Barony Place I/Barony Place II

How should the bills of the HOA be paid each month? When the invoices arrive, they should go in a pile. At least once a month, probably twice, at least two members of the Finance Committee should review and preliminarily approve them. A list of Payees and Amounts should be created.  Then the Finance Committee should review the list and approve it. Questions about any particular invoice should not delay on-time payment of the rest of the accounts. The list should be presented at the monthly BOD meeting and approved for payment by the Board. Then the Property Manager arranges for prompt payment. Timing can be a problem, if an invoice arrives that is 30 Days Net. It's going to get paid late, likely involving Late Fees. The HOA should be paying all bills on time. It should not be paying any Late Payment Fees. In the past there have been some payment problems, and the HOA was being charged Late Fees. I think that got resolved, but did you ever hear any discussion at a monthly board meet...

The  Summit's HOA has filed serious legal action against me.  The Affidavit of Danny Trapp, President of the HOA, is public record, because it has been filed with the Richland County Court of Common Pleas. Of course, it's hard for the public to get at it without electronic access to court records. But you can always drive downtown and read it in person. Or maybe I can figure out how to publish a readable version here on this blog. I'll try.  What is your guess of my legal expense to defend myself against this action by your HOA? $10,000? $20,000? $30,000? $40,000? $50,000? And your guess of the HOA's cost for the Cease and Desist Letter in August? The Summons & Complaint in December? The Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order? You can watch the mounting cost to the HOA by examining the monthly Financial Operating Results report. Look for Line 6500 (Legal / Professional Fees) in the Statement of Revenues and Expenses. To find those reports, go the HOA's website...

Last week I received a Notice of Hearing from the lawyers for The Summit's HOA. The Hearing is for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) or Preliminary Injunction. There was only a single piece of paper in the envelope, and it wasn't even sent by Certified Mail. I considered throwing it away, since there was no Proof of Delivery for it. It's a good thing I didn't. Instead, I emailed the lawyers for the Exhibits that were mentioned in the Summons & Complaint that had been served on me, but which had been omitted in the documents served on me. When the lawyer replied, she wrote, "My apologies for any confusion..." (What "confusion"?) The lawyer sent not only the Exhibits I requested, but also a Motion, Affidavit, and Exhibits that I suspect should have sent to me with the Notice of Hearing. What if I hadn't requested the Exhibits that were missing from the Summons and Complaint? I would have been blind-sided by the testimony presented in Court by...

Check out this story about a HOA in Marvin, N.C. that didn't follow its By-Laws. The Board gave an easement to the City of Marvin, and homeowners don't like it. This is what can happen when a Board of Directors takes action without checking all the boxes.  Could something like that happen here? Does the Board of The Summit's HOA ever take action without checking all the boxes? Actually, the news is full of stories about HOAs that make mistakes. Some of the mistakes are small; some are not. Some are cheap to fix; some are not. Marvin, N.C. is 20 miles east of Fort Mill, S.C.

The December 31, 2024 Financial Operating Results of the HOA should be posted now (or soon) on the HOA's website, so that homeowners will have an opportunity to examine them before the February 4, 2025 board meeting. This Report and those of previous months can be found on the HOA's website. Hover over RESIDENTS; click on DOCUMENTS. Click on Financial Operating Results. Pay particular attention to the "Variances", which may be shown on Page 1 or Page 2. Variances are the items in the 2024 Budget that were over-spent.  If it's like the November 30th Report, no Total will be shown for the Variances. Grab your calculator and add up the numbers in the "YTD Variance" column. Those numbers in parentheses are the over-spent amounts. And "YTD %" is not under-budget; it is OVER-budget! See the "U" at the end of the line? That stands for Unfavorable, as stated in very small print on the page. Be sure to look at the "reason" for GL-60...

How could monthly board meetings be more professional, without giving up on friendliness? The President should call the meeting to order in a clear, authoritative voice, using the microphone. Speak clearly and enunciate. Hold the microphone so that the voice is amplified. Continue to use the microphone for all business. Ask the deputy to use the microphone for his report. Tell the audience that they will have two minutes for concerns or questions. If their question or concern can be answered briefly, the President may call on a board member to do so. Ask them to stand, state their name and Neighborhood, and speak loudly and clearly. If appropriate, direct them to the office or to a committee. Avoid lengthy back-and-forth. Limit the speaker and topic to two minutes. Appoint a time-keeper. Stop them after two minutes. On January 7th, once again, audience members got on a roll and went far past their time, without interruption by the President. Committee chairs should use the microphone a...

