2022 Annual Audit vs. 2023 Annual Audit

This year's delay in release of the (2023) Annual Report is reminiscent of the battle last year to examine the 2022 Annual Audit.

In late summer 2023 I held a Power-of-Attorney for a homeowner and, when the 2022 Annual Audit was way past-due, I submitted a written request to inspect it.

After some time had passed, I received a letter from the HOA's attorney at the time (McCabe, Trotter & Beverly, P.C.), granting me access to the 2022 Annual Audit but informing me that I would have to pay up-to-$265 for a copy of it. My guess was the HOA's Property Manager (not Teresa) or the then-President of the HOA, Justin Martin, was trying to keep me from seeing the 2022 Annual Audit.

After considerable back-and-forth with the attorney (who, I am sure, charged the HOA for every minute), they finally understood my request was to "inspect" the Audit, not to receive a copy of it.

Then the property manager told me I could inspect it by appointment at the office, but I would have to pay $125/hour for her to sit there and observe me while I read it.

I refused to pay a baby-sitting fee.

Finally, in October 2023 I was given access to the 2022 Annual Audit, but the Auditor's two-page cover letter had been removed, and the Audit bore no identification of the person or firm who had conducted the Audit. The Table of Contents listed the cover letter, but it was missing.

I later suggested to the Board that they should refuse to pay any legal fees charged to the HOA for that matter. Apparently, the HOA President, property manager, or attorney had not read the Section of the By-Laws that gives a Member the right to the Audit.

"Art. VI, 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 ... Member of the Association, or by the duly appointed representative of the foregoing, ..."

Why has the current Board been withholding the 2023 Annual Audit? If the Audit is "clean", why wouldn't they produce it on-time? Aren't they proud of how well the HOA is being run?

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