FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

All exterior gutters are cleaned once a year as part of your HOA dues. Normally the contractor starts on the second Monday of December and, depending on the weather, it takes about a week for them to get to all Kensington Square gutters. All residences are done UNLESS you specifically request that your residence not be included. If you ask to be excluded there is no refund since it is a total HOA contract, and if you ask to be excluded the contractor will not come back (at HOA expense) if you decide later that you want your gutters cleaned out. Keep in mind that as our community matures the trees are growing and there are more and more leaves, sticks, etc. each year. You can of course have them cleaned at your own expense and on your own schedule. Just keep in mind that townhome and ADU roofs/gutters are all close together in terms of construction. So you could be held liable for any damage your personal contractor caused to your neighbor's gutters, roof, residence, yard, etc.
The HOA's contract with Creative Landscape calls for cutting your grass, edging, trimming of front bushes, leaf removal, fertilize, aeration and mulching. Pest control, adding top soil, grading, irrigation, "repair of lawn", adding/removal of bushes, trees, flowers, etc. is the unit owner's responsibility. Please remember some landscaping changes mentioned above may also require a HOA Design Application before undertaking such action. Always check with CMC or ARC before you do any work or if you have any questions.

There have been several recent Groups.io emails from homeowners (HO) concerning landscaping issues, particularly in the yard area of Kensington homes. In general HO's need to understand that most "yard" landscape issues are the HO's responsibility. The HOA does cut the grass, the HOA blows the leaves, the HOA performs aeration and over-seeding in the fall, and the HOA cleans the gutters once a year and paints each residence every 5 years, but beyond that anything else you require or desire is normally the HO's responsibility. That means weed control, yard bald spots, new sod, drainage issues, back bush pruning, etc. will more than likely fall to the HO to perform. Before scheduled painting each HO should ensure you do not have any bushes or trees up against your resident structure which will prevent the contractor from doing his job. The work schedule is weather dependent. If you have a question about a tree or bush belonging to you, please check your plat map which you received when you purchased the property; if that tree or bush falls within your property lines then it belongs to you and it is your responsibility. Please direct any questions on any of the above to CMC for guidance.

Because the HOA has so much invested in our common ground area trees, we do ask our homeowners to please keep those common area trees and bushes around their unit lot watered to the extent they can. They are very expensive to replace and it is a big part of your HOA budget.
In general the outside areas of each Kensington Square residence is painted every five (5) years. Each unit takes 1 to 1.5 days and advance notification is provided to each homeowner.

Please prepare your unit for painting ahead of time by ensuring than any tree branches, bushes and flowers approaching the unit are trimmed back to allow for access by the paint contractor. Any residence building/maintenance materials, toys, etc. should be relocated away from the area to be painted. This is an owner responsibility and is not part of the HOA's contract with the contractor.

The contractor will prepare and paint the following areas of Kensington units:
  • Window Lintels
  • window brick molding
  • bump-out bay windows unit panels and trim
  • porch, front and rear doors/trim
  • wrought iron fencing, railings, posts, picket
  • deck fascia, stair risers and foundation posts, generally speaking the exterior wood areas and doors and wrought iron fencing.
Note: Shutters are not usually painted. Unless otherwise requested by the homeowner, the contractor will apply a clear oil-based sheen cleaner to the shutters to help preserve them. (Probably less than 50% of the 244 Kensington residences have shutters.)

Contractor will caulk doors/windows being painted (if needed), scrape/sand loose/peeling, prime needed areas.

Contractor will use premium paint plus exterior, color match. (Note: Homeowners are NOT allowed to change any outside paint colors without submitting a Design Application to the ARC and receiving approval back from the committee).

Coverage primer/sealer application to needed areas, one finish coat.

Be aware weather delays could affect scheduling.

Please direct any concerns or questions to our Portfolio Manager at CMC.

