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I Emailed State Reps. Will You?

Today I emailed all the S.C. State Representatives about a new bill introduced in the House last week. Will you personally contact all the State Reps you know and ask them to sign onto the Bill and support it? This was my message: Good afternoon, Representative, Your colleague, Rep Jay Kilmartin, has introduced H 5204. Will you please co-sponsor it? Thousands of your constituents live in HOAs and need some of the protections in that Bill, especially increased authority at the S.C. Dept. of Consumer Affairs. I have personal experience. I was sued by The Summit's HOA (NE Columbia). Illegally. The CC&Rs prohibited it. The Board President ignored the CC&Rs. So did the HOA's lawyers.  After a year and legal fees of $25,-$30,000, the HOA dismissed the lawsuit. I represented myself because I could not afford the estimated defense legal fees.of $30,-$50,000.
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HOA Law Reform

On February 18, 2026 S.C. State Rep. Jay Kilmartin introduced a bill in the South Carolina House of Representatives that could be the start of reform of South Carolina HOA laws. Several months ago I got acquainted with Rep. Kilmartin (R - Lexington) and introduced him to Patrick Johansen, founder of the HOA Leaders Reform National Group (HLRNG). On Wednesday Rep. Kilmartin introduced H 5204, which can be read here . As you may already know, South Carolina laws are very weak in the area of rights of a HOA Member  (homeowner). The South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs has virtually no authority over HOAs. This Bill, if passed into law would change that.  The reason it has so little authority is the state legislature. Currently, when you make a complaint to the Department of Consumer Affairs, all they do is receive it, write a letter to the HOA, receive a reply, file it, and close the complaint. The Department cannot force the HOA to follow the CC&Rs or By-Laws. I hav...
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How Should HOA Respond to Noel W.?

How should the HOA's Board of Directors respond to the email sent by Director Noel Weatherbee to Gus Philpott (me), after I requested a meeting with the Board? If you haven't read Noel's response yet, click here .  I call it Arrogance Personified. Just for the record, I wouldn't recognize her if she was standing in line at Food Lion or the Dollar Store. I can only hope she doesn't pull at "Mrs. Davis" on me. It's not the first time she has gone into a similar attack mode without provocation. Just the first time with me. Earlier this year she sicced RCSD on a Voting Member after a board meeting. She apparently had some disagreement with him and tried to use RCSD to fight her battle. Her complaint to RCSD went nowhere. How should the President of the Board respond? The President of the Board should have a private "counseling" session that should end with a caution and a warning. "Clean it up or resign from the Board." How should the B...
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Directors are at-Large

What does it mean to be a Director on the Board of The Summit's HOA? Directors of The Summit's HOA are elected (or appointed) "at-large". This means that each represents the whole of the HOA. It does not mean that a director represents only one neighborhood or a section of the HOA.  What would provoke Noel Weatherbee to respond in the manner she did? With a response like that, it's very clear that she doesn't like me. (Ask me if I care.) But what does she know about me, other than what she might have heard from Danny Trapp, the person who appointed her to the Board. Technically, it was "the Board" who appointed her at a Special Board Meeting. But the Board was controlled by Danny Trapp.  Was she even legitimately appointed? At that Special Meeting, which was never announced to the membership and for which no Board Meeting Minutes have ever been published, the Board had five* members. LaToya Adams and Ciara Bates had resigned in May.  The members at t...
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Just How Sacred Are HOA Board Members?

This morning I sent an email to the members of The Summit's Board of Directors, except Board President, Brenda Bryant. I had met with Brenda on January 30 to request a meeting with Board. The Board had dismissed its lawsuit against me on January 13, 2026, and the TRO expired on that date. Brenda and I had a good meeting, and I expected her to get back to me with a meeting date.  When I followed up with her, she replied that no meeting would be set up. She told me no settlement would be offered. I don't know what she told the board, but I had not requested a settlement. I had requested a meeting! Brenda also told me not to contact her again. So this morning I submitted my request again for a meeting. Within an hour I received this reply from Noel Weatherbee, who was appointed to the Board by Danny Trapp last June.  Noel wrote: Sir. I did not give permission for you to have my email address. You are hereby put on notice with this email that you are not welcome to have any furthe...
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HOA Is Lucky I'm Here, not Michael Novak

Who is Michael Novak? Recently I began receiving Novak's emails and access to his writings about a large condo association in Chicago, the  175 East Delaware Place HOA, which is better known as the  former John Hancock Center. His newsletter this week addresses a study of Reserves which, he writes, hides $67.7 million in capital needs. He believes that the reserve study firm " assumes 0% taxes on tens of millions in reserve investments, creates unviable funding plans, and accepts unauthorized revisions from other than the majority of the board while ignoring their own written policies." What does this have to do with The Summit's HOA? Reserves of The Summit's HOA have plummeted in recent years. How far below safe levels are they? The HOA has not published monthly financial statements since August 2025! In 2020 the  Members' contribution to Reserves was $163,965. In 2021, 2022, and 2023 the mandatory contribution to Reserves dropped.  In 2024 the contribution w...
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Who Caused the Trespass Letter?

In September 2025 Danny Trapp, then Board President of the HOA, sent a letter to the Brookland Baptist Church Northeast, at which the HOA was holding its monthly Board Meetings. There is no record in Board Meeting Minutes that the Board ever approved or authorized Danny Trapp to send that letter to the Church.  As a result of that letter, the Church issued a Trespass Notice that banned four men from church property. The four men were Dennis Rybicki, Angelo Turley-Moore, Mike Bryant, and Gus Philpott. The first three are homeowners in the HOA. Two of them (Dennis and Mike) were (are) Voting Members. Angelo was about to become a Voting Member. Gus Philpott is a resident of a property in the HOA. Summer HOA meetings had been loud, perhaps bordering on too loud. The Church secretary told me that some women in the choir, whose rehearsal started before Board Meetings ended, had complained about being afraid. I know Rybicki, Bryant, and Moore. They are not trouble-makers.  I (Gus) ha...
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