Watergate Information (still in progress...)
After-Hours Emergencies
If you need to report a serious emergency to our property manager outside of normal business hours, please call SFMC's after-hours emergency phone number:
888.980.8958
Non-Emergency Problems
If you have problem involving your home that is not an emergency, or wish to report a problem involving any other part of our community, please contact our property manager during normal business hours or send an email to the property manager and the entire board
SFMC Property Manager
Cheri Thacker (cthacker@sfmcinc.com)
Senior Community Manager
SFMC, Inc.
9464 Innovation Drive
Manassas, VA 20110
703.392.6006 x210
www.sfmcinc.com
Homeowner Payments
Send your homeowner payments to Watergate of Alexandria, Box 66571, Phoenix, Arizona 85082.
Click here for a Service First direct deposit payment authorization form (PDF).
Resale Disclosure Package
If you need a resale disclosure package, please submit your request via condocerts.com. Click here to see the instructions from SFMC.
Property Custodian
Multicorp, Inc.
(410) 876-5000
Insurance Broker
Sahouri Insurance
(703) 883-0500
Certificate of Insurance
If you need a certificate of insurance, you may obtain one online at https://www.sahouri.com/certificate-of-insurance-request.
Covenant Waivers
Check Documents section.
For Sale Signs
Our bylaws provide that "no signs of any character shall be erected, posted or displayed upon, in, from or about any Unit or Common Elements without the prior written approval of the Board of Directors."
The board currently allows real estate agents to post reasonable informational and directional signage on the day that open houses are held. Such signs must be promptly removed after the open houses have ended.
Otherwise, no "For Sale" or other commercial or political signage is permitted in windows or on our property.
Someone Is Parked In My Garage Space
If someone is parked in your garage space without your consent, you may do one of the following:
During regular business hours, call our property manager (see contact information below left)
Call a member of the board
Send an email to the property manager and the entire board
Improperly parked vehicles may be towed without notice or warning, and the owners of such vehicles will be solely responsible for paying all towing and storage charges to retrieve their vehicles.
Individual homeowners and residents should not attempt to remove, on their own and without the association's approval and assistance, any vehicle parked in one of the garages.
My Vehicle Has Been Towed Away
If your car has been towed away because it was improperly parked, you may do one of the following:
Call Community Towing, 703.645.7330
Take one of the steps listed above
Garage Information
Homeowners should not store household items or hazardous materials in the garages.
Our bylaws provide that no resident shall "store anything upon any of the Common Elements," which includes the parking garages.
All personal property placed in the garages, other than registered bicycles properly placed in the bicycle storage rooms or attached to designated bicycle racks, is subject to removal and disposal without notice or warning.
Our bylaws also provide that the association is not responsible for "any personal property stored on the Common Elements (including property located in storage cubicles and vehicles parked on the Condominium)." Residents park their vehicles and place personal property in the parking garages at their sole risk.
Click here to see a Watergate garage map.
Pets
Our bylaws permit each home to keep a "small, orderly domestic pet . . . not to exceed one per Unit" so long as the pet is "not kept or maintained for commercial purposes or breeding" and does not create "a nuisance or unreasonable distrubance or noise."
Please walk your dogs off Watergate property and clean-up after them.
Under city law, pets must be vacinated against rabies, licensed, and kept on leashes when out and about. Licenses are available at the City of Alexandria's Animal Shelter, which is located at 4101 Eisenhower Avenue, 703.838.4774.
Unauthorized Pruning
Every year, some homeowners and residents take it upon themselves to prune the association-maintained plants and shrubs near their homes. Some are even bold enough to take their cutting shears farther afield.
Please do not do this without the express approval of the Grounds Committee. Much of this unauthorized trimming is causing irreparable damage to our plants, interfering with the scheduled care for our plants, and in some cases preventing plants from flowering.
Crime Tips
The Alexandria Police Department has created a 4-page color flyer that provides common sense crime-prevention tips and advice to city residents. The department has asked for our help in distributing this information to those who live at Watergate.
Household Trash Pick-Up Schedule
Trash is collected by Chester Garvin & Sons on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays after 8am except on the following holidays:
-
New Years Day
-
Christmas Day
If a scheduled trash collection day falls on one of these holidays, the next collection will take place on the next scheduled pick-up day.
What Do I Do With My Household Trash?
Please place your household trash outside your home on the morning of a collection by 8am, and not the night before.
All trash should be secured in plastic bags and must not exceed 50 pounds in weight.
What Do I Do With My Recyclables?
Recyclables are picked-up on Thursdays. Except for cardboard boxes and packing materials, please place your recyclables in one of the large green unsorted recycling bins in the garages.
Please breakdown and flatten all cardboard boxes and place them to the side of the recycling bins. Please put all packing and moving materials in large plastic trash bags and set them to the side of the recycling bins.
What Do I Do With My Bulk Trash?
Alexandria residents can drop off small amounts of trash and debris, as well as metal items for recycling once a week, (limit 500 pounds) free-of-charge at Covanta. Please visit their website for additional information.
Garvin & Sons does not collect or take away bulk trash. On a regular basis and at significant cost to the association, residents continue to place large items such as bed mattresses, indoor and outdoor furniture, patio grills, and large appliances out for collection This is not permitted.
Winterization Information
Click here for Watergate-specific winterization information.
Fireplaces
Homeowners who use their fireplaces are strongly urged to have their chimneys swept on a regular basis.
Please do not burn Duraflame or other manufactured "logs" in your fireplace. Watergate fireplaces are "zero clearance" pre-fabricated fireplaces rather than masonry fireplaces. They are not designed to handle the intense heat generated by artificial logs, which can damage or crack the fire box and create a fire hazard.
Watergate Electric Power Supply
You should be aware of the power supply that we have here at Watergate. This information will be important for residents when purchasing electrical appliances such as water heaters, heat pumps, washers, dryers and kitchen appliances.
Watergate has commercial type transformers (three) that provide 120-208V. This is slightly less then those seen in residential transformers (208-240V). These transformers were installed at the time of construction, and may very well have been chosen by the developer because each transformer serves multiple customers and can be located below ground.
In addition, units served by a specific transformer are all located on the same panel.
Had residential transformers been utilized instead, there would have been many more of them (approximately 20), and all of them would be placed above ground. Changing over to residential transformers (to supply up to 240V) is not really a structural or financial option for the community.
Please keep the voltage range 120-208V in mind when making future appliance purchases, as there are some that are designed to operate on these lower voltages. In the event that owners wish to "step up" their power to 120-240V, then a "dry cell transformer" can be installed into that unit at the owner’s expense.