Kuester and HOA Settle Suit with Homeowner

As we reported here a homeowner had sued both Kuester Management Group and the Harpers Mill Townhome Owners Association over late fees, word has come in today, Kuester settled with the homeowner so the case is now closed.

Kuester Management Group - HOA Contract

Here is a copy of the management agreement our HOA has with Kuester Management Group. This is an older copy however we doubt things have changed very much, this is just for your review and we have included a few notes below:

1) We reported here, about Kuester charging account setup fees, we do not see this anywhere in the Covenants, ByLaws, or in the Management Contract.

2) Kuester gets to keep 50% of all late fees they charge and collect.

3) Kuester has an annual 5% increase in their management fees built in to the contract.

Account Setup Fees!

We know times are hard for everyone, housing sales are slow because people cannot afford to by a home with our uncertain economy. But those that do buy here in Harpers Mill will find out that they are required to pay our management company Kuester Management Group an account setup fee of $325.00, in addition to their first months assessment fee of $125.00

Now we checked and cannot find anything in our ByLaws or Covenants allowing for such a charge, and we believe that 100% of these fees are going to Kuester directly not the HOA.

We also cannot find anything about these fees in the management contract with Kuester. According to some sources we spoke with, some HOA's do charge an account setup fee, but usually it is less than half what Kuester is charging our new homeowners.

We would suspect anyone who has paid such a fee may be able to go to the magistrate court with our Covenants and ByLaws and show that there is no allowance for this fee to be charged, and might be able to recover any account setup fees and legal fees that they have paid.

Harpers Mill Budget 2012 and 2013

Ok we are posting below both the 2012 and 2013 Budget so you can easily compare both:

Harpers Mill Townhome Owners Association 2013 Budget PDF Format.

Harpers Mill Townhome Owners Association 2012 Budget PDF Format.

Click on comments below to discuss or ask questions about the budget!

Ineligible Board of Director! - "The Proof"

We originally reported here  that Board Member Julia Colleen Jones was not a Homeowner here in Harpers Mill and as such should be removed form the board and replaced with an open and fair election at our next annual meeting on December 4th, 2012.

Later a Homeowner called Kuester Management Group and inquired as to the status of Julia Jones, as we reported here, she was told by Kuester that Board of Directors were not required to be Homeowners, they did not dispute the fact that she is not a Homeowner,

WE NOW KNOW KUESTER IS WRONG:

As stated in the Harpers Mill Townhome Owners Association ByLaws Article IV Section 3:

""QUALIFICATIONS:   Directors shall be members of the association.""

To be a member you MUST be a Homeowner, our ByLaws are very clear and concise on this point. As Julia Colleen Jones is NOT a Homeowner she is also NOT a "Member" of the association, and therefore ineligible to hold a position of any kind on the Board of Directors.

The question now is will Kuester Management Group and the current Board of Directors step up and correct their mistake, by doing the right thing, or will they continue to do business as usual?

Governing Documents

Use the links below to download in PDF format the governing documents of our HOA:

Click here to download the current Harpers Mill Townhome Owners Association Bylaws

Click here to download the current Harpers Mill Townhome Owners Association CCR's

Don't Forget Tomorrow Nights Meeting at 6PM!

Tomorrow night York County will hold a public meeting at 6PM in the Oak Ridge Middle School cafeteria. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the counties long range plan for the Lake Wylie area.

The long term future of Lake Wylie is of coarse important to us here in Harpers Mill, so if you can be there please let our voices be heard at the meeting!

Public meeting Nov. 8 to talk long-range plans for Lake Wylie

Blog Update!

We know from the stats we have many readers and followers, and thank you for that, this blog was built with the intention of keeping all homeowners informed of the current status of our HOA, and to not cause division withn the neighborhood, although some issues will cause some division, we are asking all homeowners to come together, to actively participate in the blog and the HOA as a whole to make it better for all of us.

We are open to any and all contributions, suggestions, news tips, critiques, and volunteers that want to make contributions on the blog.  You can email us at: Harpers Mill Blog eMail Address. We are not affiliated with Kuester Management Group, we are homeowners like you, your identity will be kept confidential.

We ask that all homeowners who read our blog give this address to your neighbors and get the word out, we need support for the up coming annual meeting. We need Homeowners to be fully informed before going to the meeting.

