Fiduciary Responsibility of the BOD?

What is the fiduciary responsibility of the Board of Directors of The Summit's HOA?

Isn't it to operate the HOA in a fiscally-responsible manner and in compliance with the CC&Rs, By-Laws, and Procedures Reference Manual, and the laws of the State of South Carolina and the U.S.?

For months the HOA has been spending money that was not planned for. Variances are disclosed monthly on the Financial Reports. Does anyone on the Board really understand what those Variances are and what they mean?

In 2024 the Board never once discussed the Variances at a monthly board meeting.

For years the HOA has been disregarding the By-Laws pertaining to the Voting Members. The HOA has allowed Annual Meetings of Voting Members that did not have quorums of legitimate Voting Members and elections of directors by homeowners who were not eligible to vote.

The Summit's HOA is a business. It is a South Carolina non-profit corporation. It is not a little after-school club. The homeowners who are trying to run it are, for the most part, nice people. Not all, but mostly.

But do they have the knowledge, experience, and skill to run a million-dollar business? If you owned a million-dollar business, would you put any of them on your Board of Directors?

This is why it is critical to have a professional HOA management company that will guide the lay members of the board in doing their jobs correctly. The management company's employees assigned to the HOA must have an in-depth knowledge of the Governing Documents and the financial expertise to advise the board members.

It can be a tricky relationship between the management company and the HOA. What happens if the Management Company tells the board that it cannot do what it wants to do and backs up its advice with the Documents? It's the Board that bears the ultimate responsibility to the Members (a/k/a Homeowners).

This is why the Homeowners must insist on the legal representatives that the By-Laws provide. The Voting Members must be legitimate. And they must pay attention.

The Summit's HOA has one (1) legitimate Voting Member. It needs 27 more.

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