Building 9

This page is meant to be of use to Building 9 homeowners and is not an official document.

Building 9 is the only one of the nine buildings making up University Terrace that already existed when the association was built. Building 9 homeowners need to know additional information in order to understand the budget for UT, their resultant homeowner fees, and how to get things done.

  • Shared utilities: Billed through our HOA fees to Building 9 only
    • EBMUD (East Bay Municipal Utility District): All bills are sent to and paid for by our management company. There is a percentage allocated to the overall UT budget because of the use of the Commons Room, which is common to all, not just Building 9 residents.
    • PG&E (Pacific Gas & Electric): Bills for common area electricity costs (not costs for electricity within a unit) are sent to and paid for by our management company. This includes the gas/electricity for the hot water, heating, interior lighting. There is a percentage allocated to the overall UT budget because of the use of the Commons Room, which is common to all, not just Building 9 residents. (NOTE: Each homeowner must set up an account with PG&E for electricity within their own unit. These costs are not covered with HOA fees.)
    • City of Berkeley: The dumpster in the garbage enclosure at the north end of the building is for the exclusive use of building 9 homeowners with the exception of those who have used the Commons Room or the custodial staff. A percentage of the monthly cost allocated to the overall UT budget for that purpose. Garbage is collected Tuesday and Friday mornings. If you notice a missed pick up, please get in touch with the City of Berkeley. The address to use is 2124 Jefferson (used for identification only).
    • Recycling: There are recycling bins within the garbage enclosure for glass/plastic/aluminum and for paper. Weekly pick up is on Thursdays. There is no cost for the recycling program so UT residents can use the recycling bins in either the north or the south enclosure. They are both keyed to the same key.
    • Compost: There is a green compost bin close to the garbage enclosure. This is for all compostable materials, which includes meat, egg shells, and shellfish. The pick up for Compost occurs on Wednesday mornings, on California Street, so the bin must be wheeled out there, by the rose garden, on Tuesday evenings. If we miss that, we can check to see whether or not the green bins on Addison have already been emptied. If not, we can wheel it there for a later Wednesday pick up.
  • Other shared costs: Billed through our HOA fees to building 9 only
    • Hot water heater maintenance
    • Furnace maintenance
    • Custodial costs, with a portion is paid for from common funds.
    • Elevator Cost and Maintenance: We have sole responsibility for the cost of maintaining and replacing the elevator, in building 9.
    • Interior lighting: Cost of bulbs/fixtures
    • Interior carpet: floors 1 and 2 only
  • Costs covered by the entire UTHOA budget: Billed through our HOA fees to all homeowners at UT. In addition to the above costs, which Building 9 homeowners pay for exclusively, we also contribute to the common coffers to pay for any and all maintenance on all 9 buildings. Therefore, these things that we hold in common with the other buildings should be covered by the common HOA funds as well.
    • The roof
    • Any work on the exterior of the building, including painting, repairs
    • Brickwork, since building 9 residents pay for the stucco on other buildings
    • Balcony repair work
    • Exterior lighting (bulbs/fixtures)
    • Water laterals
    • Any plumbing costs not connected with the hot water heater
    • Fire alarm and safety costs
    • All costs are not listed here, but this should give you an idea of the kinds of things that should be covered by common funds.

Budget – Building 9:

There are 3 formulas used in determining the homeowner fees for Building 9 homeowners, as compared with 2 for homeowners in buildings 1-8.

  1. General per square foot: based upon square footage of your unit as a percentage of total UT square footage. All 75 units are assessed this amount based on square footage.
    1. Total square footage of UT = 98,080 sq ft
    2. EXAMPLE for a Building 9 unit: Unit #63 (2132 Jefferson) is 852 sq ft, so would be assessed .87% of all common expenses that are allocated by square footage.
  2. General per unit: allocated evenly across 75 households. All 75 units are assessed an equal amount, 1/75 of the total in this category.
    1. EXAMPLE for a Building 9 unit: Unit #63 (2132 Jefferson) would be assessed 1/75 of all common expenses allocated across 75 households.
  3. Building 9 per square foot: based upon square footage of your unit as a percentage of total building 9 square footage. Only the 19 units in Building 9 are assessed these amounts and the amounts are assessed based on units’ percentage of total square footage of Building 9 (20,267)
    1. EXAMPLE for a Building 9 unit: Unit #63 (2132 Jefferson Avenue) would be assessed 4.2% of all building 9 specific expenses.
    2. NOTE: We must track operating costs vs. budgeted operating costs for building 9 from year to year as any overages/savings are building 9 homeowners’.
      1. EXAMPLE: If the annual Building 9 Operating budget is $31,916 and we spend $31,516 for the year, the extra $400 should be carried forward as an asset for building 9 homeowners only.
      2. EXAMPLE: If the annual Building 9 Operating budget is $31,916 and we spend $32,516 for the year, the deficit of $600 should be carried forward as a liability that building 9 homeowners must cover over time.
Highlighted area shows the amount Building 9 homeowners are assessed that others aren’t.

Keys

Here are the types of keys and who has access:

  • Homeowner keys: These are yours alone. It is entirely at your discretion whether or not to distribute these to your neighbors just in case. Note, though, that the board, as noted in the CC&Rs, has to right to gain access to your place with notice (look at CC&Rs for exact language) if there is a good reason for it.
  • Building 9 key: Medeco, Reed Brothers Security, San Leandro, 510.652.2477. You must work with our management company to get replacement keys (these are $25 last time we checked). There is an authorized list of people who can order them/pick them up and Dave Rosenblatt and Jaclyn Ruth are the CIMS reps on the list.
  • Front Door fobs: Rex Key and Security, 1908 University Avenue, Berkeley. At the moment there is no way to get replacement fobs. The Board is looking into replacing the doorbell/fob system, as of September 2023.
  • South Storage Area Key: These are kept by the homeowners who have storage in those units.
  • Interior Storage Area:
    • Main Door (across from elevator): Any building 9 homeowner who has storage in that area should have a key.
    • Storage units: Originally keyed to the same as your front door. Keys treated as those to your front door are.
    • Telephone/Electricity Room: You need to get into the storage area and then you’ll need a key specific to the Telephone Room/Electricity. Check with the board on this.
    • Boiler Room / Furnace / Hot Water Heater Key: You need to get into the storage area and then you’ll need a key specific to the boiler room. Check with the board on this.
  • Garbage Enclosure Key: The locks to the 2 enclosures for recycling (north and south sides of building 9) are opened with the same key. Both padlocks are keyed to the City of Berkeley (City of Berkeley employees have a master of sorts – our keys are a subset of that and unique to UTHOA). If you call Rex Key to fix the padlock (the padlocks are fickle) they’ll use your key to key the new padlock, which means that no one will need new keys.
  • Commons Room Key: Follow the same guidelines as everyone else, spelled out here.
  • Mailbox Key: You can get your mailbox key duplicated at any lock shop. If you happen to lose all of your keys you can call a locksmith to come to drill out the old lock and install a new one. Rex Key and Security, 510.527.7000, will come out and do this for about $130. (July 2021)