These were questions that I thought Voting Members should have asked the Board at the January 2025 Board meeting. Why didn’t you send out the 2025 Budget with the Assessment Notices? (CC&Rs, Article X, Section 3)  By Nov. 30 th the HOA had over-spent the budget in 11 categories by $129,000. Why didn’t you increase the dues by $50/year for 2025? Please explain the Variances (over-spending) listed on the Financial Overview Report. They totaled $129,000 as of November 30, 2024, which includes Legal & Professional Fees. Legal was the sixth-largest category at $9,116. Why was Legal left off the list? How many legitimate Voting Members are there? Where can the Minutes of the pre-board meetings and the Finance Committee meetings be inspected by Members? (By-Laws, Article VI, Section 4(a)) Why did you write off $100,000 in Accounts Receivable (unpaid dues) last April without discussing it at a board meeting and voting on it? Accounts Receivable (unpaid  dues) as ...

There is no reason to hate HOAs.  You bought your home in The Summit for a reason. A properly-run HOA can help you keep your home's value high. How is your voice as a Homeowner heard? In The Summit's HOA you, the homeowner, do not elect those who direct the HOA (.i.e., members of the Board of Directors). You do not have a voice directly to the Board. You are supposed to go through your Neighborhood's Voting Member. Your representative is the Voting Member of your neighborhood. This is THE reason that every Neighborhood should have a legitimate Voting Member. "Legitimate" means, elected in compliance with the By-Laws. You don't have a direct say, if the Board decides to raise the Annual Assessment (currently, $510/year). You don't have a direct say, if the Board wants to levy a Special Assessment. You don't have a direct say, if the Board wants to dilute your present authority for electing your Voting Member.  It's your Voting Member who has that ...

Time for a short blogpost. On November 12, 2024 the Board of Directors approved the 2025 Budget, which contained Line 5040 - Pool Maintenance Contract, $1,049. Only two months later, on January 7, 2025, the Board of Directors discussed pool maintenance contracts and awarded the contract to Capital City Aquatics (incorporated December 31, 2022) for $32,081.42. Anybody have any questions? The next BOD meeting will be February 4, 2025, 6:30PM.

Why is The Summit's HOA seeking a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against Gus Philpott? What is it that the HOA doesn't want you , the homeowner , to know about operations of the HOA? Does the HOA keep you adequately informed of its financial operations? (For example, Variances (over-spending) are shown in the monthly Financial Operating Results, but they are not totaled and never commented on.) Or about other operations, such as failing to guide Neighborhoods to hold Annual Neighborhood Meetings and elect legitimate Voting Members to represent them?  Perhaps board members are having difficulty with the word "Annual". They should buy five minutes of the lawyer's time for a definition of "Annual". Or they could read it here; it means "yearly", as in every year. Why aren't there meaningful communications between the HOA (the Board) and the Members? The Summit Scoop certainly doesn't qualify. (Ex., See the President's Report in the...

  If you see me in the next few weeks, I'll be wearing long-sleeved shirts. I don't want the HOA to know what I've got up my sleeve. How many people who are facing legal action by an HOA can have so much fun? I hope South Carolina doesn't come up an Amusement Tax and send me an invoice. It all started when the HOA sent one of those dumb Parking Violation Notices - a "Courtesy Letter." Yeah, sure. The homeowner's daughter had visited one afternoon and parked her car in front of the house, on the public street, for three hours.  A few days later a nastygram from the HOA showed up. Most people would have called the office to complain. Or just called to say "The car is gone" or "The car isn't mine." Not I. Justin Martin, then-President of the HOA, told me the HOA could enforce parking on streets. I asked him to prove it. He told me he didn't have to prove anything to me. And the fight was on. It took two years but I finally got a co...

One of the most-important meetings of the HOA in an entire year is held every November. It is the Annual Meeting of Voting Members (AMVM). This meeting precedes the annual meeting of the Board of Directors. Usually, it is held 30-60 minutes before the start of the Board Meeting. This is the meeting when Voting Members elect either three directors (even-numbered years) or four directors (odd-numbered years). Would it surprise you to know that the HOA does not generate Minutes of this Meeting? The Minutes should include the following: a copy of the announcement of the AMVM and date it was issued; date, day, time, and location of meeting; who presided over the meeting; who recorded the Minutes; who attended the meeting from each Neighborhood; whether, and how, the Secretary confirmed that each Neighborhood's attendee was a legitimate Voting Member (or Alternate); whether a quorum of legitimate Voting Members was present in-person; whether any persons were present, other than the ...

