Barony Place I/Barony Place II

There is a Standing Committee of the HOA that is currently being ignored by the Board of Directors (BOD). It is the Asset Evaluation Committee. Why is it being ignored? The Procedures Reference Manual describes the Asset Evaluation Committee at  Article II, §B, ¶11). "11) Asset Evaluation Committee : Is responsible for establishing and maintaining an inventory of all commonly owned components for which a reserve should be maintained. It will provide an estimate of the remaining useful life and current replacement cost of each item, as well as an analysis of the current funding status of the Reserves and will recommend a funding plan for future annual contributions in the Reserve fund. The analysis is to cover all common site improvements including entrance roads, parking areas, sidewalks only at the pool areas, curb and gutter, fencing, entrance feature, site building, ponds/lakes, walking trails, and other site amenities. This committee will be responsible for maintaining the Sum...

The HOA has a new law firm, as of the Motion made and approved at the May 7, 2024 Board of Directors monthly meeting. The new law firm is Turner Padget. The Board sorely needs good legal advice. These are some of the questions that the Board should ask its lawyer at Turner Padget. (1) How many legitimate Voting Members are there? (To me, "legitimate" means elected in compliance with the By-Laws.) Is there more than one (Tracy Manderino, Voting Member of Barony Place as of May 4, 2024)? (2) Does written documentation exist from each Neighborhood, on file with the HOA office, that states when its most recent Neighborhood Meeting was held, whether a quorum was present, who was elected to its Neighborhood Committee, and whom that Neighborhood Committee elected as its chairman and Voting Member for the following year? (3) Can illegitimate Voting Members elect directors and, if they cannot, is any current director legitimately in office? (4) Is any officer of the HOA a legitimate o...

Where does the buck stop in the HOA? In the office, with the on-site property manager (PM)? With the President of the HOA? With the Board of Directors? With the Voting Members? On June 3 the office was asked how many homes are in each of the 28 Neighborhoods. The first answer was list of Neighborhoods, but no homes were reported for Chapelwood. The total, excluding Chapelwood, was 2,526. NOTE: According to the 2024 Budget and the CAMS contract, there are 2,480 homes! The second reply from the office added 69 homes for Chapelwood, bringing the total in the HOA to 2,595. That's 115 homes above the 2,480 mark.  And no further response from the office since June 5.  Why did the office clam up? Was the on-site property manager told to stop communicating with me? She also has not responded to my request to inspect the 2023 Annual Audit, which all Members (homeowners) should have received by about May 1, 2024. Nor has she responded to my request to inspect the Minutes for the May 20,...

If you would like to see an interesting piece of property owned by the HOA, drive by 486 Indigo Ridge Drive. You won't see a mailbox there or a house number painted on the curb. It's right across the street from 485 Indigo Ridge Drive. Look for the large rusty trailer backed into the woods just down the hill from the curb. It's by the orange cone. Is it the HOA's trailer? If you had that trailer on your property, how quickly would you receive a Violation Notice, threat of fines, and all the attendant legal problems? What is the HOA's plan for that piece of property (Richland County Parcel R23108-09-11)? It's interesting to me that the Acreage is not listed for this property. Should it be developed into a nice access to the lake? To a walking trail around that lake? The HOA has a real deal on the property tax. The property's taxable, market, and land values are all pegged at $600. That's far, far less than the real value. A homebuilder could put a very ni...

Yesterday's storm and heavy rains produced a surprise for a homeowner in Indigo Springs.  When he looked outside this morning, he spotted a change in his front yard. A large swath of grass and underlying soil were gone. Earlier he had tried to call The Summit's HOA and dialed a 803/744-_ _ _ _ number, reaching an answer service. I was able to give him the correct phone number for The Summit's HOA, and he called just before closing time. They took a message and told him Green Earth (the HOA's landscaping company) will contact him on Monday. The developer probably should have put in retaining walls between the property uphill from his house and him and on his property to protect the property down the hill from his house. But that was 20 years ago.

