Is the HOA Headed for Receivership?
Back in February 2024 one member of the Board used the word "receivership" in an email to me.
Should the Board of Directors, and especially the President and the Treasurer, be concerned about the possibility that they could lose control over all of the HOA's cash assets ($1,396,652, as of 11/30/24)?
What if the banks and Edward Jones froze the assets? What if they closed the accounts? Would this create a financial hardship for the HOA?
Are there reasons why this might happen? And for how long might they freeze the funds?
I can think of one very good reason. The SCA does not have legitimate directors or officers, and they won't have legitimate directors anytime soon.
There are seven people who are acting as if they are directors, but are they? I'm not sure what to call them: impostors? impersonators? usurpers? pretenders?
They are not directors, because they were not duly-elected by eligible, legitimate Voting Members in compliance with the By-Laws. They were elected by people who are acknowledged by the Board as "Voting Members", but those people were themselves not duly-elected by the homeowners in their respective neighborhoods. They "got signatures" or inherited the office or have just remained in office year-after-year without holding the required Annual Neighborhood Meetings.
Except for one neighborhood. Barony Place held a bonafide Neighborhood Meeting on May 4, 2024 and elected a Neighborhood Committee of three, followed by selection by the Neighborhood Committee of the Voting Member. There is only one duly-elected Voting Member in the entire HOA.
The other "Voting Members", who are listed in The Summit Scoop and on the HOA's website, are not legitimate Voting Members. They were not elected in compliance with the By-Laws.
Because I believe there was no quorum of legitimate Voting Members at the Annual Meeting of Voting Members on November 12, 2024, there should not have been an election. Tanisha Holmes (now Vice-President), LaToya Adams (now Treasurer), and Ciara Adams (now Secretary) were not duly-elected.
The same is true for the other four directors, who were "elected" in November 2023. I believe that Annual Meeting of Voting Members also lacked a quorum of legitimate Voting Members. So Trapp (now President), Bryant, Pollin and Potter are not duly-elected directors.
With no duly-elected directors, there could be no officers "duly-elected" (by directors) at the Organizational Meeting on/about November 15, 2024.
Without a duly-elected Board of Directors, the SCA is in violation of South Carolina Code of Laws Section 33-31-801(a):
Each [non-profit] corporation must have a board of directors;
What would happen if Edward Jones or the banks learned that the Association does not have any legitimate officers?
If I were the manager there, I'd freeze those accounts in a heartbeat, until I was sure that I was doing business with people who had the legal authority to do business with my financial institution.
The HOA needs good legal advice to fix this. The first step is for 27 Neighborhoods to hold Neighborhood Meetings, each with the required quorum. Then the legitimate Voting Members should convene and elect directors. Then the directors should elect legitimate officers. Legal advice is need to do it right.
Is it better to do this now or wait until the assets are frozen of accounts closed?
Am I right or am I wrong? Can the HOA show documentation of 27 Annual Neighborhood Meetings at which Voting Members were elected in compliance with the By-Laws?
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