Painting schedule:
  • 2021 - Kensington Manor (all single family homes)
  • 2022 - 50% of Kensington Square (TH/ADU homes)
  • 2023 - 50% of Kensington Square (TH omes)
  • 2024 - Kensington Parc (all homes)
  • 2025 - Kensington Billberry (TH/ADU homes)
  • 2026 - Back to Kensington Manor and so forth.......
For reference purposes Kensington paint colors are
  • BEHR Premium Ultra, color white for white house trim
  • Rust-Oleum K7779 Gloss Black oil-based for wrought iron fence
If a vehicle is towed from Kensington Square then it is more than likely that it was towed by Battlefield Towing, (703) 378-0059, as they have the contract with CMC and Kensington Square.
In order to maintain the aesthetic appearance of the community, to ensure public safety, and to fairly administrate and utilize our limited public parking then a HOA Parking Policy is necessary. Another reason is to ensure non-Kensington residents are not parking here and taking public transportation to work, etc.
As our community continues to mature and new people move in we are finding that parking conditions change, vehicles change, family size changes, and we find we have more vehicles, and in some cases larger vehicles, on our streets. Guest short-term parking is becoming more difficult and the Board of Directors (BOD) is receiving many more complaints from residents that their guests do not have any place to park because residents are not using their garages and in some cases driveways as they should.
We have discussed assigned parking spaces or windshield tags but that action would require administrative, financial, and enforcement resources that we simply do not have. There could be legal issues of trying to limit how many vehicles each resident is allowed to have; there are few residences with only one vehicle and we have had and have residences with 4 to 5 vehicles. That may have been a battle that could have been won on day-1 of the HOA but not now.
Most of the parking problems come to the attention of the Board via resident complaints. The CMC inspectors and members of the BOD do check the neighborhood from time to time to identify where potential parking violations are prevalent. Some residents are almost habitual violators and we are trying to clean those up by issuing tickets and towing when the warning tickets are ignored.
Your short-term guests may park for up to 72-hours on the street without special approval. By and large, residents of Kensington (not counting the single-family homes) should not be parking on the street in guest or visitor parking. You can communicate to our CMC portfolio manager or via e-mail to parking@KensingtonSquareHOA.com and state your reason why you should be issued a temporary pass to extend that parking privilege.
About 5-7 vehicles are towed each year.
Yes, street parking on Fox Keep is time limited for residents or visitors, street parking on Cypress Vine is limited to 2 hours for residents and 72 hours for guests or visitors, Lavender Keep by Rugby Road is visitor only, and the community-wide over-flow parking is on Billberry by the gazebo area.  Generally speaking our street parking slots are considered guests or visitors only.  There are several areas where the curbs are yellow, those were designated fire lanes by the Fairfax Country Fire Marshall and no street parking is allows there at any time.  We do not have any designed handicap parking slots in Kensington but if we start to have more parking issues we may have to designate some and that would remove those slots from any other type parking for any reason.
There are 125 street slots spread out over Lavender Keep, Cypress Vine, Billberry, Lady Somerset, Fox Keep, Dickens Way, Portloe Terrace and Topsham. These include the two ADU areas and the Billberry over-flow area by the Gazebo. There are no street parking slots on Falcon Woods. The single family home area in Manor is not being counted in this exercise as they have wide streets and sufficient street parking for the most part.
No, move it in to your garage, your driveway, or have it moved to the repair facility. Likewise an expired license plate or Virginia inspection sticker can result in immediate towing. Remember you should perform car repairs only in your garage.
No.
No, in fact, you can be held responsible for their parking conduct. They should not block the street or access for emergency vehicles at any time and you should not be utilizing our limited guest parking slots for your business purposes.
An email sent to parking@KensingtonSquareHOA.com will be read by all BOD members.   We have tried in the past to create a Parking Committee to advise the BOD but without volunteers we couldn’t get it started.
Send an email to parking@KensingtonSquareHOA.com or contact Kylee Pineda @ CMC.
Trash disposal is part of your HOA dues are is handled by Patriot Disposal Services. Trash is picked up on Monday and Thursday. Recycling is picked up on Wednesday. It is recommended you place your trash containers outside the night before because they often pick up around 6:00AM. They occasionally miss a pickup for the community; in that case, they usually pick it up the next day.

