Barony Place I/Barony Place II

Should the HOA post monthly financial reports online before the Board of Directors meetings? Why should it do that? The reports are complicated. It's difficult for most Members to read and understand them. If Members had some time to examine them and compare them with previous months, Members could ask intelligent and appropriate questions at Board Meetings. Ex., Members could ask about the Variances. Why are Line Items over-budget? Members could ask for explanations of the two charts, which make no sense at all. The legend on the Reconciled Operating Cash Chart shows two lines: Operating Cash and Net Cash. Yet the chart contains only one line. If your EKG looked like that, your doctor would have you in the ICU. Members could (should!) ask why, on the Reserve Accounts Trends chart, there is a steady decline from May 2024 to January 2025. Recall that the contribution to Reserves in 2024 was ZERO (and it is only $3,000 for 2025). Members could ask why Accounts Receivable (Line 1200 f...

The Summit's HOA shouldn't have started a lawsuit against me, according to the CC&Rs. But it did so, anyway. The controlling section in the CC&Rs is in Article XIII, Section 13. It reads, in part, "Section 10. Litigation . No judicial or administrative proceeding shall be commenced or prosecuted by the Association unless approved by a vote of seventy-five (75%) percent of the Voting Members. In the case of such a vote, and notwithstanding anything contained in this Declaration or the Articles of Incorporation or By-Laws of the Association to the contrary, a Voting Member shall not vote in favor of bringing or prosecuting any such proceeding unless authorized to do so by a ‘vote of seventy-five (75%) percent of all Members of the Neighborhood represented by the Voting Member." Section 10 lists four exceptions. This case is not one of them. Upon information and belief, the Voting Members were  not asked for approval. Even if they had been, approval would not hav...

The HOA's large legal bills for suing Gus Philpott (me) should begin showing up in the monthly financial statements. Turner Padget would have put in considerable time inn December to prepare the lawsuit, interview Danny Trapp and prepare the Affidavit that he signed on December 30, 2024, and file the lawsuit and paperwork for a TRO. January's Line 6500 (Legal/Professional) was only $530. Were legal bills for those fees paid in January? You certainly don't get all that legal work from a top-floor, deep-carpet law firm for $530. Were the bills delayed and not paid until February? On April 1st the monthly financial statements for February 2025 will be distributed at the 6:30PM Board meeting. You can view them online (soon). Go to the HOA's website. Hover over RESIDENTS. Click on DOCUMENTS. Click on Financial Operating Results. Click on February 2025. Scroll down past the Balance Sheet to the Income/Expense Report, and then scroll on down to Line 6500. Fasten your seatbelt....

  In case you are wondering what is going on at Birch Park, the first 50 fence posts were "planted" more than a month ago along Rolling Knoll Drive. This is part of a plan to keep a few cars from parking on the grass between the curb and the sidewalk. A chain will be strung between the fence posts. Perhaps that has even been already done. Rolling Knoll Drive is a public roadway, owned by and maintained by Richland County. There are no posted No Parking signs. It is not illegal to park on Rolling Knoll Drive, unless such parking blocks the street. Will cars still park along the curb? I think you can count on it. It will not be unlawful for them to do so. If vehicles block the roadway, call the S.C. Highway Patrol or RCSD. Will all the posts be stained, so that they match? Will there be increased lawncare costs? A riding mower will no lower be able to zip along between the curb and the sidewalk, and extended time will be needed to edge carefully around each post. How many more ...

Danny Trapp's   Affidavit   for the TRO, which was sought by the HOA in its court case against Gus Philpott (me), contains more accusations about which you might want to know. In a previous article I commented on Items 7, 8, and 9 in the Affidavit. Item 10 in the Affidavit reads, "In my time as President, Mr. Philpott has been at every Association meeting and routinely behaved in a disruptive manner." Danny was elected to the Board on November 7, 2023. The election of officers should have been held that night but wasn't. Instead of holding the Organizational Meeting and the election of officers in compliance with the By-Laws (as the first board meeting following the Annual Meeting of Voting Members), the board met in a special-called, closed, private, secret board meeting, believed to have been held on Saturday, November 11, 2023.  The Minutes of the November 7, 2023 board meeting indicate that an  ad hoc Committee was going to hold an "orientation of board memb...

Want to view the latest Crime Report for The Summit from the Richland County Sheriff's Department? Go to the HOA's website . On the homepage, scroll down to and click on Public Service Announcements. Click on the link for Crime Report. Oh, wait. The "most recent" Crime Report is for March-May 2022 ! Not only that, five of the nine pages are missing. Notice the gaps in dates from one page to the next. Notice that the first page is "Page 2 of 9"; the last is "Page 8 of 9". In 2022 I noticed immediately that the Report of four pages was too short for a three-month period. I informed the office and suggested that they obtain and publish the full report. I never learned whether RCSD had sent all nine pages to the HOA. What good is a Crime Report when you can't tell where the crimes occurred? The addresses are redacted. The Treasurer at the time claimed that addresses are PII (Personally Identifiable Information); they aren't. If they were, RCSD ...

If you read through Danny Trapp's Affidavit for the TRO that was sought by the HOA in its court case against Gus Philpott (me), it didn't take you long to get to Item 7 "Upon information and belief, Mr. Philpott is not a property owner" and Item 8 "Despite this, he routinely appears at Association meetings." As everyone knows, I have never (not even once) claimed to be a property owner. Why not? Because I am not a property owner.  I am a resident. I have been a resident* since January 2018. The office issued my ID card on 05-14-18. Look again at Item 8, "Despite this, he routinely appears at Association meetings." What is "Despite this,..." supposed to mean? In the March 2025 Summit Scoop, on Page 2, it reads, "Board meetings are open to all Summit Residents." In 2018, that sentence in the Scoop read, "Board meetings are open to ALL Summit residents." In September 2016, when Danny was on the Board of Directors the fir...

As part of the HOA's lawsuit against Gus Philpott (me), the HOA's President, Danny Trapp, gave a sworn Affidavit to the HOA's lawyer on December 30, 2024.  His Affidavit is a public document, on file with the Richland County Court of Common Pleas for the Fifth Judicial District.  Danny's Affidavit is reproduced here. Formatting changed when it was opened in Google Docs, so that it could be copied and pasted here. No alterations have been made. Nothing has been added or deleted. Page 3, the signature page, is not included. I shall elaborate on certain accusations in a separate article on this blog. STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA  COUNTY OF RICHLAND  IN THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS FOR THE FIFTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT  C / A No : 2024 - CP - 40-07524  Summit Community Association , Inc. ,  )  Plaintiff ,  )  V.  )  AFFIDAVIT OF DANNY TRAPP  )  Gus Philpott ,  Defendant .  ELECTRONICALLY FILED - 2024 Dec 30 4:56 PM - RICHLAND ...