Why would a newly-elected board member quit the Board only three months after being elected? What did she learn in the first three months of being a member that she didn't know before she was elected? On November 1, 2022 the "Voting Members", including the illegitimate "Voting Member" for Barony Place and other illegitimate "Voting Members", voted in the 2022 Annual Meeting of Voting Members. That Meeting should not have been convened, because it did not have a quorum of legitimate Voting Members. The chairman of the Nominating Committee blew the announcement of winners of the election, announcing that Auby Dellinger had been re-elected. Auby was chairing the November 2022 Board of Directors Meeting (Justin Martin was absent), and he was greatly embarrassed and disrespected when Mary Ann Game had to announce that, in fact, he had not been re-elected. Instead of Auby, Vicki McCarthy had been elected. Vernell Butler quickly spoke up and erroneously said ...

As many know, I have been watching The Summit's HOA quite closely for the past six years. I have decided that I want to be a South Carolina Senator. Beginning in a few days, I shall be circulating a petition for you to sign. In other words, I am going to "get signatures." After all, if a homeowner can "get signatures" and become a Voting Member of The Summit's HOA, why can't I follow the same process? I think I'll start with my seven friends on The Summit's Board of Directors. They know me pretty well. After I have enough signatures, I'll show up at the South Carolina Capitol and take my seat with the others. Surely, there won't be any problem. I'll just show them my form with all the signatures. If anyone sees a problem with this, please let me know. 

(Click to enlarge) The HOA's lawyer will be happy about the Motto of the USPS, " Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. " A letter from the HOA's attorney, mailed January 17 and delivered January 23, has informed me of a Hearing on February 11th. At least, the "swift completion" of the mail carrier's rounds got it here before my birthday. Since it was not sent by Certified Mail, maybe I should have thrown it away instead of acknowledging it here. The HOA, in addition to trying to muzzle me with its lawsuit filed on December 30th, is notching up its game with a request for a Temporary Restraining Order. Are all whistleblowers treated this way? Is the HOA trying to bankrupt me? I know the HOA has over $1,000,000 of your money in financial institutions. How much of it will the HOA spend trying to muzzle me? The HOA has only $20,000 set aside for 2025 Legal and Professional ...

  Are you a Voting Member? Do you want to be a Voting Member? Several years ago homeowners who were interested in being Voting Members may have been told that all they had to do was show up in November at the Annual Meeting of Voting Members and vote for directors. I heard that from a long-time "Voting Member". Is that true? Read the "Voting Members/Alternates Memo Concerning Voting Member/Alternate Right [ sic ] & Responsibilities". Voting Members have Rights and Responsibilities. They also have duties, obligations, and liabilities. You can read the rules on the HOA's website. Stay on the homepage. Scroll down to and click on Neighborhood News. Scroll down to the headline for  Voting Members/Alternates Memo, and click on "HERE". The Memo is dated August 7, 2020 and was written by the late George Reynolds, long-time Treasurer of the HOA. Most of it re-states the CC&Rs  and the By-Laws. What isn't included are the liabilities that go with be...

The Minutes for the January 7, 2025 Board meeting  have been published. You can read them on the HOA's website. The first item, after approval of December's Minutes, is  "Becca Brendle CPA presented the 2023 Audit that was completed 9/2024. No adjustments are needed to be made." Why did the Board fail to release it promptly to the members? They held it for more than 100 days. The By-Laws (Art. III, C, §19) state that the Audit is to be distributed to the Members by about May 1st (120 days after the end of the fiscal year which, for the HOA, is a calendar year, or December 31. The PRM (Art. III, §C, ¶2) allows more time for the Audit, stating that the audit is to be completed by August 31st. However, the PRM can't change the By-Laws. In the By-Laws, there is wording that reads "...  the   management standards of performance will be followed unless the Board by resolution specifically determines otherwise..." Did any Board ever determine otherwise by resol...

Every once in a while there is a line in a book that is well worth remembering. "Sapiens nihil affirmat quod non prohat." "A wise man states as true nothing he cannot prove." This is from False Dawn , by Paul Levine. Published in 2013 by  Herald Square Publishing, it is Book 3 in the Jake Lassiter Legal Thriller Series. The HOA, through its President and its lawyer, seems to think that I have made false accusations and have harassed "the Association, its board members and representatives". The lawyer exercised his penmanship in a Cease and Desist Letter on August 28, 2024. Then, on December 30, 2024, that same honorable lawyer filed a Complaint in court that includes  (No. 18) "Despite receipt of this correspondence, Defendant (that's me (or, more correctly, that is I)) has failed to curb his behavior leaving the Association with no other choice but to seek legal action" and (No. 27) "Plaintiff (that's the HOA) has every reason to ex...