Due to labor shortages, trash vendors in the DMV have mostly moved to a system where an arm grabs the whole can, lifts it up and dumps it into their truck.  Instead of having 1 driver and 1-3 people tossing the trash/recycling into the truck, they now only need to have one driver. Therefore, putting extra trash and recycling next to the container is usually ignored and left curb-side. If you have an unusual amount of trash/recycling, you can contact PDS directly to arrange a special pickup, but you are responsible for any extra charge they might impose.

There are also special pickups after the Christmas holiday for Christmas trees.

Any additional services are the homeowners's responsibility to coordinate with PDS and possibly pay extra for.
The Kensington Square Board of Directors has worked diligently to ensure the HOA's property is maintained to the highest standards to protect your investment. They have been working with contractors, service providers, and reviewing the Reserve and Replacement Study to create a budget that covers the Association's current and next fiscal years. The assessment rates have not changed.

A copy of the complete budget by line item is mailed to all Kensington Square homeowners. The PDF document on this web site provides the categories where our budget is allocated. However to protect our ability to negotiate with potential contractors and service providers those figures are NOT posted our open web site but can be found on the TownSQ.IO web site if you are a homeowner. If you have any questions please contact our CMC portfolio manager Kylee Pineda. If you are interested in learning more about and being involved with the budget and the budget process, please consider volunteering for the Financial Committee.
There is a camera at the entrance to the community on Woodberry Meadow Drive, off of Rt 50, that captures photos of all movement, and also captures the license plate data of cars. The data are captured by Flock Safety, and the following personnel have access to it:
  • Rich Williamson - Board President
  • Mike Glassman - Board VP
  • Leanna Pietroforte - SMC chair
  • Joel McClung - SMC Camera sub-chair

There are also 5 Nest cameras - 2 pointing at the basketball court, 2 at the gazebo on Billberry Drive and 1 mounted near the overflow parking lot on Billberry Dr. The video feeds are being stored.

In the past, we have had issues with non-residents accessing the basketball court, so we have added a door lock to the gate. To get the access code, submit a request using this form: Basketball Court Gate Access. The basketball court is open from 8:30AM to dusk. Please follow the rules posted on the signs near the court.
We would LOVE to have more participation by residents! Ideally, we would like to have representation from each of the sections of the community - Parc, Square, Manor, as well as the ADUs. Please send your request to the Board of Directors, or the chairperson of the respective committee and they will get back with you.
Information is being collected now. Check back for further details in the next few weeks.
See this PDF for how to make payments.

If you would like to set up an ACH automatic withdrawal of your HOA dues from your bank account, follow the instructions in this document: CMC-Direct-Debit-Authorization-Form-2024.pdf
You should create a support ticket in the TownSQ web portal (also used to pay your HOA dues), run by CMC. Creating the ticket in this system will ensure it is routed to the right personnel and provides a tracking for status updates.
There is no set date for the garage sale. In some years, we hold two, in others we hold only one. If you would like to have a community garage sale, please contact the Board of Directors and include the Communications Chair.
Soliciting is expressly forbidden in the community. There are signs posted at all community entrances stating this.
Here is a list of various HOA committees. Please send an email to the one that best matches your request, or to the HOA Manager (Kylee Pineda) if you can't find one that matches.
Homeowners are responsible for broken or damaged mailbox key(s). Contact the Chantilly Post Office to get a form and pay the appropriate fee.

One resident says it is easier to go to the post office to get the form and pay the fee there and that it was fixed the next day.

If you don’t see your question answered here, please send your question to CC@KensingtonSquareHOA.com and we will answer and add it to this page.