This morning I went to the HOA office to read the Report (Minutes) of the May 20, 2024 meeting of the Covenants Committee.  The office did not have it. At the June 18th Board of Directors Meeting, the Chair of the Covenants Committee was out-of-town and a Committee member was to give the report. All he said was that the Committee had met in May and that the report had been sent to the Board. (Why didn't he just read the report?) Later in the meeting I asked for the report to be read. Danny Trapp, President of the HOA, said the board hadn't received it. No board member asked what the heck was going on! On July 8 I emailed a request to the office to inspect the report.  In the absence of any acknowledgement or reply, on July 11 I filed a Five-Day Demand (allowed under State law) to inspect the report. When I went to the office this morning (July 19), there was no report. The office manager said she didn't have it and that it had gone to the Board. The Board should have given ...

How does a homeowner become a Voting Member in The Summit's HOA? A popular way in recent years has been to "get signatures". A homeowner circulates through his (or her) neighborhood, asking homeowners to sign a form naming that person as Voting Member. It's a great scheme. And it's not legitimate. Why not? Because the By-Laws (Art V, Section 3) provide one specific method for becoming a Voting Member. And it's not "getting signatures". Every year each Neighborhood is supposed to have a Neighborhood Meeting and elect a three-person Neighborhood Committee, which then selects one of the three to be the Voting Member for the next 12 months. Voting Members elect directors. They can also remove directors. If they remove a director, then the VMs replace him (or her). Under specific circumstances, the BOD can name a successor director.  The BOD has "conveniently" complied with the By-Laws when it suits them. Right now there is a vacancy on the boar...

If you are a homeowner in The Summit's HOA, are you represented before the Board of Directors (BOD)? The answer is No. To whom is the BOD accountable? Or is it? If your Neighborhood doesn't have a legitimate Voting Member (VM), then you are not represented before the BOD. Presently, only one Neighborhood, Barony Place (Barony Place I and II), has a legitimate VM. The BOD has gotten away with this rotten state of affairs for many years, because the Homeowners (Members of the Association) do not pay attention or know what the By-Laws say. The HOA President wrote in the May 2024 Scoop, "We have a monumental hurdle to overcome financially." That's the same as saying they must raise the dues. But the BOD cannot raise the dues as much as is needed (more than 10%), because there are not enough VMs to approve a request from the BOD. The HOA took on a burden (Parcel R23107-10-10), when the developer of The Lakes at Barony Place transferred 1.15 acres of weeds to the HOA in...

One of three islands in Barony Place II Is the HOA running out of money? Is that the reason that the irrigation and landscaping problems in Barony Place II have dragged on and on for at least three years? On July 8, 2024, I emailed Danny Trapp, Chair of the Landscaping Committee (and President of the HOA). The three islands in Barony Place II were wrecked by an ice storm about 3-4 years ago. Bushes and trees were removed, and the grass has gone without water. The entrance at Barony Place Drive has been almost abandoned, too. Photo is of island between 44-46 Barony Place Circle today. Forty-six homes pay $510/year in dues, for a total of $23,460/year. This is over $70,000 in dues for three years. Is there a chance that the Landscaping Committee could spend some of that money to bring back some beauty to this Neighborhood? When will watering resume? I expected Danny to reply. This is July 18, and he has not replied. Will he? Actually, I didn't "expect" him to reply, because...

Do you know how many committees there are in the HOA? 10? 11? 17? 10, according to the Scoop 11, according to the HOA's website 17, according to the Procedures Reference Manual (PRM) on Page 40 Important committees listed in the PRM but missing from the Scoop and the website are: Asset Evaluation Committee Neighborhood Committee * Energy Committee New Construction Committee A Newsletter Committee is listed on the website, but not in the Scoop or in the PRM. There is another important committee that is ignored by this board of directors.  The Budget Committee is a sub-committee of the Finance Committee. It can be found in the PRM at Art. II, §C, ¶1. "This committee, a sub-committee of the Finance Committee, is responsible for establishing a balanced annual budget, [ sic ] and presenting it to the Finance Committee for review and to the Board for approval. The budgeting process considers input from all levels and includes members from the general community ." [ Emphasis add...