On November 12, 2024 the Board approved the 2025 Budget. In that Budget, Contract Landscaping (Line 6020) is budgeted for $556,358. According to the Minutes for the January 7, 2025 Board Meeting, a contract was signed with Green Earth for grounds maintenance for $569,400. Is grounds maintenance the same as Contract Landscaping? If so, why is the contract greater than the budget? In that same Budget, Pool Maintenance (Line 5040) is budgeted for $1,049. This is obviously an unrealistically low number. Why is it so low? According to the Minutes for the January 7, 2025 Board Meeting, a contract was signed with Capital City Aquatics for pool maintenance for $32,081.42. Why is this $31,000+ higher than the budget? More importantly, why was the budget unrealistically low? The pool monitors' rate is set at $25.00/hr. The amount budgeted for pool monitors is $43,200, which will buy 1,728 hours of monitors' time. How many hours of monitors' time did the HOA buy in 2024? Will the Janu...

According to the Summons & Complaint served on me on January 14, 2025, The Summit's HOA, through its attorney, asserts that I have accused "the Board and its members of bank fraud." Where did Danny Trapp (the HOA's current "President") get that? When I was kicked out of the December 17, 2024 Finance Committee meeting, on the way out the door I did say that my first phone call the next morning would be to the FBI. One of the Finance Committee members asked why, and I said "bank fraud." Consider this: The HOA has multiple accounts with Edward Jones, South Carolina Federal Credit Union, First Community Bank, and First Citizens Bank/CIT. Somebody has to give directions to those institutions. Usually, it would be the Treasurer of the depositor (the HOA). Also, there are steps required by the Board before the Treasurer can give directions. What if the person acting as Treasurer is not the legitimate Treasurer of the corporation (HOA)? If a person wh...

I thought things were already pretty great, but today the HOA made my day. Thank you, HOA! After all the whining at the January Board Meeting about saving money on postage by delaying the Referendum, the HOA had to spent extra money to send out a copy of the 2025 Budget. The letter opened with, " It has come to our attention that the 2025 budget was inadvertently not included in the January assessment mailing. " Was it "inadvertently not included"? Or was it omitted ? Luckily, the letter and envelope weighed 0.95 oz, coming in (just barely) under the one-ounce postage rate. First-Class postage is $0.73, so the mailing may have cost $1,810.40. Had the budget been included with the Assessment Notice mailing, the postage then for each letter might have been $1.01 (2 oz. rate), or $2,504.80. That second ounce would have cost $0.28, instead of $0.73, or only $694.40 more (instead of costing $1,810.40). Handling and paper cost would have been less, too. Was the omission ...

A valuable service of the Richland County Sheriff's Department to homeowners and residents of The Summit is the CAT officer. No, it's not for cats, although there are plenty of loose ones here. The CAT officer is the Community Action Team deputy who is assigned to The Summit. The Summit is in Region 7 of RCSD. Capt. Danny Brown and Lt. Gil Gallegos have been at monthly board meetings, but The Summit has been without an assigned CAT officer for several months.  The Minutes of Board meetings indicate that the last time a CAT officer attended was at the October 1, 2024 Board meeting. During the important Annual Meeting of Voting Members on November 12, 2024 meeting, President Danny Trapp was hob-nobbing with Deputy Chief Ashe, instead of chairing the Voting Members' meeting.  No CAT officer attended the November, December or January board meetings and, as of today, no CAT officer is assigned to Region 7, according to the sheriff's department website . It's nice to have...

Am I the only person who thinks the problem of long student pick-up lines of cars should be solved? At about 11:00AM today there was a l-o-n-g line of cars westbound waiting to enter North Springs Elementary School. Thanks to Richland 2's early dismissal (well ahead of inclement weather). The end of the line was well east of Clemson Road, almost to Rhame Road. A driver in the right, westbound lane, wanting to turn right onto Summit Parkway, had a long wait in a stopped traffic lane. Why don't Richland County, RCSD, the State Patrol, SC DOT, and Richland 2 Schools work together and solve this problem? The problem exists also on Summit Parkway at Summit Parkway Middle School and on Hard Scrabble at the two schools that are next-door to one another.  Cars stopped in the right lane, waiting to turn into the schools, are impeding traffic. There is a traffic law about that. A temporary solution could be in place in one week. A permanent solution will take a little longer. Does anyone...

  The yellow gas-line flags that have been placed in many neighborhoods of The Summit should not be removed yet. They mark gas lines and. when LUMOS crews return to continue work on the fiber-optic network, they will need to avoid damaging gas lines. It might appear to some that Lumos has completed its work. It hasn't. For information about Lumos, go to  https://lumosfiber.com/goodbyecable   If you have trouble with the form, just remove your phone number. It didn't like my out-of-state cell phone number. If you have any problem in your yard because of the digging by Lumos, call Lumos Customer Support at 855-GO-LUMOS.

