Gus' History with the Summit's HOA

When I moved into the Summit in January 2018, I had no intention of becoming involved with the HOA. 

That changed when a homeowner in Barony Place II received a Parking Violation Notice for a car (not owned by her) parked in front of her house, on the street, for three hours one afternoon. Her daughter had parked there while they went shopping in the homeowner's car.

The Violation Notice arrived in the mail several days later. The car, of course, had been gone by late afternoon.

I immediately suspected the HOA had no authority to enforce HOA rules over a public roadway. I argued it with the office and with Justin Martin, then-President of the HOA. He told me the HOA could enforce the By-Laws on the public roadway and also told me he didn't have to prove it to me.

I set about getting a copy of the Deed for the roadway, as there was a 5% chance that Justin was right. When I finally got the Deed (that took about two years), there was NO language in it about the HOA or the By-Laws. 

I furnished a copy to the HOA office, and no one in Barony Place II has received a Parking Violation Notice since.

Then I began looking into other areas where I believed the Board was violating the By-Laws. I found many of them. And that's where we are today.

We might have a different relationship, had the Board back then said, "Let us look into your claim and see if you might be right." Justin just said, "You're wrong." I asked that the Board consult with its attorney. There is no evidence they did so.

The current board inherited the errors of past boards. But, like those other boards, it seems they are refusing to seek legal advice. 

Playing "ostrich" might turn out to be very expensive.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Annual Meeting, Barony Place Neighborhood - continued to 5/4/2024

Barony Place Neighborhood (Barony Place I and Barony Place II attempted to hold a Neighborhood Meeting this afternoon. Of the 78 homes, seventeen (17) homes were represented, and that was not sufficient to meet the quorum requirement of 26. The meeting was continued to Saturday, May 4, 2024, 1:00PM, at 44 Barony Place Circle. An effort will be made to have at least 26 homes represented in-person or by proxy. Three homeowners have volunteered to be on the Neighborhood Committee: Tracy Manderino (Barony Place II), Della Glynn (Barony Place II) and Gwen Hayes (Barony Place I). If a quorum is present on May 4th, those present, including by proxy, will elect the Neighborhood Committee. Once the Committee has been elected, it will select one of its three committee members to be the Voting Member for the next 12 months. The other two members will be Alternates. A new announcement will be distributed to your newspaper box, along with a proxy. If you will not attend Saturday's meeting, plea
Read more

Open Letter to Barony Place "Voting Member"

An open letter to the "Voting Member" of Barony Place Neighborhood. Good morning, Billie, If you and/or an Alternate attended last night's board of directors meeting, will you please send out a recap of the meeting to Ann Stirlen and me (and to all the homeowners and residents in Barony Place)? About a dozen homeowners from throughout The Summit showed up for the board meeting  at the church  last night, only to learn from one person that it had been switched to Zoom, which allowed the board to meet in secret. Many of them had not received the email from the office that the board was (illegitimately) closing the meeting to homeowners. There are only about 1,800 (73%) email addresses of the 2,480 Members in the website database. I attempted to join the meeting on Zoom, as I am Attorney-in-Fact for Ann Stirlen, but I was not admitted to the meeting. The HOA's attorney has quoted a section in the By-Laws that she believes allows the Board to close the meetings. That spec
Read more

Special Assessment Possible?

How would you feel about a $3,000 Special Assessment levied by the HOA against you and every other HOA Member (homeowner)? Article X, Section 4 in the CC&Rs allows this. Are you aware of that? Should the Board do everything possible to eliminate the possibility of such a Special Assessment? What is the Board doing that might just lead directly to such an Assessment? The HOA, by actions of the President (Justin Martin), the Treasurer (Vernell Butler, and the Safety Committee Chair (Dennis Rybicki) entered into a contact with the Richland County Sheriff's Department, effective February 1, 2023. They arranged for special patrols in the Summit at a cost of $48.00/hour. In the Special Duty Agreement is a Liability clause. It reads,  "The Requestor will hold harmless the Richland County Sheriff's Department from any and all claims or liabilities resulting from service and indemnify RCSD for any loss due to any injury of its employee unless there is a determination of neglige
Read more