This is one of three islands in Barony Place II. This one, across from 34 Barony Place Circle, was damaged by an ice-storm 3-4 years ago. Bushes and small trees were removed over the following year. The grass hasn't been watered for 3-4 years.  If this was a front yard of any home in the HOA, the owner would have been bombarded with violation notices, threats of fines, AND fines. Why does the HOA, the legal owner of this island, get away with failure to replace damaged landscaping and failure to water the grass? Can the office issue a Violation Notice to the HOA? Should it do so? The HOA has not been maintaining the three islands in Barony Place II, even though the 46 homeowners cough up $23,460/year in dues. Until May 2024 Barony Place did not have a legitimate Voting Member to represent them and demand landscaping improvements. Now we do. Let your Barony Place Voting Member and the chair of the Landscaping Committee (Danny Trapp) know that it is way past time for the HOA to insta...

"We have a monumental hurdle to overcome financially. We are experiencing requests for payments for invoices that are foreign to the current board, and there is no documentation justifying these requests." - Danny Trapp, HOA President (May 2024 Summit Scoop, Page 1) What's wrong with the 2024 Budget? First, the 2024 Budget started with a deficit of $27,799.97. That deficit was before those previously-unknown invoices showed up. Where were they? Secondly, the CC&Rs require the Budget to include " a capital contribution establishing a reserve fund " (Art. X, Section 2). The amount of capital contribution in the 2024 Budget (Line 8000 Replacement Reserves) is $0. That's zero . No dollars are in the Budget for future expenses. For reference, the 2023 Budget had $39,677 on Line 8000. The 2022 Budget had $91,610 on Line 8000. The 2021 Budget had $146,155 on Line 8000.  Those figures are the "Budget". The Annual Audit reveals what really happened wit...

In the May 2024 Summit Scoop HOA President Danny Trapp wrote: "We have a monumental hurdle to overcome financially." The May 31, 2024 Financials may explain more about that.  No wonder the BOD canceled the July board meeting. That meeting is where the May financials would have been distributed to Members. If you want to see them, go to www.summithomeowners.com , log in, hover over RESIDENTS, click on DOCUMENTS, click on Financial Operating Results, click on May 2024. Look carefully at the very first chart, Operating Cash. Why is Net Available Cash down to less-than-$100,000??? Former Treasurer Vernell Butler added that chart to the monthly financial reports. No one has ever explained why the charts don't agree with the totals in the bank accounts for the various cash accounts.

By-Laws, Section 4. Books and Records .  (a) Inspection by Members and Mortgagees. The Declaration, By-Laws and Articles of Incorporation, any amendments to the foregoing, the rules and regulations of the Association, the membership register, books of account, and the minutes of meetings of the Members, the Board, and committees shall be made available for inspection and copying by any holder, insurer or guarantor of a first Mortgage on a Unit, Member of the Association, or by the duly appointed representative of the foregoing , at any reasonable time and for a purpose reasonably related to his or her interest in the Unit at the office of the Association or at such other place within the Properties as the Board shall prescribe. This Section applies to Board meetings, pre-board meetings, Neighborhood meetings, Annual Meetings of Voting Members, committee meetings, etc.  Do you know that there are not any Minutes of Annual Meetings of the Voting Members?  Those Annual Mee...

The HOA's office sent out this message on Friday, July 12, at 1:34PM. " The Summit Association office will be closed on Saturday, July 13th. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.   "Thank you for your understanding." No explanation was given. Why is the office closed? Why is there no explanation? Why does the on-site property manager apologize for the inconvenience? And how does she know that anyone understands, if no explanation is given for the last-minute announcement? Does it have anything to do with Summit Day tomorrow? If you don't already have your Summit ID, I guess you will be ordered away from Summit Day. Will the ID Police be working at Birch Park tomorrow?

Should the HOA office (on-site property manager) and the HOA President ignore written requests for information from a Member of the Association (or that Member's representative)? If you wrote to the office and then to the HOA President, would you  expect a reply? Would you expect that reply to be correct? True? For example, if you asked how many homes were in each of the 28 Neighborhoods, wouldn't you expect the office to know that answer? On behalf of a Member, I asked that question on June 3. The first answer was 2,526, excluding Chapelwood. I asked how many home were in Chapelwood and was told "69", making the total number of homes in the HOA 2,595. The problem? There are 2,480 homes in the HOA. The office has not replied further since June 5. On behalf of a Member, I asked the office for a copy of the 2023 Annual Audit. The By-Laws state it is to be distributed to all Members by May 1st (120 days after the end of the Association's Fiscal Year (December 31)). ...

