726 Waterfall Way

Yes we all feel deeply bad for this family that suffered a fire last week. This was a rental unfortunately the owner has no homeowners insurance to rebuild and likewise the tenants had no renters insurance to replace their valuables that were lost.

Today 10/23 they have been there cleaning up and salvaging what they can and dumping what they can't salvage on the ground around the dumpsters. This is clearly marked that they cannot do this. When asked nicely by another homeowner to remove the garbage they dumped on the ground including a mattress and chair they became irate, they claim they have permission from the HOA to do this. We checked and were told they called Kuester and asked for permission to leave their unneeded furniture outside the dumpster and were told no. A few miles down the road is a County drop off site where they could easily take all this unwanted stuff and drop it off with no problem.

This case we fell is egregious they called for permission and were told no, they moved all these items during a weekday when the county site was open, they had vehicles large enough to carry these items to the county site, and than were asked to correct this, but instead of being good neighbors got ugly about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR_ndtcHbvw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m2RieO2JTs

And in case you missed it here is a link to the Lake Wylie Pilot article about the fire.

We know the fire was started by a female cooking on a grill to close to the house

After a search of York County Court Records reveals the female living at 726 Waterfall Way Christie Filomena Johnson has several pending criminal charges against her all filed earlier this month including LITTERING, Driving with a suspended license, her license is suspended due to a DUI,  and she also has a pending charge of Criminal Domestic Violence. 

In the last 3 years she has been charged with 3 separate DUI's a Disorderly Conduct, and habitual traffic offender. 

This leads to some interesting questions 1) Was alcohol abuse possibly a contributing factor to the fire. and 2) Was Ms. Johnson even legally allowed to be at the residence of the time of the fire. Normally when you are arrested for Criminal Domestic Violence upon arrest the court issues a restraining order to ban you from returning to your residence with the victim in the case, and from being around the victim or having contact with them in any way. Was Ms. Johnson violating this court order at the time of the fire? 

Homeowner Files Lawsuit Against HOA + Kuester

This morning a lawsuit seeking $195.00 was filed against the HOA, and Kuester Real Estate in York County Magistrate Court.

The homeowner, sent a payment for HOA fees about 6 months ago the payment was sent and received by Kuester on time, however Kuester changed the homeowners account number and sent the payment back, when the homeowner asked when did you change my account number, he was told 2 years ago, yet they accepted his payment every month for 2 years with the old account number without ever notifying him of the change. The homeowner resent the payment they sent back, but now it was a few days past the 15th so they charged him a $15.00 late fee.

The homeowner asked why did you charge me a late fee, and their answer was we never received your payment, when in fact they received it and than sent it back, he was than told because he had not had any other late fees in over a year, that this fee would be waived as a one time courtesy. The Homeowner was upset about it being a one time courtesy because he felt it was their fault not his they had the payment before the 15th, and they choose to send it back, and still never contacted him, but they were going to credit it back so no big deal.

Two months later he still saw the late fee on his account and called and again was told as a courtesy it would be credited back, and again two months later it was not, he called again and was told again the same thing it would be credited back as a courtesy. Eventually he emailed them and than was told it would not be credited back, unless he could prove his claim, the problem with that was he gave them all the bank information including payment confirmation numbers and everything showing the payment was sent on time, received by them and than sent back to him, because of the account number on his first phone call to them about the problem.

At this point the homeowner decided to file the civil suit, under South Carolina law if he prevails he is entitled to the original amount in question $15.00 which he did pay to the HOA, and legal fees, making the new amount of $195.00. We will update you as soon as we get any updates on the case.

North Carolina: Family wins suit over HOA Violation and FInes!

Published: July 24th, WSOCTV.com

Judge orders HOA insurance company to pay family $20,000

MINT HILL, N.C. — 

Brian and Lori Phelps are finally at peace in their Mint Hill home.

They didn't know a 2009 move from California to the St. Ives neighborhood would end in a big court battle.

Brian Phelps said the HOA started charging them with violations when they planned to build a patio. After 14 violations, fines and even a lien on their house, the Phelps got a lawyer.

“We felt we had no choice," said Brian Phelps. "The gun was to our head."

They sued St. Ives.

Earlier in July, a judge ordered the HOA insurance company to pay the Phelps $20,000 for attorney fees.

READ FULL STORY AND WATCH VIDEO HERE!

Blog Update!

Well we just surpassed the 1 month mark of the blog, we also are about to hit 1000 Unique page views. We want people to know that this blog is here to keep homeowners up to date on the happenings in the neighborhood good or bad, we are not here to sugar coat things we tell it like it is.

We all pay HOA fees and we all have a vested interest in the prosperity of the neighborhood. We hope to spark some more participation from homeowners, the next annual meeting will be a big one for us, as it is the first where we the homeowners now control our own destiny.

We also hope by drawing attention to some of the problems and rule violations that it will make people think twice before they do something, keeping the dumpster neat and clean, picking up after the dogs, taking care of the common areas and generally abiding by the HOA Rules, local ordinances and state laws, this makes the neighborhood more enjoyable for everyone. But it takes a community effort and participation, and sometimes a willingness to help a neighbor who needs it.

We encourage everyone to particpate by commenting below, you can also email us with news tips and updates, comments, or feedback by clicking this link: Harpers Mill Blogger .

Harpers Mill Forclosures

In the recent newsletter that was sent out, the HOA mentions that if you are having financial difficulties to let them know so they can work with you. Now sometimes filling a foreclosure is a necessary thing to do, however, we have heard that the HOA has filled foreclosure paperwork on homeowners just 3 months behind, and they would not work with the homeowner at all. What is worse is if you having problems after 3 months that would leave you with a balance of $375.00 plus late fees, but when they file the foreclosure paperwork almost never notifying the homeowner before hand you suddenly have at least another $800 in legal fees added to your burden.

There is a recent case where a long term homeowner who was one of the first to live here, has always taken care of their home and never caused any problems to their neighbors is being foreclosed on by the HOA, we wonder how much they tried to work with this homeowner. We know the person in question lives by them self and lost their job about 6 months ago, we also know by looking at the court records the homeowner is not being forclosed on by the bank only the HOA, indicating that the bank is working with them in their time of need, we have our doubts if the HOA is doing the same.

If you want to see foreclosure records for the community follow these simple instructions, these records are open to the public and available online

!) Goto: http://judicial.yorkcountygov.com/scjdpublicindex/

2) Don't change anything just click "Accept" towards the middle bottom of the page.

3) In the box labeled "Last/Business" Type "Harpers Mill"

4) Than you will see a listing of all cases filed since inception of the community, you will notice there are 7 pages of records, to go through, some by banks some only by the HOA. We count 32 Foreclosures that the HOA has filled as the Plaintiff, many of which show a status of cancelled which means the homeowner paid the past due amounts including all the inflated legal costs that were added to save their homes.

We hope this will bring some attention to this, and hope the HOA is really working with homeowners that are having difficult times and not just filling the paperwork and adding tons of legal fees on top of someone who is already struggling and would work with the HOA if the board was sincere in really helping our fellow homeowners out.