What is Line 4600 in the HOA Budget?

Who really looks at the individual line items in the Annual Budget of the HOA or in the monthly financial statements? And who understands them?

Are there any homeowners who look carefully at these important documents? Do the Board members study them and look for what might be wrong? Does the Finance Committee pay close attention?

Line 4600 is "Fines - Violations". In the Budget this is money the HOA expects to receive from homeowners who violate the Governing Documents, ignore the Violation Letters, and allow violations to continue beyond 20 days, thus entering the fine period.

What has Line 4600 been in the past four years? Source: Approved Annual Budget
2024 $20,000
2023 $62,000
2022 $28,000
2021 $25,000* (Proposed 2021 Budget)
2020 $45,000
* No Approved Annual Budget for 2021 is posted on the website.

How much has the HOA actually collected in "Fines - Violations" in past years?
Source: 12/31 Financial Statement for the Year
2024 $  53,945.73**
2023 $  67,083.60
2022 $113,604.20
2021 $163,911.41
2020 $  36,972.50
** Estimated for FY24, based on $17,981.91 through 4/30/24

Did anyone look at the results of the prior year when considering the Budget for the next year?

Why didn't the Treasurer and the Finance Committee (and the Board!) question both the budget and the results?

Did the HOA really collect $163,911.41 in Fines for Violations from homeowners in 2021? How did it jump $127,000 (343%) in 2021? Why did it drop $50,000 in 2022? Why did it drop $46,500 in 2021?

When the Board (January 2022) saw that it sucked almost $164,000 out of homeowners for fines, why didn't it appoint a Homeowners' Advocate to figure out steps to help homeowners reduce their exposure to those fines?

The website, The Summer Scoop, and the Voting Members (if there were any) all could have helped.

In 2021 the HOA expected to collect $25,000 in Fines for Violations. It collected $163,911.41!

In 2022 the HOA expected to collect $28,000 in Fines for Violations. It collected $113,604.20!

In 2023 the HOA expected to collect $62,000 in Fines for Violations. It collected $67,083.60!

Why did it expect to collect only $20,000 in 2024? (It has already collected $17,981.91, as of 4/30/2024!)

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