From June 30, 2002 until January 8, 2006, the price of a first-class stamp was $0.37. I still have one! Stamp prices are like elevators. Going up ... If you need stamps, order them before Sunday on https://www.usps.com , unless you just love going to the Post Office on Clemson Road. For a very small handling charge, you can have your order delivered right to your mailbox. And you won't even have Christmas stamps pushed on you. On July 14, 2024, the new price for a First-Class stamp will be $0.73, making this the second price increase this year. That's an increase from the $0.68 price that went into effect on January 21, 2024. There were two price increases in 2023, too. On January 22, 2023, stamp price increased to $0.63, and on July 9, 2023 the price of a stamp increased to $0.66. How much was a stamp when you were born? Check out this interesting stamp-price history, thanks to the Smithsonian National Postal Museum . Admission to the Museum is always free. Maybe that's on...

Do you screen your phone calls by inspecting the Area Code before you answer? Silly question; right? Do you know how many Area Codes there will be in South Carolina? As of July 19th, there will be six (6). For the Upstate: 846 and 821 Midlands: 803 and 839 For eastern and southeastern S.C.: 843 and 854

At the June 18, 2024 HOA board meeting, a member of the Covenants Committee informed the board that the Committee had met in May and that a report had been sent to the board. I had attended that meeting and was aware that the committee had forwarded an action item to the board. So I asked that the report be read to the audience. President Danny Trapp said no report had been received. Whoa! Wait a minute! A report was sent but not received? Wouldn't you think that at least one board member would recognize the problem and demand an answer? When the July Scoop was published (today), this sentence appears as the Covenants Committee report: "There was one hearing in May, and the committee sent the information to the Board of Directors." WHAT was the "information"? I'll file a request with the office, but it will be considered just another of my "incessant emails" (as one board member describes them), and I won't get an answer.  When the Scoop was pu...

In the just-published July Summit Scoop, HOA President Danny Trapp writes, "Our upcoming interviews for the chairperson of our Safety committee is [ sic ] of paramount importance to the future of our community." That is probably the least-important item facing the HOA. If it is important at all, it is certainly not of "paramount" importance. He is making a mountain out of a molehill. For years the Safety Committee has exceeded the limits of its Mission as stated on the HOA's website. That Mission is responsibility " for identifying unsafe conditions that exist in the amenity areas and reporting these findings to the Association Board of Directors along with recommendations for rectifying the problems. " What are higher priorities? Attending to the financial crisis facing the HOA. In May Scoop, Danny wrote, "We have a monumental hurdle to overcome financially." Yet not a word about that since! Irrigation throughout the Summit is a problem. App...

There is a vacancy on the Board of Directors that has never been announced. Tommy Williams was appointed to the Board earlier this year, after Vernell Butler quit suddenly, in a huff because he was not re-elected as Treasurer.  When Tommy resigned (May?), the Board should have immediately announced the vacancy, searched for a successor, and appointed a homeowner to serve the remainder of the 2022-2024 term-of-office. The seat will be up for election in November, IF the HOA can field a legitimate quorum of Voting Members, which it has not done in the past five-six years. What is the effect of that empty seat? Much business will grind to a halt. Any Motion resulting in a 3-3 tie, fails.  Why isn't the HOA President, Danny Trapp, announcing that vacancy and leading the Board to fill it? There are six directors on the board. (Actually, there aren't any legitimate directors.) But let's go along with the game they are playing. Assuming Danny would vote NO to announcing the vacanc...

In the May 2024 Summit Scoop HOA President Danny Trapp wrote, "We have a monumental hurdle to overcome financially." He was silent about it at the May 7th board meeting. He was silent about it at the June 18th board meeting. There will not be a July board meeting. The next opportunity for Association Members to ask him about it publicly will be August 6, 2024. What did he mean? When Danny was elected to the board on November 7, 2023, he told me that night that he wanted to talk with me. He has known of my complaints about the legitimacy of the boards for at least two years. One would think that in eight months he would have found time. Why should Danny contact me? I can help the HOA solve many of its problems. I have identified important areas of non-compliance with the By-Laws. It's pretty clear to me that the Board does not want my help. I wonder how they will feel if they get letters from the S.C. Attorney General, the S.C. Secretary of State, the S.C. Dept. of Consume...

