etc.
    10. Keeping current the documents on the website fcocondo.com.
    11. Keeping track of changes in the condominium and HOA laws and regulations.
    12. Preparing a preliminary budget for the next year for each court, based on actual expenses occurring July to July.
  3.  2. Providing accounting services including:
    1. Managing FCO and court bank accounts.
    2. Managing FCO and court contracts and agreements.
    3. Billing
    4. Paying invoices approved by the FCO or courts.
    5. Reporting delinquent accounts.
    6. Sending delinquent notices as directed by the FCO and courts.
    7. Initiating collection action as directed by the FCO or courts.
    8. Preparing monthly financial reports for the FCO and courts.
    9. Handling foreclosures for the courts.
  4.  3. Providing site management including:
    1. Maintenance
    2. Security and guard services.
    3. Coordinating FCO approved actions.
    4. Overseeing the performance of contractors and employees.

For most of us the FCO Board of Directors and the FCO Manager are lumped together and known as the FCO.  There really is little need to distinguish between the two for most issues and discussions.  The primary reason for highlighting what they do is to keep owners and residents cognizant that most of the people you interact with for administrative, accounting and maintenance issues are employees of the FCO Manager.  They are rarely the decisionmakers and are frequently the messengers carrying out the directions from the FCO Board of Directors.

Owners and Renters

You are responsible for:

  1. Following the rules of your court, the FCO, and of other courts when on their property.
  2. Keeping common areas clean.
  3. Picking-up after your pets.
  4. Putting refuse and recyclables in the proper bins
  5. Maintaining your property appropriately.

Just to reiterate, the duties and responsibilities above are not a complete list of all the work and roles of the parties mentioned.  The information is intended to provide a basic understanding about who does what.

 

How Courts and FCO Obtain Funds

Each court and the FCO develop an annual budget.  A court’s budget is approved by a majority of the court’s owners.  The FCO budget is approved by a majority of the FCO Board of Directors.

The FCO provides each court with the amount of the FCO budget that the court will cover.  That amount is included in the budget a court presents to its owners for approval.  The court budget includes an amount each homeowner will be assessed depending on which budget is approved.  A court often presents multiple options to owners about how certain expenses may be budgeted.  These expenses relate primarily to reserve accounts for roof replacement, painting, parking lot repaving, etc.  The budget approved by the majority dictates an owner’s HOA or Condo fee for the budget year.  HOA and condo fees are sent and processed by the FCO.

 

What Owners Pay For

You are not alone if you have at one time or more thought HOA and condo fees are exorbitant.  Each owner will reach their own conclusion.  However, the fees should be considered in light of what you receive for your money.  The following is a list of what most owners receive:

  • A gated community with guard services
  • Fiber-optic television with premium channels
  • High speed WiFi
  • Refuse Removal
  • Water
  • Lawn mowing and other landscaping services
  • Building maintenance and repairs, e.g., exterior painting, roofing, elevators, etc.
  • Court amenities such as washers and dryers, etc.
  • Paved roads and parking lot maintenance and repairs
  • Swimming pool and spa
  • Court social activities
  • Craft Hall with card rooms, library, art studios (sculptor and painting), meeting room, wood-working studio
  • Fountains Hall with meeting rooms and offering our own onsite polling place
  • Fountains at the entrance gates
  • Headache free living because most issues are handled by a few volunteers who serve on your Board of Directors, serve as court building captains, etc.

This is not an exhaustive list of what owners receive.  Some courts may not include some of the listed items as a part of its HOA or condo fees and other courts may offer more.  Your HOA or condo fee should reflect the differences.  Also, it is not an itemized list of expenses that would include things like salaries, insurance, etc.

 

Fountains Community Map

A link to a map depicting the location of courts in the Fountains is listed below.  It was developed from afar and using Google Maps and generally reflects court boundaries.

Fountains-of-Palm-Beach-Court-Map-February-2021

 

Fountains Country Club

Located within the boundaries of the Fountains of Palm Beach is a private country club named Fountains Country Club (FCC).  The FCC is a private enterprise and owners of the Fountains households are not members unless they opt to join.  Membership in the FCC is open to the public, and its membership consists of a mixture of Fountains owners and renters and individuals and families living outside the Fountains.  The FCC website is www.fountainscc.com .

 

If you want a Word document with the information above, please click the following link.

Fountains of Palm Beach – A Primer