We do have some goals our goals are as follows:

1) Keep all Homeowners FULLY informed and educated about our neighborhood, and any related HOA activity.

2) To get Mercedes Homes removed from the board and the HOA turned over to the control of the Homeowners!

3) If we can accomplish Goal # 2 than we will ask for a special meeting to be called and open and fair elections held so all Homeowners can elect a new board made up of 100% Homeowners.

4) After accomplishing number 3 we will hope the new board will be bale to look into hiring a new management company, lowering our monthly HOA dues, and work on other HOA issues that you may need to be addressed.

We also believe that once we have full control, we would have a good lawsuit against the developer, who is owned by the Buescher family the same family that owned Mercedes Homes if they do not, come and finish paving the roads and making all repairs as required by law when the HOA is handed over to us the Homeowners. Understand with the current Board and Kuester at the helm this will never happen, considering it was Mercedes Homes that hired Kuester, and the Buescher Family of Melbourne Florida that are still hanging on to their Board spot even though they dissolved the corporation. The reality is Kuester Management Group and Mercedes Homes are the ones making decisions and running our current board.

Now you may ask, if they are out of business why are they hanging on to their Board position?

We believe they are doing this in an attempt to turn the HOA over to the new builder that they are in negations with to sell the remaining lots too. We are committed to not allowing this to happen, even if it comes to filling a lawsuit against the parties involved.

Let us be clear we are for a new builder to come in and finish building out the empty lots, but we are not interested in turning the HOA over to this new company so they can change the Covenants and By-Laws once again  to suit their needs and to raise our fees or create a special assessment to cover their Development costs that they would have to do, since Mercedes Homes and their development company did not finish.

In closing we are asking all homeowners to come together and to be fully informed about our HOA and their plans before the December 4th HOA meeting. Please tell your neighbors about this blog, email us any tips, news, reviews, or issues you would like to discuss your information will be kept confidential.

Than you,

Your Harpers Mill Blog Team!

Kuester Responds!

A homeowner called Kuester yesterday and asked who was Julia Jones, and how can she be on the board if she is not a homeowner here, their response was to say the By-Laws allow a non homeowner to serve on the board, the homeowner was not given any other information about her.

So we are currently undertaking a full legal review of both the Covenants and the By-Laws we will post what we find shortly, about this issue.

Kuester all responded to a Homeowner about whether or not they have anyone on the board: "No  Kuester nor any of it's affiliates sit on the Harpers Mill board." So that is good news.

FYI:

The Harpers Mill Townhome Owners Association is a non-ptofit Corporation in the State of South Carolina as such they are bound by Title 33 Chapter 31 of the South Carolina Code of Laws Here is a link for you: SC Code of Laws Title 33 Chapter 31.

Part of the above law requires that a member (ie: homeowner) be given the full name and address of any Board Member upon request. A "member" has requested this information for all current board members the HOA has 5 days to respond, the homeowner discussed this with both the SC Department of State and the SC Attorneys General's Office, both of which are responsible for enforcing this section before making their request.

Harpers Mill Poll Question #2

In the spirit of the current elections we have added a few polls for our homeowners! Here is question #2:

survey service

Harpers Mill Poll Question #1

In the spirit of the current elections we have added a few polls for our homeowners! Here is question #1:

web polls

So Who Are Our Board of Directors!

As per the Governing Documents of the Harpers Mill Townhome Owners Association, we are told hold elections every two years to elect a new Board of Directors. Homeowners are supposed to vote in fellow homeowners that they want to represent them, we all should know who our board is and hw to contact them, since that has not been the case we are going to help you out and publish who they are, we believe there are several who should not be on the board and that those who should not be, be removed and that Kuester Real Estate Management, and the current valid Board Members hold open and fair elections to fill the vacancies at our annual meeting this December 4th.

President: Sandra Brink 1522 Harpers Inlet Dr             s1sbrink@comporium.net

Vice President: Mercedes Homes - See Disturbing Fact #1 - Corporation Disolved, no longe rin existence

Treasurer: Dennis Kiplinger - See Disturbing Fact #4 - Lives in Alabama, house is for sale

Secretary: Dennis Kiplinger - See Disturbing Fact #4 - Lives in Alabama, house is for sale

Member At Large: Milton Becker - 1474 Harpers Inlet Dr

Member At Large: Julia Colleen Jones - See Disturbing Fact #3 - Not a homeowner

From what we can tell the only legal and proper current Board Members are Sandra Brink, Milton Becker and, Dennis Kiplinger. We believe all others should be removed and open and fair elections to replace them from the current homeowners should take place December 4th, 2012 at our next annual meeting.