Not that The Summit Scoop is worth much, but where is the July edition? Was the office so busy chasing stray garbage cans and issuing parking violation notices for cars parked (legally) on streets that they didn't have time to publish the Scoop this month? Probably nobody would miss it, if it just stopped. The Scoop is emailed to about 75% of the homeowners. How many bother to read it? The Scoop could be a valuable means of communication, but the Board fails to take control and put it in the hands of the homeowners.  The Newsletter Committee isn't even listed on Page 2 of The Scoop. However, if you go to Committee listings on the HOA's website, you'll see that the #2 employee in the office is the Chair of the Newsletter Committee. And you'll see that there is no Mission for the Committee. Two homeowners (Members of the Association) are listed as members of the Committee. One owns a home in The Summit but lives in Florida. The other should be the Chair (but isn't...

  44-46 Barony Place Circle The following email was sent this morning to Danny Trapp, Chair of the Landscaping Committee (and HOA President) and Jeff Lummel, member of the Landscaping Committee (and former chair of the Committee): Dear Danny and Jeff, The three islands in Barony Place II were wrecked by an ice storm about 3-4 years ago. Bushes and trees were removed, and the grass has gone without water. The entrance at Barony Place Drive has been almost abandoned, too. Photo is of island between 44-46 Barony Place Circle today. Forty-six homes pay $510/year in dues, for a total of $23,460/year. This is over $70,000 in dues for three years. Is there a chance that the Landscaping Committee could spend some of that money to bring back some beauty to this Neighborhood? When will watering resume? Thanks, Gus Philpott

When you still see election campaign signs posted around the county, you might wish to know the rules. From the Ombudsman's Office: "Political signs may be displayed during a period beginning sixty (60) days before an election but must be removed within seven (7) days after the election or referendum has been decided. It shall be the responsibility of the candidate to have such signs removed." For those candidates who were not successful in the Primary or the Run-Off, their time is up. Their campaign staffs and supporters should be removing the signs. If you see their signs, call them and ask them to pick up their signs. Overture Walker was successful in the Democratic Run-off for S.C. Senate District 22. In the past week, I haven't seen one of his signs! His campaign workers have been busy picking them up. Thanks, Overture. You'll see Overture's signs again, beginning September 7th. He'll be getting my vote on November 7th.

  How many times have you driven by these signs at the entrance to Barony Place II? Notice what's wrong? The error is being reported to the Richland County Roads & Drainage Division today, via the Ombudsman, and I'm sure they will be out promptly to correct them. The signing error was pointed out to me this morning by a homeowner.

Does the Summit's HOA have a legal board of directors? The State of South Carolina has an important set of laws that apply to the Summit's HOA. It's called the Non-Profit Corporations Act. Article VIII, Subarticle A, reads, in part, Board of Directors SECTION 33-31-801.  Requirement for and duties of board. (a) Each corporation must have a board of directors. That's short and sweet; right? Pretty simple. Not too hard to understand. Read it again. Maybe call each Director of the HOA and ask him or her to read it. Aloud. "Each corporation must have a board of directors." "Each" means each and every one. "corporation" means, in this law, a "non-profit corporation". "must" mean it is required. It is not optional. "board of directors" means a legal, legitimate board. It means a board of duly-elected directors. It means directors elected by those who are entitled to vote for directors and who are eligible to vote fo...

The HOA's office sent out a long email about fireworks and the upcoming Fourth of July holiday. The email was totally unnecessary. Whether any homeowner or resident shoots off fireworks is absolutely none of the HOA's business. If the office or the Board felt it necessary to send out any email at all, all it had to say was "Please be aware of Richland County's fireworks ordinance. If interested, see (link)." That's it! The HOA has plenty of things to attend to; ex., legitimizing the Voting Members; legitimizing the Board of Directors; legitimizing the officers of the Board; overcoming the "monumental financial hurdle" of the HOA; solving the multi-year problems with the waterfalls at the entrance and the irrigation problems on Common Properties in many neighborhoods. Why waste time on matters over which the HOA has no authority?