Is it a responsible decision for the HOA to sue me? From a financial viewpoint? From a fiscal viewpoint? From an ethical viewpoint?  How sure is the HOA of its position?  The HOA threatened me with legal action back on August 28, 2024, when its lawyer sent me a Cease & Desist Letter.  When I contacted the lawyer and asked for examples of "false accusations" and "harassment", he told me he didn't have to communicate with me, because I'm not a Member of the Association. The HOA had me served with a Summons & Complaint on January 14, 2025. I still don't know what the basis is. The Complaint contains a lot of "what lawyers do" but no specifics. This is what the HOA is asking a Court to grant. The HOA would like to bar me "for [ sic ] the following actions": Communications with the Board of the Association regarding the affairs of the Association; Communications with residents of the Summit regarding the affairs of the Association;...

What are the costs to the HOA for suing me? How much is the HOA prepared to spend? The 2025 Approved Budget provides, in Line 6500 (Legal / Professional), the sum of $20,000 for the entire year. This is 33% higher than for 2024. Last year's ( 2024 ) Legal Budget was $15,000. For the first 11 months (through 11/30/24), the pro-rata Budget was $13,750 ($15,000 X 11/12).  The HOA spent $22,866.81 in the first 11 months, which was $9,116.81 ($22,866.81 - $13,750) over-budget. That's 66.3% over-budget. This is the sixth-largest variance , and it was not even reported in the Variances on Page 2 of the 11/30/24 Financial Operating Results.  The Board should ask the Property Manager why that large variance was omitted from the monthly Fiinancial Operating Result. The 12/31/24 Financial Operating Results will be available at the February 4, 2025 Board Meeting and may be posted sooner online.  How much did Danny Trapp spend conferring with the lawyer for the Cease & ...

If you are a homeowner in The Summit and concerned about the financial stability of the Association, consider attending this week's meeting of the Finance Committee on Tuesday, January 21, at 5:00PM at the office. Why might you go? Do you know that the Proposed 2025 Budget required a $50 increase (9.8%) in the Annual Assessment? I suspect the Finance Committee would have asked for more, but any increase over 10% would require the approval of the Voting Members. That would be impossible to overcome. Ask the Finance Committee why it did not present the Proposed 2025 Budget in public at the November 12, 2024 board meeting and ask at that time for the board to raise the Annual Assessment. Ask the Finance Committee when it presented the Proposed Budget to the board. Was it at the private, closed, pre-board meeting prior to November 12th? Ask the Committee why they cut the contribution to Reserves down to $3,000 for 2025. It was $163,965 in 2020 ($66.11 per household), and it was Zero i...

According to the November 12, 2024 Minutes of the Board of Directors meeting, 15 Neighborhoods were represented at the BOD meeting. But were they? Upon information and belief, by my count at least 7 of those 15 Neighborhoods of The Summit did not have a legitimate Voting Member at the November 12, 2024 Annual Meeting of Voting Members (ANVM). Barony Place had a legitimate Voting Member present, thanks to the May 4, 2024 Neighborhood Meeting. The November 12th AMVM should not have been convened at 6:00PM without a quorum of legitimate Voting Members. No election of directors should have been conducted. The meeting should have been adjourned without action. In 2024 the on-site property manager told me that there are no separate Minutes of the Annual Meetings of Voting Members. She told me those Meetings are combined in the Minutes of the monthly board meeting for November. That is an incorrect practice of the HOA. There should be Minutes of every announced Voting Members' meeting. C...

One of the most  important dates in HOA records is the date of each Neighborhood's last Neighborhood Meeting. To be a legitimate Meeting, a quorum of homeowners had to be present, in-person and by proxy. As an example, on May 4, 2024 Barony Place held a Neighborhood Meeting. There were 10-11 homeowners present and 21 proxies. A quorum was 26, so the Meeting could be convened. A three-member [local] Neighborhood Committee was elected by the homeowners, and Tracy Manderino became the Voting Member for the following 12 months. When was your last Neighborhood Meeting ( prior to November 12, 2024 )? Please email me, using the Contact Form on this page (upper-left) with the date (or approximate date). Your message will be private. Was it within the last 12 months? Last 18-24 months?  Prior to the May 4, 2024 Barony Place Meeting no homeowner in Barony Place I talked to remembered a Neighborhood Meeting, and some of them have lived here 15-20 years! Abington? Amaryllis Woods? Autumn ...