Disturbing Fact #4

Dennis Kiplinger is listed as our Treasurer and Secretary, of the Board of Directors, now Dennis as a homeowner is eligible to hold such a position (or in this case 2 positions) and many homeowners knew him when he lived here and he cared about the neighborhood very much, and was very active in the community,none of that is in question.

However more than 6 months ago he moved to Alabama. and is renting out his house here, now he is holding two Board Positions and Treasurer and also as Secretary, a Secretary should be at all Board meetings to keep notes on each meeting. as a resident of Alabama he cannot carry out his duties, as he cannot attend the monthly board meetings, or the annual meeting for that matter, nor can homeowners contact him as they should be able to contact each and every Board member.

We ask Dennis Kiplinger to resign his positions on the Board of Directors and ask Kuester and the current Board to hold open and fair elections to elect current homeowners to the two positions that would be open.

UPDATE: It has been reported that a for Sale Sign has been posted on his property which he has been renting out while he lives in Alabama, I guess now we know the rumors of his return are not true.

See Below:

Disturbing Fact #3

As homeowners we have a RIGHT to know who OUR Board of Directors are, heck they are all supposed to be elected by their fellow Homeowners, as far as Harpers Mill this is not the case, as outlined in each and every Disturbing Fact we are posting today.

Listed as our member at Large is Julia Colleen Jones, no one I have talked to knows who she is, in fact a search of York County Tax Payer documents and GIS Property Records reveals she is not even a homeowner here, if she lives in our neighborhood she must be a renter.

So again we ask Kuester Real Estate Management and the Current Board of Directors to STOP their Illegal Activity, remove Julia Jones as a Member at Large of the HOA, and hold an open and fair election to elect an eligible homeowner to that position.

See the tax search results below:

Disturbing Fact #2

In the latest Harpers Mill newsletter Kuester Management Group is listing themselves as a member of the Board of Directors, we do not know if this was a mis-print or not, however if it is true they should immediately remove themselves, a management company is supposed to be impartial, they are there to carry out the wishes of the Board of Directors.

One of the biggest expenditures we have is paying for a management company, an HOA is supposed to be run by homeowners, who elect a Board of Directors to represent them, the Board makes all financial decisions, if the management company has elected themselves to the Board of Directors, it would be a Direct COnflict of Interest and more than likely illegal as well, as they are not a homeowner.

We call on Kuester Management Group to immediately clarify if they do hold a seat on our Board of Directors and if so to immediately resign that position, and hold an open and fair election to elect a homeowner to that position.

If Kuester does not respond and we know they read this, than we can only assume they do hold a position on the Board of Directors, or maybe they can clarify at the December HOA meeting.

The image below is taken from the latest HOA newsletter listing the current Board of Directors:

UPDATE: Kuester in their latest mailing no longer lists them as a Board of Director, so this may have just been a mis-understaning, lets hope so.......                                          

Disturbing Fact #1

Mercedes Homes is currently listed as the Vice President of the HOA, however Mercedes Homes does not exist, They should have been removed from the board and a homeowner should have been elected to replace them, when they dissolved the corporation.

We believe they are listed on the board in an effort to continue to control the HOA giving the Homeowners no say.

We demand the current board of directors, and Kuester Management Group stop their illegal activity and remove Mercedes Homes from the Board of Directors immediately and hold a open and fair election for a new Vice President.

See below website from the SC Secretary of State showing Mercedes Homes as a dissolved entity a of 3/18/2011

Annual Meeting! December 4th 2012

The annual Meeting is December 4th at the Pine Grove Baptist Church, the agenda is as follows:

Update on a new Builder

Financial Report

Job of the Board of Directors

2012 Review

2013 Goals

Harpers Mill Newsletter

Using the link below you can download or view the latest Harpers Mill Newsletter in PDF format, published by Kuester Real Estate, there are several items that alarm us, which we will talk about in a separate post!

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/54625795/Harpers%20Mill%20Newsletter.pdf