Who wrote off Bad Debts?

Two lines on the financial statements of the HOA should worry everyone. But do they worry anyone?

These lines are the Accounts Receivable (Line 1200) and the Allowance for Uncollectible Accounts (Line 1300). "Accounts Receivable - Other" (Line 1222) shows up in 2022, but not in 2021 or 2023.

Directors have allowed those lines to grow from year-to-year. Looking only at the past three years:

Accounts Receivable
Line          12/31/21              12/31/22             12/31/23 
1200      $373,450.65        $428,833.59       $441,421.22
1222      $0                         $    8,079.68          $0
1300     ($340,906.19)     ($404,495.68)     ($397,279.10)
Net       $   32,544.46        $  32,417.84        $  44,142.12

Between March 31 and April 30, 2024, these changes occurred:

Line                 3/31/2024                4/30/2024
1200              $498,657,27            $379,739.45
1300             ($397,279.10)         ($299,167.13)
Difference      $101,378.17           $  80,572.32

The net change in one month was $20,805.85 (20.5%). Who wrote off over $100,000 in Accounts Receivable?

The size of those changes should have resulted in a comment from the Treasurer at the next board meeting.

More importantly, who approved writing down the Accounts Receivable in the first place?

The Procedures Reference Manual (PRM) provides a clear procedure for writing down bad debts. See the PRM, Art. III, Section C, Paragraph 3.

Did the Property Manager present numbers and a recommendation to the Finance Committee?

The Finance Committee should have discussed a write-off and made a recommendation to the Board of Directors. Then the Board should have voted in public to write off the money. And it should have been reported in the Minutes of the Board meeting.

Did anyone on the Finance Committee even notice it? Without Percent-of-Change columns on the financial statements, it's easy to miss it; especially, if you don't place the monthly financial statements side-by-side and compare the numbers.

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